The liberal world order, with its supposed commitment to the rule of law, human rights and equality for all, met its demise in Gaza.There is more than enough evidence confirming the genocidal nature of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Yet, political leaders in the West have been uncompromising in their support of Israel’s efforts. At the United Nations, the majority of the world has consistently passed resolutions condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and called for an end to the occupation. Israel has responded by making UN agencies and personnel targets of war. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. The United States has rejected the court’s decision and Israel has continued to bombard Gaza. All of this has happened under a Democratic US leadership. With the return of US President-elect Donald Trump, we can expect a fast-track dismantling of whatever is left of this liberal order.
During his first term, Trump had already set the ball rolling: he signed a memorandum preventing foreign NGOs receiving US global health assistance from using their own, non-US funds to promote abortion rights; he pushed through previously blocked arms sales to countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia despite their domestic human rights record and war crimes in Yemen; he instituted the infamous “Muslim ban” and oversaw 2000 migrant children being separated from their parents and censored information on climate change on the website of the Environmental Protection Agency. …
