It’s ironic that the USA and its closest ally, Israel, a state born out of the horrors of World Warfare II, have spent the higher a part of the previous 75 years undermining the so-called rules-based worldwide order (RBO).
In any case, the RBO was established within the wake of World Warfare II, underneath US management, to forestall a repeat of that pricey battle, which killed over 50 million individuals, together with six million Jews within the Nazi Holocaust.
The United Nations (UN) is arguably an important pillar of the RBO. It’s tasked with protecting worldwide peace, stopping wars of aggression, and making certain that human rights atrocities – resembling these dedicated within the Holocaust – are by no means repeated.
The US and Israel, nonetheless, have lengthy considered the UN with a particular disdain and labored to render it ineffective.
As American worldwide legislation scholar Richard Falk detailed in his 2008 e-book, The Prices of Warfare: Worldwide Regulation, the UN, and World Order, they’ve “repeatedly and defiantly” damaged the so-called “Nuremberg promise” – that authorized requirements used towards the Nazi regime could be utilized to all future states, together with the US and the remainder of the WWII Allied Powers – “thereby undermining any prospect for peace and normalcy on the planet”. Falk established that the US, specifically, labored persistently at “weakening … worldwide legislation” and “eroding … the authority of the United Nations.”
Certainly, main US international coverage selections, resembling its 2003 invasion of Iraq, have repeatedly demonstrated what famend thinker Noam Chomsky outlined as Washington’s “contempt for the worldwide system”.
Certain, the US additionally has a historical past of invoking the significance of upholding the RBO or defending the UN, however it solely does so when it serves to advance its personal pursuits, resembling stigmatising its enemies. Each time the UN refuses to observe the US lead or makes a transfer that undermines the pursuits of its allies, Washington swiftly makes its contempt for the organisation clear.
US “contempt” for the worldwide system is probably essentially the most evident in its veto report on the UN Safety Council.
Between 1972 – when the US first used its veto energy to help Israel – and December 2023, the US vetoed 77 resolutions, together with 45 essential of Israel.
In February 2024, the US used its veto energy for the 78th time since 1972, marking the forty sixth occasion of protecting Israel.
Throughout this time interval, no different everlasting Safety Council member has come near the US mark – Russia (44), China (16), the UK (17), and France (9) have used their veto powers a mixed whole of 86 occasions.
Through the present Israeli conflict on Gaza alone, the US has vetoed three UN Safety Council ceasefire resolutions on behalf of Israel.
In the meantime, underneath US safety, Israel has intensified its assaults on the UN’s Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East (UNRWA) because the starting of its genocide in Gaza.
In January 2024, Israel accused UNRWA of “terrorism”, prompting the US to reduce funding to the company, which supplies important companies to thousands and thousands of Palestinians.
Yesterday, the Israeli parliament accredited a invoice to ban UNRWA from working in each Gaza and the West Financial institution, and Israel can also be in search of to declare UNRWA as a terrorist organisation.
Israel has lengthy been at conflict with UNRWA, however these latest actions characterize a major escalation, particularly when thought of towards the backdrop of latest Israeli violence in Gaza.
Through the ongoing conflict, Israel has repeatedly bombed UN faculties and killed over 220 UN employees members. No different battle in UN historical past has killed such a excessive variety of UN employees.
Through the present conflict, Israel has additionally demonstrated its contempt for the UN in different, symbolic methods.
In March 2024, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, shredded a replica of the UN constitution in protest of the UN normal meeting’s resolution to grant sure rights to Palestine.
Final month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech on the UN, throughout which he referred to the establishment as a “swamp of antisemitic bile,” a “contemptuous farce,” and “contemptible within the eyes of first rate individuals in all places”.
Shortly after Netanyahu’s speech, Israel declared UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres “persona non grata,” accused him of “backing terrorists, rapists, and murderers,” and banned him from coming into Israel.
Most just lately, Israel launched a collection of apparently deliberate assaults on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
As Israel has escalated its assaults on the UN, the US has largely remained idle. For example, when 40 nations condemned Israel’s assaults on UN peacekeepers, the US declined to endorse the assertion.
The US and Israel have additionally persistently attacked, insulted and tried to undermine the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s principal judicial organ – ever since a case of genocide was raised towards Israel there.
Noam Chomsky famously described the US and Israel because the world’s two main “rogue states”. Historical past exhibits that rogue actors finally face critical penalties.
The US and Israel could be clever to rein themselves in sooner fairly than later, as a weakened worldwide system dangers creating chaos that would hasten their very own decline.
The American empire is already in decline, and Israel’s conflict on Gaza is additional damaging the US’s worldwide standing whereas jeopardising its strategic and financial pursuits.
As for Israel, its actions in Gaza, the West Financial institution, and Lebanon may additionally be accelerating its personal collapse, as urged by Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe and numerous different analysts of the area.
Each Israel and the US ought to recognise the extent to which they want the UN and the RBO, if for no different cause than to safeguard their pursuits.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
