It’s ironic that the United States and its closest ally, Israel, a state born out of the horrors of World War II, have spent the better part of the past 75 years undermining the so-called rules-based international order (RBO).
After all, the RBO was established in the wake of World War II, under US leadership, to prevent a repeat of that costly conflict, which killed over 50 million people, including six million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust.
The United Nations (UN) is arguably the most important pillar of the RBO. It is tasked with keeping international peace, preventing wars of aggression, and ensuring that human rights atrocities – such as those committed in the Holocaust – are never repeated.
The US and Israel, however, have long viewed the UN with a special disdain and worked to render it ineffective.
As American international law scholar Richard Falk detailed in his 2008 book, The Costs of War: International Law, the UN, and World Order, they have “repeatedly and defiantly” broken the so-called “Nuremberg promise” – that legal standards used against the Nazi regime would be applied to all future states, including the US and the rest of the WWII Allied Powers – “thereby undermining any prospect for peace and normalcy in the world”. Falk established that the US, in particular, worked consistently at “weakening … international law” and “eroding … the authority of the United Nations.”
Indeed, major US foreign policy decisions, such as its 2003 invasion of Iraq, have repeatedly demonstrated what renowned philosopher Noam Chomsky defined as Washington’s “contempt for the international system”.
Sure, the US also has a history of invoking the importance of upholding the RBO or protecting the UN, but it only does so when it serves to advance its own interests, such as stigmatising its enemies. Whenever the UN refuses to follow the US lead or makes a move that undermines the interests of its allies, Washington swiftly makes its contempt for the organisation clear.
US “contempt” for the international system is perhaps the most evident in its veto record at the UN Security Council.
Between 1972 – when the US first used its veto power to support Israel – and December 2023, the US vetoed 77 resolutions, including 45 critical of Israel.
In February 2024, the US used its veto power for the 78th time since 1972, marking the 46th instance of shielding Israel.
During this time period, no other permanent Security Council member has come close to the US mark – Russia (44), China (16), the UK (17), and France (9) have used their veto powers a combined total of 86 times.
During the current Israeli war on Gaza alone, the US has vetoed three UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions on behalf of Israel.
Meanwhile, under US protection, Israel has intensified its attacks on the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) since the beginning of its genocide in Gaza.
In January 2024, Israel accused UNRWA of “terrorism”, prompting the US to cut funding to the agency, which provides essential services to millions of Palestinians.
Yesterday, the Israeli parliament approved a bill to ban UNRWA from operating in both Gaza and the West Bank, and Israel is also seeking to declare UNRWA as a terrorist organisation.
Israel has long been at war with UNRWA, but these recent actions represent a significant escalation, especially when considered against the backdrop of recent Israeli violence in Gaza.
During the ongoing war, Israel has repeatedly bombed UN schools and killed over 220 UN staff members. No other conflict in UN history has killed such a high number of UN staff.
During the current war, Israel has also demonstrated its contempt for the UN in other, symbolic ways.
In March 2024, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, shredded a copy of the UN charter in protest of the UN general assembly’s decision to grant certain rights to Palestine.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech at the UN, during which he referred to the institution as a “swamp of antisemitic bile,” a “contemptuous farce,” and “contemptible in the eyes of decent people everywhere”.
Shortly after Netanyahu’s speech, Israel declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “persona non grata,” accused him of “backing terrorists, rapists, and murderers,” and banned him from entering Israel.
Most recently, Israel launched a series of apparently deliberate attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
As Israel has escalated its attacks on the UN, the US has largely remained idle. For instance, when 40 countries condemned Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers, the US declined to endorse the statement.
The US and Israel have also consistently attacked, insulted and attempted to undermine the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s principal judicial organ – ever since a case of genocide was raised against Israel there.
Noam Chomsky famously described the US and Israel as the world’s two leading “rogue states”. History shows that rogue actors eventually face serious consequences.
The US and Israel would be wise to rein themselves in sooner rather than later, as a weakened international system risks creating chaos that could hasten their own decline.
The American empire is already in decline, and Israel’s war on Gaza is further damaging the US’s international standing while jeopardising its strategic and economic interests.
As for Israel, its actions in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon may also be accelerating its own collapse, as suggested by Israeli scholar Ilan Pappe and countless other analysts of the region.
Both Israel and the US should recognise the extent to which they need the UN and the RBO, if for no other reason than to safeguard their interests.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
