Two rogue states

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 to advance its own interests, such as when it seeks to “stigmatize 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.

Excerpted: ‘The US and Israel have nothing to gain from their war on the UN’. Courtesy: Aljazeera.com