Seventy-five years after the atrocities of WWII and the establishment of a “rules-based international order” (RBO), it is the United States and Israel that have become its greatest detractors. Instead of preventing the Holocaust and other atrocities, the RBO has been eroded by these two nations, thus undermining institutions such as the United Nations (UN) and jeopardizing the credibility of international law.

Meant to be the bastion of global peace and the end of human rights abuses, the UN has been thwarted time and again by the US and Israel. 

Repeatedly, the US has used its veto power in the UN Security Council to shield Israel. Since 1972, the US has issued 78 vetoes, and 46 of them protected Israel, more than any other member, including Russia and China. The US recently vetoed three UN ceasefire resolutions against escalating Israeli aggression in Gaza, allowing Israel to continue to bomb Palestinian civilians without repercussions.

Meanwhile, Israel’s antipathy toward the UN has become unprecedented. The United States has shielded it, and under such protection, Israel recently ratcheted up its assault on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, calling it a sponsor of “terrorism” and threatening the agency with cut US funding. Israel’s parliament has excluded UNRWA from Gaza and the West Bank, while recent Israeli airstrikes hit UN schools and killed over 220 UN staff, the highest toll on UN personnel in any conflict.

Symbolic expressions are also evidence of Israel’s resentment towards the UN. On March 2024, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan was recorded ripping apart a copy of the charter of the United Nations; Prime Minister Netanyahu had labeled the United Nations “a swamp of antisemitic bile.” Then, declaring UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “persona non grata,” branding him “supporting terrorists” while ignoring the criticism brought against Israel by 40 countries for the attacks committed on the United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Moreover, the US and Israel have also stopped the ICJ from reaching conclusions, which have been following different cases of alleged genocide occurring in Palestine. These rejections are another destabilization of the RBO, as the ICJ was established as one of its foundations.

The erosion of American influence, combined with the fallout over Israel’s activities in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, may expedite their mutual isolation on the world stage. It is a strange sort of mutually assured destruction: neither, apparently, without the international order they have unmade, have any recourse to another than a potentially unstable future in which, again, their respective interests and security will no longer be ensured.

For now, this American and Israeli negation of international norms betrays a nasty double standard. Perhaps the world’s “rogue states” will finally learn that trying to rewrite the rules comes at a price. As long as they continue to play this game, their weakened influence and abandonment of accountability will likely accelerate their political demise.