© Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty ImagesPalestinians inspect rubble and debris at the site of Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp • Central Gaza Strip • March 23, 2025
But this latest round of fighting isn't just an unspeakable tragedy for Gaza and its people. It also gives the world a snapshot of the future - of the post, post-Second World War international order in an era of conquest.
The American guarantee of a predictable and stable world is over. The Trump administration now questions basic norms governing international relations.
The 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, for instance, protects civilians in time of war, including those in occupied territories, and prohibits the forced displacement of civilians.
Article Two of the United Nations Charter not only prohibits states from annexing territory by threat or conquest but serves as a bedrock principle of international law and modern history.
These norms were birthed from the ashes of two world wars, and they represent collective values, not guaranteed outcomes. Obviously, history demonstrates that many countries have fallen short of their obligations, but these aspirations still provide an international lodestar. This order now has devolved to the point where states regard basic tenets of international law as inconvenient constraints on their imperial designs.
Gaza is a telling witness. Israel had to respond and defend itself after Hamas unleashed its horrific October 7 attack on innocents. Seventeen months later, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to achieve his declared wartime goals of vanquishing Hamas and freeing the hostages. As the relative calm of the ceasefire showed, Hamas remains in firm control of all aspects of Gazan life.
Comment: Consider it 'planned failure'. Hamas provides the excuse to continue the genocide and destruction for as long as Netanyahu needs or wants it. Capture Hamas, free the hostages? The war is over by definition.
Despite its shortcomings in Gaza, Israel was able to establish credible deterrence over Hezbollah and Iran, thereby isolating Hamas from its most militant allies. Given Israel's failures thus far, the next round of fighting will likely be more brutal and unpredictable - and Mr. Netanyahu has chosen to continue the conflict over negotiating the release of the hostages, with the full support of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Re-armed with 2,000-pound bombs from America, Mr. Netanyahu will almost certainly pursue a maximalist strategy to push much of the Gazan population into Egypt and regain full long-term occupational control over the Mediterranean coastal enclave. Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing allies in the Knesset also have designs on the West Bank. Mr. Netanyahu's government is signalling plans to annex large portions of the West Bank into Eretz Yisrael (greater Israel), having sensed that it has a historical opportunity to seize territory at the expense of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. And it appears there will be no consequences for these decisions.
Comment: The consequences are: the massacre of thousands of Palestinians and the total destruction of Gaza. They weren't 'displaced'. They lost their lives, not their aspirations.
An expansionist Israel indefinitely occupying Gaza after forcibly displacing large swaths of the civilian population which further annexes substantial portions of the West Bank will unleash this new era of conquest. In a world where war has no rules, Gaza is just the beginning.
As the battle in Gaza unfolds, Russia and the United States may well impose a settlement on Ukraine, against the will of the Ukrainian people. China too will see an opportunity to seize its own breakaway province, Taiwan, under the disinterested gaze of a compliant America. In doing so, the great powers will have cemented a legacy: the idea that stronger nations can simply seize the land of their weaker neighbours.
There will, of course, be handwringing by free nations, civil society and international media. A bygone time of values-based alliances, democratic norms and an empowered United Nations will seem quaint.
Finally, the United States' complicity in the imperial expansion of other powers does not fully answer the question about its own strategic intentions. Donald Trump has been clear: He wants the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada to be integrated into a continental America. He has made these demands often and repeatedly, without diplomatic niceties or the consent of Panamanians, Greenlanders or Canadians. Yet, the American people and its allies simply do not know if Mr. Trump's rhetoric is bluster or the precursor to conquest. But in a world where war has no rules, in an era of conquest, the United States under Donald Trump is more likely to take reckless, expansionist actions that threaten collective peace and stability. The future is before us - and in Gaza, of all places.
Comment: What collective peace and stability would that be exactly? The future is not in Gaza. Gaza is now the graveyard of the past.
Author: R. David Harden is the former assistant administrator at USAID's bureau for democracy, conflict and humanitarian assistance. In this role, he oversaw global democracy and governance efforts in fragile states.
Reader Comments
THEY want us to be sick, tired, fed up and eventually ignore, while they carry on.
WE try to remain healthy, objective and sane, so we move away from this poison.
It's all about balance, I guess.
We do what we can. Some take to the streets. Some take up arms. Some write about it. Others take to social media. What I do I won't divuldge, but one thing we can all do is make others aware, as best we can, of the truth and reality of what is going on.
This alone is a battlefield of its own, because everyone has their own reality, and even if you try to be a friend to someone, you can come across as an enemy.
We do what we can.
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say it for what is , Political Zionism and Far-right extremism who's position is reinforced by a large quantity of exploitable accessories, and where those against their pernicious ideology are treated as traitors to the selective cause.
"same as it ever was......"
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[Link]
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Far-left?
(No middle?)
Socialist?
Conservative?
Liberal?
Rebel?
Anarchist?
Labour?
Nationalist?
Hippie?
These labels matter as much as an ant's fart does on the so-called "green-house effect".
couldn't agree more Gabriel, just that we can't help others loyalty to them.
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Our predecessors removed those who thought rules don't apply to them from society - usually by scuttling the offender in a swamp.
Not everybody is a savage, but war is savage, and none of them pass without gross atrocities, abuse, and "human rights" violations. The scale is maybe a bit high and proud with this one in Gaza, and we haven't seen anything like this in...what, 50 years? Less?
Vietnam wasn't that long ago. They just beheaded a bunch of Christians at a church the other day, in other parts of Africa. God only knows what's been going on at Guantanamo Bay.
This particular conflict between the Jews and Palestinians has been going on all of my life. It was background noise by the time I was 12, so that probably makes it easier for me to not jump up and go "OMG, war!" My father served in Vietnam, and I grew up on a Naval base. I don't see any of this as new or outside the norm.
I guess what I really want to say is, "ya, no shit." War sucks. Don't do that. This is exactly what that is like. I'd also like to add that this is exactly why we (USA) should at the very least make official declarations of war, that are approved by congress, before sending our troops any-godamned-where. The red tape is there for a good reason, but we seem to just go around it, and nobody gives a shit because they believe in...what..."legal wars?"
I honestly don't know what people think goes on in those places. I really don't. Gaza is a war. There is nothing special about it. There is also nothing fair about it. There never was.
Just stop it....I know. It ain't never gonna happen. This is what we are.
Haague land warfare convention : [Link]
They don't appear to make any difference though, and people are still running about raping, murdering, and pillaging, just like they always do. I don't recall there being any break or pause in this behavior on account of this law or that.
There's as much video evidence as you can stomach to watch, really. It never stops. It's been like this all my life. I'm just fortunate to have never been a part of it.
When this war (Gaza, Ukraine, or whatever) is over. There will be another, and the same thing will happen there too.
But his kind of brutish warfare almost always bears fatal consequences for the perpetrator. Because at some point, even the most decent and mild-mannered people realize that those psychopathic beasts must be removed from the face of the earth the keep peace.