Palestine notes: A guide to the rules-based international order in light of the Gaza genocide

A quick chat designed to tell you something you need to know about the politics surrounding Palestine.

Leaders of the Free World™ on their way to enforcing some rules-based international order.

Palestine notes is inspired by the Pass notes in the British imperialist propaganda rag, also known as the Guardian.

I like the format of the Pass notes and feel that it can be a good medium to inform the uninitiated about the various aspects of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the politics surrounding Palestine, and the Palestinian fight for freedom from the settler colonial apartheid state of Israel.

Search for “Palestine notes” in the search box for previous articles in this series.

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Name: Rules-based international order (RBIO), also known as the liberal international order (LIO) or the rules-based order (RBO). It should be better known as “one rule for me, another for thee.”

Age: Roughly 75 years.

Appearance: It changes appearance faster than a chameleon; currently, it looks like a genocide.

What is it exactly? Here’s how the mothership of US foreign policy, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), defines it: “It is a liberal system in the sense that it operates on rules that are, in theory, applied to each country equally and that it encourages each country to be democratic and to open its economy to the rest of the world. It is a global system in that every country around the world is encouraged to join and follow those rules, even if some do not. And it is a system that promotes order in that most countries that buy into it respect the borders of other countries and seek to resolve their differences peacefully.”

So, how do they uphold this rules-based order? The CFR document explains that several institutions were created to enforce the order: “The United Nations was built to promote peace between countries. The World Bank would support global economic development. And the International Monetary Fund and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which later became the World Trade Organization, would support investment and trade between countries.”

Are those organisations following their mandate? I don’t know, you tell me.

Oh, come on, lay it on me. As has been clear from the very beginning, especially for the countries in the Global South, the rules-based international order is nothing more than a trick to impose Western hegemony over the rest of the world. When direct colonisation became unfeasible in the post-World War II climate — with the notable exception of Palestine, whose direct colonisation became official after the war — the erstwhile colonial powers devised covert means to keep their former colonies under their yoke.

The rules-based international order shtick has been reserved for browbeating governments that don’t agree with what the West wants for them.

Can you give me some examples? Certainly, you remember 9/11? No, not that one, the other one. The 1973 one. On September 11, 1973, the Chileans made the mistake of exercising their democratic right and electing Salvador Allende as their leader. The rules-based order would have none of it.

Here’s how the then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger declared his — and the rules-based order’s — love for democracy: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

I will give you a more recent example. Back in 2006, when Palestinians elected Hamas to lead them, the then-US Senator Hillary Clinton was recorded lamenting not rigging the election. “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,” said Clinton. “And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”

Rules-based order is when the representatives you elect represent the interests of the United States and its Western allies, not yours.

Rules-based order is also when asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza, the US President says: “None, no possibility,” before breaking into a shameless jig.

Rules-based order is also when the White House spokesperson is asked if it’s “still the case, that the administration has no red lines at all” for Israelis in Gaza, and he replies: “That is still the case.”

Rules-based order is also when the most powerful country in the world continuously vetoes ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations — yes, the same organisation they created to uphold the rules-based order.

Rules-based order is also when Israel asks the US for an additional 2 months to achieve its objectives in Gaza, and the benevolent US only gives it 2 weeks to carry out its genocide.

Rules-based order is also when the United States sends unfettered money and weapons to the Israelis to carry out their genocide in Gaza while simultaneously announcing a strategy to counter Islamophobia.

Rules-based order is also when the liberal democracies in the West arrest conscientious citizens who object to their tax money being sent to aid genocide.

Rules-based order is also when you froth at the mouth talking about international law but make a law through which you will invade a court in a foreign country if it tries your personnel or your allies’ personnel for war crimes that you and your allies have been committing for decades.

Rules-based order is also when your ally declares that investigating its war crimes will be “pure antisemitism” with a straight face.

Rules-based order is also when you conflate a little over century-old political ideology with a thousands-year-old theology and pass a resolution on it with overwhelming support.

Rules-based order is also when you censure a politician for raising concerns about an ongoing genocide instead of stopping the said genocide.

Rules-based order is also when the President of the European Commission (a rules-based order institution) posts a somber photo at a memorial to mark a pogrom against a minority at the same time as the self-proclaimed descendants of the same minority commit genocide of their own of a people they have occupied for 75 years. To top it all, the said leader uses the hashtag NeverAgainIsNow.

I could go on.

That’s wild. I can’t believe all this is real. This is as real as it gets. This is the rules-based international order.

Here’s another one: last October, Hilary Clinton tweeted, “If Russian leadership would rather not be accused of committing war crimes, they should stop bombing hospitals.”

Have you heard her condemn the Israelis as they have declared war on Gaza’s hospitals, killing babies in incubators and sniping patients? Me neither.

Good thing she isn’t holding a role in the current administration. As if it changes anything. One ghoul replaces another ghoul. In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared: “We can never let the crimes Russia is committing become our new normal. Bucha is not normal. Mariupol is not normal. Irpin is not normal. Bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal.”

Did you hear him hold the Israeli genocidaires to the same standard? Yeah, me neither.

Do say: “This whole rules-based international order thing sounds like a load of rubbish.”

Don’t say: “Can we have some rules-based order, please?”

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How Palestine became the graveyard of Western liberalism