The massacres committed in Gaza, These attacks, carried out against civilians, will serve as a revelation of a deep evil that has been eating away at Western democracies for several years: The renunciation of all founding principles. These liberal democracies built after the Second World War seem to be losing influence on the international scene and no longer exert any kind of attractive power, but rather a repulsive effect, especially among the countries of the South.
The value system based on the post-war and decolonization era is outdated.
The system that took off after the war was based on a few pillars. They collapsed. The atrocities of the Second World War, the Holocaust, the end of colonization and the resulting natural Western sense of guilt led to the construction of a system of strong values and founding principles of a new international order, the beginnings of which are found in the Charter of the United Nations. Despite the periodic paralysis of the Security Council, the United States, France, the United Kingdom (to which Germany and Italy can be added) have strived to uphold certain values:
- Equality and dignity of human lives
- The primacy of international law with its corollary of the peaceful settlement of disputes.
- Non-interference in internal affairs, national sovereignty.
Gaza served as a revelation
These principles are now obsolete and Gaza has served both as a catalyst and an accelerator in the manifestation of these betrayals.. Indeed, human lives are now ranked: a Palestinian life is not worth much, about 1/40th of an Israeli life. Who cared about the attacks in Baghdad, with less than a few dozen dead? The absence of the G7 powers at the commemoration in Nagasaki testifies that a Japanese life does not carry much importance either. At the same time, the slightest attack occurring in Europe or the United States, whether or not there are any dead, takes the news channels by storm for several days. The value of human life now depends closely on ethnicity, religion, and nationality. This is the very negation of any humanist spirit and a return to the colonial mindset that prioritizes human lives.
International law? A deterrent that prevents things from going in circles!
International law no longer applies and it is even considered a hindrance to going in circles. We witnessed a first such event in 2003, with the illegal invasion of Iraq. Even today, we are still paying the price of this murderous folly that destabilized the entire region. Those who were bent on attacking Iraq are now unleashing their fury against the Iranian power in a kind of schizophrenia and fanaticism that prevents them from realizing the direct link between cause and effect.
George Bush's United States opened a regrettable precedent and bears a special responsibility for this drift. But at least they sought to use the Security Council to legitimize their aggression. They have to give up on that in the face of The Chiracist France And all its allies, anxious to ensure the supremacy of international law. The time when France’s voice and path were strong and heard on the international stage.
The Netanyahu government, for its part, mockingly disregards international law. He has eviscerated it with a single stroke: unimplemented Security Council resolutions, founding principles of international and humanitarian law violated daily, excessive colonization, repeated attacks on the sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria, and Iran… All of this in the denial of the actions and even the search for approval and praise in the name of morality but in reality in a pure supremacist and racist logic.
The right of the strongest promotes instability
All of this can only be done naturally with the support (the United States and Germany continue to provide weapons to Israel) and the complicity (France, the United Kingdom, and Italy) of the major Western democracies, which have sabotaged the legitimacy of the UN and enacted the end of the Security Council to settle the world’s major affairs. A suicide for France and the United Kingdom whose weight on the world stage has nothing to do with what it was and for whom international law plays a role of equalizing power.
That’s now The return of the right of the stronger as a founding principle that takes us back several decades morally and brings us closer to an unstable world Because the balance of power is dynamic and inevitably shifts, sooner or later. Those who base their legitimacy on this principle risk serious setbacks in the medium or long term. Netanyahu risks appearing, in a few years or decades, as the destroyer of and not the protector of the State of Israel.
The G7 is no longer than a clumsy attempt to maintain a shaky dominance
The G7, a French invention (Valéry Giscard d’Estaing), which was once a political and economic directive aimed at regulating the international order, weighs less and less in the affairs of the world and is considered by the South as a mere instrument of Western domination. The famous «two standards» that he embodies—to ignore the fundamental principles in his own interest but impose them on others—provokes massive rejection by the people. It is indeed easy to see that Israel can continue the slaughter in Gaza with the support of its leaders; the people, on the other hand, are massively in favor of the Palestinian cause.
A manifest example of this duality and of principles of varying geometry finds expression in the «defense of the Christians of the East», A major theme of the French right. Defending them, yes, but only against Muslims. On the other hand, when Israel is abusively portrayed as the vanguard of the West, providing 70% of the Azerbaijani military equipment that was used to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh, there is no radio silence. When settlers, with the help of the Israeli security forces, mistreat Christians in Jerusalem, there is no outcry either. Faced with this cynicism and/or hypocrisy that no longer seeks to hide, the Western model has actually become a counter-model, a deterrent.
France was once a mediator between the North and the South Thanks to Charles de Gaulle’s independent foreign policy, from Jacques Chirac to François Mitterrand. It is no longer independent and has been relegated to the rank of a medium-sized European power seeking to be a (second-class) ally for the United States for the last fifteen years.
Thus, while the G7«s real power continues to decline, its renunciation of »soft power”, To be the bearer of great virtuous and respectable principles that inspire sympathy, opens a boulevard for the BRICS who have never claimed to be the guarantors of democratic values and who do not teach lessons to the entire world, contenting themselves with serving their national interest and ensuring the respect of their sovereignty.
Communicators facing «emperors»
They do this all the better, since the leaders of these major emerging countries generally hold power for a long period of time or for life. They have the advantage of having a long lead time, while Western leaders, for their part, are just communicators. Leaders of the moment who do not subscribe to any tradition and have no vision for the future. When one’s horizon spans decades, the other’s is reduced to a few months separating elections.
In these conditions, trampling on the comparative advantage that is the respect for fundamental principles, civilizational values, respect for international law, dialogue among cultures and civilizations, and showing contempt or condescension towards anything that is foreign or different It is not only immoral but also counterproductive. Giving up on all values that transcend the immediacy condemns the Western powers, at least the European ones, to a fate of being dead wood.
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