It’s a platitude among America’s foreign policy elite that their goal is maintaining a “rules-based international order” that’s ultimately grounded in the post-1945, Western-led global settlement.

Last week’s decision by the United Nations‘s top court on Israel‘s military actions in Gaza therefore comes as a rude awakening to our foreign policy establishment. South Africa appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to investigate Israel on charges of perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians in their military campaign against Hamas after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. The ICJ’s decision last Friday was at least a half-win for South Africa. 

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