For decades, the West stood as the torchbearer of liberal values—championing free speech, human rights, democracy, international law, and a rules-based global order. Its sacred cows—those foundational beliefs rarely questioned and fervently defended—defined its global identity and soft power. After emerging victorious from the Cold War, the West, led by the United States, became the world’s undisputed superpower. But today, not even three decades later, many of these once-revered principles lie slaughtered. Not by external invasion, not by ideological competitors, but by the contradictions and hypocrisies of the West itself. From Gaza to TikTok, from universities to courtrooms, the West has slaughtered its own sacred cows.
1. Free Speech—Silenced by Zionism
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of speech was recognised as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.
But today, Freedom of speech, once the cornerstone of Western liberalism, has come under unprecedented assault. Across the US and Europe, voices critical of Israel—whether academic, artistic, or activist—are being systematically silenced. Journalists fired, scientists dismissed, celebrities cancelled, students deported. Entire careers have been destroyed over a tweet or a placard.
In the UK former England Football Captain Gary Lineker was hounded for his public criticism of Israel, whilst in the US, Rachel Zegler, the lead actress in Disney’s Snow White movie was pressured to delete her tweet: “And always remember, free Palestine,” by Disney executives. In the US, the advocacy organisation Palestine Legal reported that they’ve responded to over 260 cases of “people’s livelihoods or careers” being targeted. In many cases people have been fired due to social media posts criticising Israel or highlighting the Palestinian plight. Artforum’s top editor David Velasco was fired by his publisher, Penske Media, after posting an open letter calling for a cease-fire and suggesting Israel is responsible for the genocide. Michael Eisen was removed as editor-in-chief of the science journal eLife after retweeting a satirical article critical of Israel. Whilst Bella Hadid the American and Palestinian supermodel lost a contract with Adidas due to her heritage.
What began as censorship has now metastasised into coercion. Even major legislation, such as the US TikTok ban, was influenced by pro-Israel lobbying due to the app’s visibility into Israel’s actions in Gaza.[1] Free speech is no longer universal—only permissible when it aligns with select geopolitical interests.
Freedom of speech, once the cornerstone of Western liberalism, has come under unprecedented assault
2. The Right to Protest—Unless it’s Against Israel
The right to protest was once the heartbeat of Western democracy—now it is strangled by double standards. Peaceful protests in support of Palestinians are met with bans, arrests, and even terrorism designations. The UK’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group marks an unprecedented conflation of nonviolent civil action with terrorism.
Activists from Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton—the UK’s largest airbase—and sprayed red paint into aircraft engines, causing around £7 million in damage. The group had also been targeting Elbit Systems who supplied components to the Israeli military machine. Israel had been lobbying for the group to be banned due to the impact it was having on its supply chains.
Despite Britain’s long history of direct-action groups and support for foreign direct-action groups, Palestine Action is the first ever direct‑action group to be proscribed as a terrorist group. Civil disobedience has now been conflated with terrorism and paint-spraying has been equated with suicide bombings.
Across Europe the right to protests is being banned in order to maintain the continent’s relationship with Israel. France ordered a blanket ban on pro‑Palestinian marches, citing concerns about public disorder. In Germany, Berlin and other city administrations barred most pro‑Palestine rallies and deported EU and non‑citizen protestors for alleged support of Palestine, even without criminal convictions. In Belgium displaying Palestinian flags and keffiyehs led to fines.
The case of Mahmud Khalil in the US, who was the lead negotiator for the encampment in the Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus protests, has been very revealing. Khalil had committed no crime, and still today has not been charged with any crime. But he became the first known deportation effort in the US related to pro-Palestine activism. The defence of Israel now includes KGB tactics that even include using a Cold War era law – The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which provides that migrants in the US may be removed if the Secretary of State believes their presence will have serious negative consequences for US foreign policy.
What Mahmud Khalil, Palestine Action and protests in support of Palestinians have in common is Western governments can no longer intellectually defend Israel. The crackdown is reminiscent of Cold War paranoia. When Western governments cannot defend Israel morally, they resort to authoritarian tactics to protect it.
Civil disobedience has now been conflated with terrorism and paint-spraying has been equated with suicide bombings
3. Starving Into Submission
Starvation as a method of warfare was supposedly consigned to history—outlawed in the wake of two world wars and enshrined as a war crime. Yet, in Gaza, Israel has openly declared and enacted a siege strategy, denying food, water, and electricity to civilians.
Israeli officials immediately after the events of October 7th, made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water, and fuel. The Israeli Defense Minister at the time, Yoav Gallant ordered “…a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” saying “…there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” Amid the war in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by more direct means, Israel’s serial blockade of Gaza for long got little global media coverage. Western leaders argued Israel has the right to defend itself.
This collective punishment is not only tolerated but actively supported by the US, which ignored the findings of its own agencies about Israel’s deliberate blockade of humanitarian aid. In April 2024, the US government’s leading agencies on humanitarian assistance concluded that Israel was deliberately blocking entry of food and medicine into Gaza. The US Foreign Assistance Act requires the government to suspend military assistance to any country that “…restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance”.[2] The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken just ignored the evidence provided by his own government. “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,” he informed Congress.[3]
The West’s complicity in mass civilian suffering exposes a staggering moral collapse. Israeli officials have been so open about what they want to do to the Palestinians, they have not even hidden what they are doing. This is why the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant due to ‘reasonable grounds’ that they bear criminal responsibility for “…the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”[4]
4. ‘International Law Wasn’t Conceived to Come After Us’
The West has long used international law as a weapon against foes—be it African dictators or Russian generals. But when these same laws are applied to Israel, the West turns hostile. Arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for Israeli leaders triggered threats, sanctions, and even intimidation of ICC officials’ families by US lawmakers.
The bloodshed of WW1 spurred the creation of international organisations in international law. The League of Nations was founded to safeguard peace and security after WW1 and after WW2 the United Nations (UN) was established to replace the League, with the aim of maintaining collective security. A more robust international legal order followed, buttressed by institutions such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN Security Council (UNSC). The International Law Commission (ILC) was established in 1947 to develop and codify international law.
The West championed international law which was used against African dictators and against Serbian leaders during the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Western leaders lined up to use international law and global institutions against Russia when it invaded Ukraine from 2014. Despite Russia not being a member state to many of these organisations, these mattered little to western leaders. In fact according to them international law was in working order when it went after Russia’s leader.
But in the case of Israel, we are witnessing the death knell of this sacred cow as Israel faces little consequences for its repeated breaches of UN resolutions, the ICJ’s provisional measures, and the Geneva Conventions on occupation and treatment of civilians. Senior US senator Lindsey Graham let the cat out of the bag, after the ICC issued warrants for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. He arrogantly explained: “The Rome Statute doesn’t apply to Israel, or the United States, or France, or Germany, or Great Britain, because it wasn’t conceived to come after us.”
“The Rome Statute doesn’t apply to Israel, or the United States, or France, or Germany, or Great Britain, because it wasn’t conceived to come after us.” Senator Lindsey Graham
This reveals the colonial arrogance embedded in the Western approach to justice: accountability is for others. Rather than proving Israel’s innocence and challenging the evidence, like any lawyer or innocent party would do, what has transpired is what happens in gang warfare – the targeting of individuals. The US has sanctioned the ICC and ICJ for issuing arrest warrants and beginning cases against Israel, when it’s actually doing the job it was created for. US president Donald Trump sanctioned the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan, including his family for targeting Israel. Now the US has targeted Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.
The sacred cow of international law now lies dismembered.
5. The World’s First Televised Genocide
Israel’s war on Gaza is unfolding as the world’s first televised genocide. The full weight of international law was brought down upon Serbian leaders, Rwanda’s leaders and Cambodia’s leaders. Now all the institutions created to monitor and document genocides, all the human rights organisations who monitor atrocities and numerous historians and experts now accuse Israel of systematic efforts to destroy a people.
In March 2025 the UN concluded Israel targeted fertility clinics and embryo facilities in Gaza in its assault over the last year. In its 49-page report on sexual and gender-based violence drawn up by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem, it detailed attacks on maternity wards and other healthcare facilities for women, the destruction of an IVF clinic and controls on the entry of food and medical supplies into Gaza that together “…destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group”. Carrying out actions to affect the birth rate of a people is one of the five acts that constitute a genocide.
The response of the West has been sickening. Israel’s war in Gaza is chipping away at so much of what the US and the international community had agreed upon as acceptable, from the rules governing freedom of speech to the very laws of armed conflict. It began with the western world’s lack of resolve to rein in Israel’s war in Gaza. It escalated when no one lifted a finger to stop hospitals being bombed. It expanded when mass starvation became a weapon of war. And it is peaking at a time when total war is no longer viewed as a human abhorrence but is instead the deliberate policy of Israel.
Israel has not hidden its genocidal agenda. Just recently Israel’s Defense Minister Katz declared the intention to pack all Palestinians remaining in Gaza into a closed zone along the border with Egypt. Katz ordered Israel’s military to draw up plans to build what he called a “humanitarian city” in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. It has been heavily damaged by the war and is largely uninhabited and uninhabitable. Before entering the zone, all Palestinians would be vetted in order to “separate and isolate Hamas”. Furthermore, under the plan, Palestinians would not be able to leave once they enter the zone. The Israeli military would forcibly move 600,000 Palestinians, with the express aim of transferring them to Rafah. This is no different to when the Nazi’s forcibly moved the Jews of Europe into concentration camps in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald.
Western governments continue to shield Israel with vetoes, aid, and diplomatic cover. If the West is prepared to look the other way as Israel implements its final solution, then Russia has every right to clear Eastern Ukraine, China has every right over Taiwan. The slogan “never again” has now become a cruel punchline.
Israel has not hidden its genocidal agenda. Just recently Israel’s Defense Minister Katz declared the intention to pack all Palestinians remaining in Gaza into a closed zone along the border with Egypt. This is no different to when the Nazi’s forcibly moved the Jews of Europe into concentration camps in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald.
6. Expansion Through Conquest
Expansion through conquest was outlawed after WW2 in response to the devastating impact of imperialism, colonialism, and especially the World Wars. The shift reflected a growing international consensus that using war to seize land threatened global stability and contradicted evolving norms of sovereignty and human rights. The UN Charter, adopted in 1945, explicitly outlawed the use of force to acquire territory.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea 2014 and parts of Ukraine from 2022 was widely condemned as a violation of international law, reinforcing that conquest is no longer accepted as legitimate. But once again, the sacred cow has been slaughtered at the altar.
Under the guise of security Israel has been expanding, conquering, acquiring and seizing territory. Israel has always been doing this since its creation, but the difference today is the brazenness of doing this in and with full western support. In fact, western leaders have repeated Israel’s justification of security and buffer zones for the defence of its people.
But this is the same reasoning Russia has given for expanding into Ukraine, this is the same reasoning China has provided regarding Taiwan. In fact Turkey, Pakistan, Serbia and Indonesia could claim the very same reason for expanding their national borders.
The era of using international law to settle land and border disputes is now officially over and what Israel has shown is its expansion through conquest is a legitimate right of all nations. This provides every right to Mexico to take back Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. China and Russia also have numerous claims against surrounding nations and therefore have every right to expand through conquest.
The era of using international law to settle land and border disputes is now officially over and what Israel has shown is its expansion through conquest is a legitimate right of all nations
7. When An Empire Doesn’t Know If It’s Coming or Going
In a moment of comic absurdity, US officials announced two contradictory visa policies: one banning foreign nationals who criticise Israel, and the other banning those who censor American speech.
Many empires throughout history declined when its leaders came to the point of doing things which made little sense and were often contradictory. Such actions usually do not stop the inevitable and in fact make things worse. Glasnost and Perestroika were attempts by the USSR to stop the decline and malaise, but they only made things worse. The US has recently just had its Glasnost and Perestroika moment.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in May 2025 a vigorous new visa policy in order to prevent people from entering the US who were critical of Israel. Rubio said that the US will hold “…international organisations and nations accountable for rhetoric against Israel.” by preventing Israeli critics from entering the US.[5]
Then, in a contradictory move and on the same day, Rubio also announced a new policy to prevent foreign nationals who have been involved in censoring the speech of Americans from obtaining visas. Rubio said: “Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms.”[6]
So, if you criticise Israel then you do not have free speech. But at the same time if you censure criticism, then you will be penalised. You have free speech to criticise the US in the US, but not Israel. If you criticise Israel you cannot come to the US, but if you criticise the US then you can come as its free speech.
The US now legislates in contradiction, speaking liberty while enforcing censorship, promoting democracy while undermining dissent. It no longer believes in its own principles—it performs them. This is the very feature of decline.
8. The US is the New USSR
In a historical irony, the U.S. now mirrors the very Soviet Union it once defeated. A senile figurehead president. Decisions signed by autopen. A collapsing empire addicted to foreign interventions. A population disillusioned with elites and riddled with internal fractures, today the global superpower is looking more and more like its former foe.
In the last two decades of the USSR, Soviet leaders either died in office or became too physically or mentally frail to govern effectively. This contributed to political stagnation and institutional decay at a time when the USSR was facing major internal and external challenges. In the US, President Joe Biden was so mentally unsound that his official documents were signed with an autopen. The use of an automatic signature tool allowed aides to sign pardons, memos and other important documents on Biden’s behalf. Neera Tanden, the former director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, testified in front of the House Oversight Committee, which investigated the former president’s mental acuity. During Tanden’s interview before Congress, she confirmed that in her role as staff secretary and senior advisor to the former president between 2021 and 2023, she was authorized to direct autopen signatures on behalf of Biden.[7]
In the US, President Joe Biden was so mentally unsound that his official documents were signed with an autopen. The use of an automatic signature tool allowed aides to sign pardons, memos and other important documents on Biden’s behalf
The Communist party in 1985 turned to an outsider and relatively young politician, Mikael Gorbachev to lead the USSR during its era of decline and malaise. Despite his attempts to halt the decline and implement reforms the USSR crumbled within 6 years. In the US the American people have turned to reality TV star and real estate mogul Donald Trump to navigate them out of the challenges the US faces. Trump faces more broader and deeper challenges than Gorbachev did and it remains to be seen if he will go down in history as America’s saviour or will he become America’s Gorbachev.
In the USSR in the 1970s the debate became whether Russia should maintain the burden of the Soviet Union or focus on nationalism and Russia alone. Reforms led to open elections which saw the emergence of Russian nationalism and the rise of Boris Yeltsin who argued for nationalism over the USSR. In the US Donald Trump and his supporters believe the US should focus on America and end the forever wars and prioritise the US over its empire. The US is literally having the same debate the USSR had in the 1980s.
One of the first acts of Mikael Gorbachev in 1985 was to end the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which was draining Soviet resources. When the final Soviet soldier left Afghanistan in 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed two years later. Donald Trump was the US president who agreed to a peace deal with the Taliban after a two-decade long occupation. All the recent global powers from the Soviets to the British, declined after leaving Afghanistan in defeat. This doesn’t bode well for the US.
The Soviet Union was in huge debt in the 1980s, it was overstretched and could no longer maintain its position in the world after the decades long Cold War. The US is also, much like the USSR, is overreaching and in huge debt. The Afghan and Iraq wars consumed US resources which has led to questions over its global position. The US is now living on debt and continues to borrow to repay existing debt. This destroyed the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The US now is looking like the USSR.
When the Berlin wall was torn down in 1989, everyone expected a Red Army intervention, which had become normal practice. When this did not occur, it confirmed that Moscow was no longer the power it was. The US is today also facing its own Berlin wall moment which will confirm the US is no longer the global superpower. America’s global presence has cost it dearly at home, which has led to calls to end its forever wars. Unlike the USSR, the US Berlin Wall moment is growing in number and it’s now really a matter of when and which US failure will make its decline official. The US is now officially the new USSR.
The US is today also facing its own Berlin wall moment which will confirm the US is no longer the global superpower
9. Tariffing Through Decline
Globalisation—the crown jewel of Western economic leadership—is being gutted by the very country that created it.
The deal the US made with the world after WW2 was that the US navy would protect the global sea lanes and tariff free trade or near zero trade will lead to prosperity. When the Cold War ended in 1991 the US pushed this economic order calling it globalisation. Former Soviet republics all joined one after the other and academics, economists and experts all produced report after report championing the benefits of open markets, free trade and globalisation.
This world is now history and firmly in the past. The US under Donald Trump now sees economic protectionism over free trade, nationalism over globalisation and ripping up international law rather than abiding by it. The US approach to global trade is now one of tariffs rather than free trade or comparative advantage.
The US is now tearing up the institutions, order and global economy it built and convinced the world to join. The reason it’s doing this reveals where the US is today and it doesn’t bode well for her. This move is due to recognising the “relative decline” of US power vis-à-vis the power of other states, primarily due to the rise of China, which has left the US in doubt as to whether it will continue to be able to lead multinational organisations. In response, it sees no need for these multinational organisations anymore, and instead is pivoting to a “bilateral approach” where it deals with individual nations on a one-on-one basis, where the power imbalance, and consequently US leverage is maximized.
We now live in a world where the former communist nation, China, is advocating free trade at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit and advocating capitalist positions, whilst the US is sounding more and more protectionist. It’s the US now that sounds increasingly like the USSR—paranoid, inward, and unable to compete on equal terms. In fact, the US seems to have taken on the USSR’s perspective on many of its global positions.
The US may want to take a note from history. The USSR twisted and pulled communism in the 1980’s to maintain its global position. In the end the Soviets themselves ended the USSR.
We now live in a world where the former communist nation, China, is advocating free trade at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit and advocating capitalist positions
10. The Final Nail—The Rules-Based Order is Dead
The myth of a global rules-based order has been shattered. Whether in Ukraine or Gaza, the West applies its own rules selectively. Courts are sanctioned, journalists silenced, and laws rewritten in real-time to shield allies and punish adversaries. The West’s sacred cows—once symbols of moral superiority—have been slaughtered by the very hands that raised them. Free speech, protest, law, order, justice—all hollowed out to serve political expediency.
With Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and South Africa taking the case to the ICJ, the West is now acting like the mafia against the very order it created and for long promoted. The US House of Representatives has voted to pass legislation that will sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) after its prosecutor applied for arrest warrants against Israeli officials. A group of Republican US senators even sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan threatening his family! Whether it is the UN, the ICC or even the ICJ they are now labelled as antisemitic and are being threatened for investigating and carrying out their job of investigating crimes against humanity. The West supported the court when it issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, but the US has done the most to destroy and undermine the global order than any person ever could.
the West is now acting like the mafia against the very order it created and for long promoted
Conclusion: The Butcher is Within
The West’s sacred cows were not slain by a rival ideology, nor toppled in a new Cold War, nor overwhelmed by an ascendant civilisation. Ironically, their demise came not from abroad but from within. Despite emerging triumphant from the Cold War and facing no serious ideological contender, the West—led by an increasingly hubristic US—is now drowning in its own contradictions. Its once-vaunted economic model has birthed obscene inequality, concentrating wealth in the hands of a global elite. Its military dominance lies discredited in the wreckage of Iraq and the retreat from Afghanistan. The democratic ideals it once evangelised now ring hollow amid political dysfunction, declining trust, and a cultural landscape consumed by identity fractures and woke culture. In the end, the West did not need an enemy to destroy its sacred cows. It butchered them itself.
[1] Pro-Israel lobby’s footprint writ large in law banning TikTok – TRT Global
[2] Section 620I: No Military Assistance to States Restricting U.S. Humanitarian Assistance
