Israel and America are rewriting the world order.
Challenging the old “rules-based international order,” they’re turning diplomacy on its head and confronting threats much of the West has long ignored.
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This is a guest essay by Bob Goldberg, who writes the newsletter, “The New Zionist Times.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
During a press briefing on Monday in Florida alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a stark warning to Hamas, vowing “hell to pay” if the group fails to disarm within a “very short period.”
Trump’s remarks were part of a broader discussion on regional security, in which he also affirmed that the United States would support Israel in striking Iran should Tehran continue advancing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Meanwhile, Europe’s embrace of the Arabs’ desires for Gaza, to resurrect the Palestinian Authority under Hamas’ shadow, is not merely another diplomatic misadventure. It is the latest capitulation of the West to a broader, more insidious threat — what British-American historian Bernard Lewis once identified as the third great wave of Islamic conquest.
This is not new. Europe’s indulgence of the Palestinian delusion mirrors its approach to Ukraine: both framed as moral crusades for human rights, shielded by the bureaucratic armor of the United Nations, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, and the vast machinery of “international law.” But beneath this façade of multilateralism lies something far more troubling: appeasement masquerading as principle.
The reality? This is the West’s latest, self-destructive response to Islamic triumphalism. For decades, Europe, America, and their liberal elites have convinced themselves that Islamism is merely a regional grievance, something to be managed, not defeated. They are wrong. The Islamists, for their part, harbor no such illusions. As Bernard Lewis warned in 2007, they believe they are in the final stage of an existential, cosmic struggle between Islam and the West. And unlike their opponents, they do not suffer from self-doubt.
The West’s obsession with the Palestinian issue is not an accident; it is the organizing principle of the modern international system — a system that has long defined itself not by what it stands for, but by what it opposes.
Indeed, the Islamists, particularly those who are in the Palestinian ecosystem, have deliberately created a militant infrastructure to promote and transmit the belief system that the obstacle to classless, genderless, decolonized world is Jews and Israel in particular. Most importantly, in Europe — and much of the “progressive” Left in America and elsewhere — anti-Judaism is at the heart of the liberal world order, of a world order based on human rights, international law, and powerful multinational institutions. The Palestinian movement knows that if the Jewish People entrust their survival to liberal institutions and liberal ideas, they will die.
Anti-Judaism is a fundamental element of Western thought for thousands of years, not a marginal aspect of modern society. The difference is today, academia has become a cesspool and bioreactor for such beliefs. As American historian David Nirenberg concluded in “Anti-Judaism: The Western Intellectual Tradition”:
“We live in an age in which millions of people are exposed daily to some variant of the argument that the challenges of the world they live in are best explained in terms of ‘Israel.’”
For much of the Left, “Palestine” has replaced the Soviets as the flag-bearers of the global anti-American cause. For much of the European Right, traditional antisemitism has rebranded itself as “anti-Zionism,” making Israel the acceptable target of their old hatreds. For both, the goal is the same: Delegitimize Israel and weaken America in the name of today’s corruption of the post-World War II world order.
What’s changed in that neither Israel nor the United States are interested in participating in this suicidal charade. For decades, Israel sought acceptance within the same international order that had institutionalized its destruction. That illusion died on October 7th. Israel has awoken from its Oslo Accords-induced stupor and is preparing for the next stage: preemption.
Israel’s post-October 7th strategy is neither about containment nor negotiation. It is about eliminating the Palestinian threat permanently. Gaza will be depopulated. Through a combination of siege tactics and voluntary migration, the enclave will cease to exist as a viable base for terrorism. Judea and Samaria will be annexed. Land conquered in 1967 but never fully integrated will become part of Israel, just as the Golan Heights was before.
Post-Zionism will die. The internal Israeli elites who have spent decades undermining the Jewish state from within are losing their grip. The era of Tel Aviv intellectuals dictating Israel’s future is over. The father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, once believed that Western liberalism would either emancipate the Jews or let them die. Israel has chosen survival.
President Donald Trump understands something that no American president before him dared to say aloud: The international system is not neutral. It is designed to constrain American power and destroy Israel. Multilateralism is a farce. It is simply a mechanism for America’s enemies to use U.S. resources against itself. Europe is strategically irrelevant, militarily weak, politically confused, and increasingly aligned with Islamism, it is no longer a reliable partner.
Thus, Trump’s foreign policy is not isolationist; it is realist. It rejects the illusion that international law or diplomacy can contain Islamism. As weak as liberalism is inside countries, the utter uselessness of liberal principles in international life is much worse. How has the “rules-based international order” worked out for victims of the Syrian civil war? How safe are the Rohingya, the Uighurs, the Tibetans?
Instead, the Trump Doctrine mobilizes American and Israeli power to eliminate the alliances that have sought to undermine both nations. This means ending America’s subsidy of European cowardice, forcing them to take responsibility for Ukraine and their own defense. It means crushing the anti-Israel infrastructure at home and abroad, through criminal prosecution, civil litigation, and financial warfare. It means reversing the decades-long mistake of treating Islamism as a diplomatic challenge instead of an existential threat.
Trump has no patience for illusions, nor should he. Power is the only language nations understand.
For too long, much of the West has operated under the naïve assumption that treaties, goodwill, and international institutions could preserve peace. They cannot and will not. What will? Preemption. Israel is moving to eliminate the Palestinian threat permanently. It is no longer asking for permission. America is shifting from endless entanglements in Europe to the real fight — against Islamism and Chinese hegemony.
And here lies the true meaning of Trump’s break with the liberal world order: For too long, many parts of the West have sought to replace power with process, substituting treaties for deterrence. However, as history has repeatedly proven, power is the only thing that ultimately preserves peace.
This is the new world order, not built on fantasy but on force. The “anti-Zionist” elites who once dictated the terms of this global system are now on the defensive. Israel and America are back. And this time, they are not interested in apologies.
Islamism has advanced not because it is stronger, but because the West is weaker. As Bernard Lewis observed, they have fervor and conviction, which are either weak or lacking in most Western countries. They are self-assured of the rightness of their cause, whereas we spend most of our time in self-denigration and self-abasement.
The Islamists have used the very freedoms of Western societies — our universities, our media, our institutions — as instruments of conquest. They have co-opted the language of social justice, embedding their ideology within the leftist elites who now rule over much of America and Europe.
This is why Trump’s domestic war against antisemitism is not just about Israel; it is about reclaiming America itself. The intersection of Islamism and Wokeism has created a political infrastructure dedicated to the erasure of the Jewish state and the redefinition of Western civilization itself.
Trump’s response? Destroy it. Universities are being defunded. Foreign influence networks are being dismantled. Financial warfare is being waged against anti-Zionist institutions. The goal is clear: Reassert American dominance abroad and crush the Islamist-Woke alliance at home.
The West’s last hope does not lie in diplomacy, international law, or multilateral institutions. It lies where it always has: in raw, unambiguous power. Israel will act preemptively. America will reassert its dominance. The international system will be reshaped by force, not by consensus.
For decades, the West has played defense. That era is over. The only question is whether we have the courage to wield the power still ours to use.
The time for illusions is past. Using the language of power, America and Israel are serving notice to the rest of the world that the time of propping up the mutual reinforcing movements of Islamism and multilateralism must end.
Thank you, Bob, that's an extremely good article.
I always feel inherently suspicious when I read something with which I agree; I wonder whether I am succumbing to an internal, personal bias preference.
So I have to read it again, and again.
I've done that, I still agree with your conclusions 100%.
The killer point is the recognition of the utter failure of 'soft' power, of diplomacy, of 'international law', of 'multilateralism'.
It's clearly impossible to negotiate with an entity that is on the record as wishing to eradicate you from the face of the earth. Whether or not to trust such an entity is an unnecessary question.
"All power comes out of the barrel of a gun"
Just because it was Mao who coined the phrase does not invalidate the reality, and decades of 'negotiation' with the Palestinian terrorists (by whatever name or acronym) have only exacerbated the situation.
So - I am a Trump supporter, but one has to watch what he does, not just what he says - the issue of disarming Hamas is the forthcoming nexus.
And I'm a supporter of Bibi, warts and all - he is doing more for me, as an Englishman, to protect me and mine against the curse of militant Islam than any UK Prime Minister since 1990.
Toda rabah rabah - Am Yisrael Chai
Thank you for these hopeful insights. I hope that it's not only wishful thinking but a planned strategy by the Trump Administration.
As I have written before: You can't wage 7th C wars with 21st C laws.
The only language that Islam ☪️ understands is through a barrel of a gun 🔫.