By Rafat Kassis, Translated By IMEMC: In a world already wobbling on the edge of instability, the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran marks more than a military confrontation. It is a brazen abandonment of the global order forged in the wake of World War II; a declaration that power, not principle, now governs the international stage.
For decades, the United Nations Charter upheld a fragile consensus: that force could only be used in self-defense or with explicit Security Council authorization.
However flawed and inconsistently applied, that framework offered a semblance of collective restraint. The Gulf War. The Korean War. Even the controversial NATO intervention in Kosovo—all passed, however tenuously, through legal or multilateral justifications.
Not this time.
There were no deliberations. No votes. No pretense of legality. The bombing campaign in Iran bulldozed through international norms without so much as a rhetorical nod to diplomacy.
Claims of preemptive defense or nuclear disarmament echoed the worn justifications of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, only this time absent any serious legal dressing.
Iran, a UN member state under active inspections and engaged in dialogue, was not just attacked, it was dismantled.
Civil infrastructure, hospitals, power grids, and state institutions were systematically targeted. This wasn’t war against a regime. It was war on a nation’s capacity to survive.
Worse still, the attack signaled that adherence to law is optional for the powerful. In bypassing international institutions, Trump and Netanyahu committed a dangerous precedent: that legitimacy now stems from firepower, not consensus.
This war will be remembered not only for its devastation inside Iran but for its seismic effects far beyond. It shattered the idea that international law can protect the weak. It sidelined the United Nations.
It mocked diplomacy, and set a chilling standard that states may act unilaterally, wage preventive wars, and rewrite the rules to suit their strategic appetites.
What rises from the rubble is not a new world order but an old one reborn; an age of rogue actors in suits, of justice as an afterthought, and of cowboys writing international law in the dust of their victories.
In this world, treaties are quaint, negotiation is a sign of weakness, and for those not blessed with military might, the only path perceived to safety may lie in dangerous deterrents: nuclear, chemical, or otherwise.
This is not merely a betrayal of the United Nations Charter; it is a betrayal of the very hope that law, not violence, could govern the world.
In this cowboy age, there is no room for treaties, nor for negotiations, nor for justice. only for the powerful victors and the wreckage they leave behind.
If we let this moment pass without outrage, we will inherit a future written not in treaties, but in ash.
Rifat Kassis has long been active in the Palestinian struggle, has over 35 years of experience in human rights, mainly child rights, working in Middle East, Northern Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe.
He founded the Palestinian section of the global child rights movement, Defense for Children International, co-founded its movement in the Arab World and was elected International President for two terms in Geneva.
Furthermore, he was selected to be the State of Palestine candidate for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). He co-founded the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG), Occupied Palestine and Global Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI) and The National Coalition of Christian Organizations (NCCOP).
He served as Executive Director of EJYMCA and founded the YMCA/YWCA Olive Tree Campaign. He also ran the WCC /EAPPI program in Geneva and worked as the country director of the Lutheran World federation in Jordan.
He is one of the co-authors of Kairos Palestine document and its General Coordinator as well as its global coalition. Currently he is running a consulting agency called GRIP Consulting. He published two books “Palestine: A Bleeding Wound in the World’s Conscience” and “Kairos for Palestine”. In addition, he has contributed to 18 different books in different languages and published many articles and researches.
