Israel’s ongoing massacre in Gaza brings American democracy to the brink of a new crisis, undermining Washington’s claim to the leadership of democracies worldwide and imposing additional restrictions on freedoms at home. It is essentially possible to argue that the United States’ support of the Israeli massacre represents its single greatest crisis since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The current situation amounts to a collapse within. Both Democrats and Republicans help create an atmosphere of repression as criticizing Israel and supporting the Palestinian resistance become subject to prohibition. Indeed, university presidents are being questioned and forced to resign over their supposed failure to prevent calls for genocide. The presidents of some of America’s leading universities – UPenn, MIT and Harvard – were recently reprimanded by members of Congress and were asked to step down.

The "neighborhood pressure" on American colleges highlights the wretchedness of American exceptionalism – in which many U.S. politicians take pride. It is no secret that Americans believe themselves to be superior to other nations for having built a country based on democracy, freedom and free enterprise. They also claim that the difference between themselves and others gives them the responsibility to transform the world, thus portraying American leadership as a moral duty. Hence, the legitimization of U.S. invasions and double standards.

Western values

The U.S. policy toward the situation in Gaza isn’t an unprecedented refusal to respect values. The international community witnessed time and again how Washington blatantly disregarded international law, values and freedoms, and adopted double standards to defend its interests. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, which supposedly had weapons of mass destruction following 9/11, was a case in point. In the end, Iraq was occupied and Saddam Hussein was toppled. Hundreds of thousands died, but hardly anyone could blame or bring to justice the U.S. for failing to find any weapons of mass destruction at all.

Israel is another country for which the U.S. turns a blind eye to values and the law. Since 1970, Washington has vetoed 35 United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to defend Israel. The most recent instance was last Friday.

U.S. vetoed resolution

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked the Security Council to take action regarding the war in Gaza, which he considered a threat to international peace and security, under Article 99 of the U.N. Charter. In a letter to all 15 members, he warned that the humanitarian aid system in Gaza was on the brink of collapse after two months of fighting and demanded a cease-fire. Although 13 members voted for the cease-fire and one member state abstained, the U.S. vetoed the draft resolution.

That was the fifth U.S. veto since Oct. 7. Although no other member of the Security Council supports its views anymore, Washington announced that it won’t force Tel Aviv to stop killing civilians. In other words, America became complicit in Israel’s crimes one more time. Keeping in mind that Washington disregarded its own legislation and humanitarian international law to deliver at least 15,000 bombs (including large bunker busters) and more than 50,000 artillery shells to Israel, it is quite easy to appreciate the gravity of the situation. In a recent interview, Secretary of State Antony Blinken notably said that Israel would decide when to end its war despite the killing of civilians.

It was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who highlighted Washington’s miserable isolation most strikingly. In response to the U.S. veto on Friday, he made the following statement: "There are five permanent members and non-permanent members at the U.N. Security Council. Unfortunately, the council rejected a cease-fire because the U.S. alone voted against it. Single-handedly. Is that justice? Is this a just world? Instead, we say: A fair world is possible – but not with the U.S."

Unfortunately, the U.S. has a long history of acting like a reckless superpower. It hardly matters whether former President Donald Trump or incumbent Joe Biden runs the country – the Biden administration’s policy toward Gaza points to a new level of wretchedness of American exceptionalism. With American democracy in retreat, the current situation makes the country look like an obstacle before the emergence of a just world.