Gaza has been described as a graveyard of children. But it also represents a graveyard of the liberal world order. The very values that undergird this so-called rules-based system have been revealed for what they really are — a set of norms created to preserve the interests of the West.

Their unrepentant support for the worst crimes of Israel, the brutality of indiscriminate bombings, the targeting of civilian infrastructure, the carpet bombings of entire neighbourhoods, and the use of the most wicked weaponry – without even the slightest murmur from Western capitals have consolidated a new consciousness.

Violence has never been absent under the auspices of this order. Instead, the system was created to safeguard these perpetrators from prosecution. Like the rotten empires of old, as their failures domestically and internationally mount, so too does the duplicity with which they act. This is not an abdication of liberalism; this is, in fact, consistent with the very programme this ideology has to offer.

Khanfar argues that in many ways, this is a coming of age for many, including much of what is called the ‘Global South’.

Wadah Khanfar is the President of Al Sharq Forum, an independent network dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development, social justice and economic prosperity of the people of the Middle East. He previously served as the Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network. He has been ranked by Foreign Policy Magazine as the first in The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers and as one of the most 'Powerful People in the World' by Forbes magazine (2009). He was born in the Palestinian town of Rama in 1968.