It is a commonly held position among political commentators in the English-speaking world that Donald Trump’s second term as US president marks the demise of an international order that had held since the end of the second World War, and that was based on a shared European and American commitment to liberal democracy and international law.

His shameful attempt to publicly bully Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office; his subsequent abandonment of Ukraine in its attempt to repulse Russia’s invasion; his endless half-coherent s**t-talk about annexing Canada and Greenland; his public support of far-right political movements in Europe: all these are evidence, it is said, of the passing of an old order, and the arrival of some new and terrible dispensation.

But by the time Trump returned to the White House last January, the liberal international order had been lying cold for well over a year beneath the rubble of Gaza. Trump didn’t kill it; he has merely been dancing – fists shunting back and forth like rhythmic pistons, knees bending and unbending in that familiar syncopation of decrepit machismo – on its grave.

The resumption last week of Israel’s air strikes on Gaza resulted in what has been widely reported as the largest overnight death toll since 2023. More than 400 civilians were killed,........

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