On September 17, Just World Educational’s president, Helena Cobban, hosted a remarkable and far-ranging conversation with veteran U.S. diplomat Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. In the discussion,Freeman argued that the 500-year domination of world affairs by the “West” had ended and that Israel’s still-ongoing atrocities in Gaza had exposed Zionism as a doomed project. Drawing on decades of experience at the highest levels of diplomacy, he delivered blunt assessments of U.S. and Western policies, the rise of the “Global Majority,” and the shifting balance of world power.
During his lengthy career in the U.S. government, Amb. Freeman served, among other posts, as: Pres. Nixon’s Chinese interpreter during Nixon’s breakthrough meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1972; as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm, 1990-92; and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, 1993-94.
You can see watch the full recording of this 56-minute conversation, on JWE’s YouTube channel, here. You can click here to download an excellent summary of the conversation, or here to download the full transcript.
Freeman stated clearly and forcefully that the world had already entered a new multipolar era. “The five-century-old domination of the world by the West had come to an end,” he said, pointing to the growing strength of blocs like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. He argued that non-Western powers were now the true defenders of principles and practices of international law, while Washington had become a “radical and reactionary” force.
The veteran diplomat was unsparing in his critique of Western hypocrisy. He contrasted the outcry in the Western media over Ukraine with silence on U.S.-backed wars in the Muslim world and the genocide in Gaza. “The West has not only lost its commanding power in every sphere but it’s lost its moral standing,” he said, adding that Europe had reduced itself to “a coalition of the deluded.”
On Palestine, Freeman’s words were devastating. He described Zionism as “a negation of Judaism” whose crimes in Gaza had stripped away its moral mask. Comparing Israeli apartheid to South Africa’s, he argued it was “infinitely worse” because its goal was the expulsion or murder of the indigenous population. He predicted that these actions had sealed Zionism’s fate: “I think we’re looking at the end of days in Palestine, not just for the Palestinians, but for the Zionists.”
He also noted that while militarily outmatched, Hamas had achieved a strategic breakthrough by elevating the Palestinian cause to the forefront of global consciousness. “It may be cowering in tunnels, but in the world of ideas and propaganda, it has won,” he observed.
In his analysis, this shift in narrative represented a profound victory for Palestinians worldwide.
This was much more than a conversation about Gaza. It was a candid reckoning with the collapse of Western authority and the emergence of a new world order. Please watch or listen to Amb. Freeman’s profound analysis, or read it using the links provided above. And please be sure to share all these resources widely with your friends and networks.