The Gaza war shows that civility has become fragile. But politics is a mirror of society.

We are not experiencing a breakdown of civilization like in the Hitler-Stalin-Mao era. But we are experiencing a temporary end to civility. The past two years of the Gaza-Iran double war have demonstrated this. This end to civility is personified, at least in the Western world, to varying degrees of intensity, by figures like Trump, Erdogan, and Orban. But let's not be mistaken: decivilization on the political level was preceded by decivilization on the social level, and here especially in the realm of the supposed knowledge and cultural elite.

Civility as elementary politeness, modesty, self-criticism, and the ability to think about and tolerate the other in their otherness has become a rarity. Especially at universities, the supposed temples of thought and non-violence, the conscious abandonment of differentiation and tolerance, as well as the almost global brutalization, are particularly evident.

The bulldozing behavior in politics and society is, not least, a reaction to the brutalization and deintellectualization of culture and the sciences, especially the humanities. Trump defeated the pseudo-intellectual escalation of violence, evident in anti-Jewish and anti-Israel excesses at universities, with its own weapons: brutality. Not physical or verbal, but financial. He cut funding to universities and imposed fines. Decivilization here, decivilization there.

Even die-hard admirers of the US president would likely admit that Donald Trump is no aesthete. He's a Rambo, a bulldozer. Classic dictators use their state apparatus to cultivate a cult around themselves; Trump does it almost single-handedly. But Trump's opponents have had to admit, at least since the Gaza agreement of October 13th: The man is successful.

Why? Does Trump's success say something about society beyond his own? Not just American society, but also Western European society? Or even the international community, which is called a community but unfortunately mostly isn't one?

There are many answers. One is crucial: Trump follows his superlative, self-praise-filled torrents of words with actions, or convincingly threatens them, by showing his counterpart the "instruments of torture," then using them, then withdrawing them, only to bring them out again shortly after. Barely perceptibly, there's always one or two "hammers" hidden in what he says. This distinguishes him from almost all Western politicians, whose far more carefully chosen words are no longer taken seriously because they usually have no consequences.

Hamas must be disarmed, Biden, Scholz, then Merz, Macron, Starmer, Sánchez, and others had eloquently demanded – and denied weapons to the only actor that put these words into action: Israel. Who should, who can, take such absurdities seriously? Some rewarded Palestinian terror with recognition of something that doesn't even exist: the State of Palestine. One can wish for it, but to recognize it? Another absurdity.

Obama, Merkel, Steinmeier, and many others wanted to prevent Iran's military nuclearization. In 2015, an agreement was concluded with Iran that effectively legitimized this very nuclearization and the further development of launch vehicles, secured under international law. Again, just words. The deed—the de facto denuclearization and missile disarmament of Iran—was undertaken in June 2025 by Netanyahu's Israel and US President Trump, the bogeymen of the global masses who see themselves as the vanguard of morality and civility.

Not only in politics: Everyone talks, talks, talks. "Tell us or write us your opinion." Even on the main television news, we aren't spared the opinions of everyman and woman on the street. They don't change anything. Pure self-gratification of everyman and journalists.

Nobody takes political announcements or campaign promises at face value anymore. This means that it's not just Trump and his ilk who are anything but the personification of decency and virtue. And since both have already been lost, more and more citizens prefer the original to the verbose but ineffective copy. Donald Trump and Erdogan, or increasingly the AfD, are examples. It's not Trump or the AfD that shape society; society shapes its Trumps and AfDs.

During the election campaign, Trump boasted of being able to end the war in Ukraine within a day. He said similar things about the Gaza War and other crisis areas. But lo and behold: He got to work. His words were followed by action. Unconventional, sometimes straying. For example, he met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, in the mistaken expectation that he could program him to end the war. Unlike others, with the Abraham Accords in 2020 and now with the Gaza deal, he brought movement and justified hope for the first time in decades – not only to the Palestinian conflict, but for the entire Middle East.

Trump is unpredictable. Predictability is traditionally considered a political virtue. Trump deliberately suspends the mechanisms of predictable politics. He even puts his friend Netanyahu in a headlock when it seems necessary. And he bluffs. He gave the green light to Israel's attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar on September 9, 2025. No sooner had it taken place than he condemned the action and gave the economically giant, military dwarf security guarantees for future events.

The idea worked: The calls of his predecessors and the admonishing European politicians to Qatar to limit or stop its support for Hamas had yielded no results. Netanyahu, not Trump, was to be the "bad guy" – who would then have to apologize to the Qatari leader. His friend Donald Trump had insisted on this. "My good friend Bibi" was humiliated in front of the whole world. It certainly wasn't the most elegant way to do things – but it was effective. Qatar's leader understood, and Netanyahu understood: Now things are going the way Trump wants them. And because Qatar understood, Hamas had to understand too.

Many people wanted and received Western, especially American, aid, funds, goods, or weapons. Worldwide. Often at no cost. Out of humanity and civility, not just for self-interest. Nevertheless, anti-Americanism—and the anti-Israelism that followed from it—was part of the bad tone of the international community for decades, especially in the UN.

Trump has ended the game of "take from the US and then beat them." The crisis-ridden Arab and Islamic states have understood: If they want to receive or continue receiving US aid of any kind, it is no longer enough to simply hold out their hand. They recognize Trump's philosophy, as simple as it is harsh: Only death is free, and that costs lives.

Michael Wolffsohn, historian and publicist, is the author of, among other books, "A Different Jewish World History," "Who Owns the Holy Land?", and "Hostile Proximity: Of Jews, Christians, and Muslims."