The Jeffrey Epstein files are not merely the dark biography of a pervert. They serve as a window into the climate of decay in which Western elites live. These files have not yet fully revealed all the relationships, all the chains of mediation, all the cover-up mechanisms. But we already know this: the system that lectures the world on law, transparency, and human rights is extremely reluctant to control the power networks at its own center. The Epstein case is not an exception in this respect, but a symptom (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-35-million-responsive-pages-compliance-epstein-files).
We see the same symptom on a much more destructive scale in foreign policy. While tens of thousands of people are dying in Gaza, the language of international law is largely selective. While settler violence escalates in the West Bank and deaths continue in Gaza even after the ceasefire, the discourse of “rules-based order” has become not a principle but a tool of geopolitical privilege. International institutions have spoken, courts have issued rulings, reports have been published… But political wills, especially in Western capitals, lack the courage to apply these norms equally to everyone.
https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192/provisional-measures
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-report-10-april-2026
Mücahit Bilici’s latest article discusses this transformation. He describes it with a harsh metaphor: As the old empire crumbles, a new techno-military regime is born (https://serbestiyet.com/featured/eski-imparatorluk-yeni-imparatorluk-235011/). This diagnosis may seem exaggerated; however, the direction it points to should be taken entirely seriously. Because today, the crisis of the West is not just a crisis of hypocrisy. What is deeper is a political complacency that no longer even deems hypocrisy necessary. As Bruno Maçães points out, the problem is not just double standards; sometimes it is the outright suspension of standards. As analyses published in POMEPS show, in the liberal international order, hypocrisy is not an aberration, but often the way the order operates. Gaza, however, has made this invisible (https://time.com/6553708/gaza-end-of-western-hypocrisy-essay/).
Therefore, what we are experiencing today is not just an Israeli-Palestinian issue. The question is, what moral language does Western civilization use to legitimize itself, and why has that language lost its credibility? The debates surrounding Pankaj Mishra (https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/gaza-and-the-end-of-history/) and the writings of Omar El Akkad (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/24/omar-el-akkad-gaza-west-interview) argue that Gaza represents a historical turning point for millions, exposing the true face of Western liberalism. People are no longer simply saying, “The West has acted inconsistently again”; they are arriving at a harsher conclusion: Perhaps the problem isn’t inconsistency at all, but the system itself.
The shift in US public opinion confirms this. According to Pew data from April 2026, 60% of Americans hold a negative view of Israel. The percentage of those who distrust Netanyahu is roughly at the same level (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/07/negative-views-of-israel-netanyahu-continue-to-rise-among-americans-especially-young-people/). As the Guardian reports, traditional consensus in Washington is being shaken; in fact, there is a record level of opposition in the Senate to arms support for Israel (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/17/slump-in-voters-support-for-israel-shakes-us-consensus-over-military-aid). In other words, the distance between society and the power apparatus is growing. It no longer seems that everything states do is based on the consent of their societies. This poses a new question: Are Western elites becoming detached from the moral intuition of their own people?
In this context, the Epstein files regain significance. Because the issue isn’t necessarily about proving that everything is planned by a secret organization controlled from a single center. The issue is the existence of an ecosystem where power, money, intelligence, politics, media, and blackmail intersect. In such an ecosystem, some individuals fall, some files are opened, some scandals come to light, but the structure’s logic doesn’t change easily. What makes sexual crime networks possible internally, and war crimes and collective punishment possible externally, is the same culture of elite impunity.
The real rupture is happening here: For a long time, the West relied on a narrative of universal values that it presented to the world. Now, instead of preserving that narrative, it is exhibiting a power practice that risks abandoning it. Therefore, the reaction directed at the West today is not just a reaction to Israeli policies; it is a reaction to the hollowing out of a broader civilizational claim. If this trend continues, the West’s greatest loss will not be military or economic. Its greatest loss will be the moral language that legitimizes it.
The Epstein files are the private face of this decay; the Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran line is its public face. One shows the darkness experienced in bedrooms, mansions, and closed circles; the other shows the impunity committed in front of screens, in full view of the world. What connects the two is not conspiracy fantasies; it is the privilege of those in power to suspend the law for their own benefit. The revelation that our perceptions of the Western world are not an accumulation of values but merely an illusion could render Western civilization unable to look in the mirror.
