<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over four months into the (in reality, non-existent) \u201cceasefire\u201d in Gaza, Israel continues its genocidal campaign to drive all Palestinians out of the strip. In spite of the near-disappearance of Palestine from daily news in the West\u2014supplanted in the headlines by the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and Lebanon\u2014the Israeli murder machine continues to kill Palestinians. The Israeli invasion forces have slaughtered at least 586 Gazans since the beginning of the \u201cceasefire\u201d last October; this is in addition to the (official number of) 72,000 dead since Oct. 7, 2023. As the Palestinian lawyer and human rights campaigner Diana Buttu points out<\/a>, these figures are in reality a huge underestimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli forces are also destroying Palestinian schools, homes, and buildings, along with confining Palestinians into shrinking areas inside the \u201cyellow line\u201d that Israel has implemented to cut into the pre-Oct. 7 Gaza boundary. Gazans also continue to experience a severe humanitarian crisis due to the Israeli blockade. With over 81 percent of buildings bombed and no clear plans for reconstruction, Gazans still live in tents and spend their days digging through rubble to find the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Buttu also adds that over 9300 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in the West Bank, including 350 children, and 3300 held without charges. More than 1000 of these are hostages from Gaza, detained under harsh conditions, including 80 medical professionals. Exact numbers, however, are hard to come by as Israel withholds them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is in this context that Trump and a handful of US clients<\/a> inaugurated the \u201cBoard of Peace.\u201d Those who agreed to join are exclusively either leaders of authoritarian states or right-wing politicians. Traditional U.S. allies, such as Western European nations, have thus far refused invitations. As Mouin Rabbani acidly put it<\/a>, this mockery is presented in grand language but with no concrete details. For example, despite their public displays of sycophancy, none of Trump\u2019s allies actually intend to send troops or financial support to Gaza. The BOP is nothing more than a \u201cbig shiny object\u201d to celebrate Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Politically, the BOP\u2019s aims are twofold. First, the broader aim<\/a> is for the Board challenge and ideally replace the United Nations and, in turn, create an instrument for Trump and his family to accumulate wealth and consolidate power beyond his presidency. Second, it is to shift attention on Gaza away from the reality of a political struggle for national self-determination to one framed as a \u201chumanitarian crisis\u201d solvable by aid and reeducation. In other words, this means erasing the settler colonial and genocidal reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Board represents the \u201csecond phase\u201d of the Trump Initiative for Gaza, following a \u201cfirst phase\u201d marked, as mentioned, by ongoing genocide, no ceasefire, worsening humanitarian crisis, a continued Israeli military presence in Gaza, and an accelerated West Bank colonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n No mention was made at the inauguration of any of these realities. To add insult to injury, the U.S., one of two main perpetrators of the genocide, invited Israel, the other perpetrator, as a founding member. At the same time, the Board has no Palestinian members<\/em>.<\/a> Instead, the Trump administration has established formal a two-way \u201ccommunication\u201d with the Palestinian Authority\u2014a body lacking legitimacy and widely loathed by the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n What was conspicuously missing were any of the main Palestinian demands: Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, respect for international resolutions on Palestine, and any mention of Palestinian rights to self-determination. Nothing about the Board limits Israel\u2019s ability to resume mass violence at any time. The whole steaming mess is, indeed, worse than nothing. It is a clear example of Trump-MAGA\u2019s larger project, to replace established international law with a \u201cmight makes right\u201d paradigm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Board envisions Gaza\u2019s governance to be managed by the \u201cNational Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG),\u201d which is led by the so-called Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT\/BoP). This body is in reality under Israeli control, with, at most, limited Palestinian representation and no actual Palestinian power. The NCAG is under strict orders to avoid blaming Israel for ceasefire violations. It is part of the broader US \u2013 Israeli agenda<\/a> to prevent any political or organizational revival in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also helps secure the ground for Kushner\u2019s \u201cmaster plan,\u201d a redesigned Gaza with a coastal tourist strip and inland housing and industrial zones. Even this is probably fantastical. As discussed in a recent interview with Jewish Currents, <\/em>former Clinton and Obama Middle East policy expert Robert Malley predicted that, under the Board\u2019s vision, a normal life in Gaza would only be possible well into the 22nd century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Days before this article went to the editorial team, the United States and Israel viciously attacked Iran in a bombing campaign all over the Middle Eastern country. Along with the depraved slaughter of young girls, teachers, and staff at a school\u2014an unspeakable act of barbarity\u2014the U.S.-Israeli campaign has killed the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, along with a number of leading government and military officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Barely more than a week after the inauguration ceremony of the Board of Peace, the attack on Iran exposed the truth behind all the words of praise for Trump. Like the Gaza genocide, the kidnapping of Maduro, and the escalating strangulation of Cuba, the bombing of Iran shows the true logic of the emerging \u201cnew Western century\u201d about which Rubio\u2014to a standing ovation\u2014lectured the European leaders at last month\u2019s Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Around the same time, Mike Huckabee, the leading U.S. diplomat in Israel, reiterated<\/a> to the far-right influencer Tucker Carlson the U.S. view that Israel has a \u201cBiblical right\u201d to all the land between the Nile and Euphrates Rivers\u2014\u201cGreater Israel.\u201d \u201cLet that sink in,\u201d writes the political scientist and Middle East specialist Trita Parsi. \u201cHuckabee wants Israel to annex parts of Egypt, Turkey, Saudi, and Iraq, as well as all of Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gaza was the first act. We are now firmly in the middle of the play: \u201cThe new Western Century\u201d is one in which nuclear-armed Western powers no longer make any pretense to legality of the previous imperialist \u201crules-based order.\u201d The U.S. and Israel, the world\u2019s leading far-right powers, are not the only ones to blame. All of the major Western powers\u2014from the UK to Germany to France and Italy, and a good number of non-Western ones too, principally Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries\u2014are complicit. Now, all working-class and oppressed peoples of the world\u2014our planet\u2019s vast majority\u2014are on notice: You either submit to the U.S. and Israel, or you will be annihilated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The blood-soaked death machine of U.S. imperialism is more open than ever in showing us the future it has in store for all of us\u2014workers, the young, oppressed communities, and anyone who rejects fascism and slavery. It is past time to unite as broad a mass movement a possible to fight and resist this future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n First published here<\/a> by Workers’ Voice<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa \/ AFP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump’s Board of Peace further subjugates Palestinians, at the same time that it threatens to replace the UN-based imperialist system with something far worse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":75838,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"M.A. al-Gharib","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3710,2,3498],"tags":[6570,3656,6572,20],"class_list":["post-75837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine","category-featured","category-usa","tag-board-of-peace","tag-imperialism","tag-ridiculous","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cBoard of Peace\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Erasure of Palestinians<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Potemkin peace plan, bleak future for Palestinians<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGreater Israel\u201d and \u201cWestern Civilization\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n