The glossy US peace plan masks Gaza\u2019s fate as an American-Israeli vassal \u2013peace in name, domination in practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiplomacy is the pursuit of war with other means.\u201d (The author).
\nTime and again, the West, galvanized by its Anglo-Saxon engine, unfurls the same well-worn playbooks to remake the world in its image, crushing foes and claiming foreign lands.
\nRegime change: Two scripts, one goal
\nWhen subtlety is possible, the self-styled free world backs the uprisings of \u201cpeople\u2019s movements\u201d. When patience runs thin, it turns to bombs and invasions. The methods differ in brutality and transparency, but the ultimate goal \u2013 control and domination \u2013 remains constant.
\nFrom the Rose Revolution in Georgia to the Maidan uprising in Ukraine, from Belgrade to Baghdad, the pattern is unmistakable.
\nOne path towards regime change runs through the streets, with youth mobilized under banners of democracy as Western media proclaim a new dawn.
\nAt the other end of the spectrum, a commanding arc from the skies signals the reshaping of nations \u2013 Serbia bombed in the name of \u201cpeace,\u201d Iraq shocked and awed in the name of \u201cfreedom.\u201d
\nThe success of both approaches varies: Some uprisings bring reform, others collapse into turmoil; some wars topple tyrants, others unleash decades of instability.
\nYet the rhythm endures: Regimes crumble and nations splinter, while the West hails each collapse as triumph and proof of its ideals. The \u201ccustodians of civilization\u201d remake, others are unmade, and the world foots the bill.
\nRecall Kabul: US planes lifting off into a bruised sky, allies clinging to their wings, only to be shaken loose into the void as casualties of another liberation \u2013 a final image of faith, quite literally, cast from the sky.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Two years of war, at least 60,000 civilians dead \u2013 can Trump end the Gaza crisis?<\/p>\n
Gaza peace plan: A questionable entry in the Anglo-Saxon ledger
\nThe US peace plan is the latest entry in Playbook II \u2013 a well-worn script of power, imposed from on high in classic fashion, since Gaza\u2019s people simply cannot be co-opted into a Western-engineered revolt. In effect, they say no to what might be called colonial prostitution: trading sovereignty for favor, autonomy for applause.
\nOnce again, diplomacy arrived not as dialogue but as decree, with dissenting Palestinians recast as obstacles to progress, not agents of their own fate.
\nThe US plan came only after Israel had achieved what it sought through force of arms \u2013 sidestepping the ordeal of street-to-street combat while possibly securing all its war aims, from territorial control to the return of hostages \u2013 the latter a feat all but unthinkable amid urban warfare. The pattern is unmistakable: What war could not take, dictated \u201cdiplomacy\u201d now claims.
\nAgainst this backdrop, Trump\u2019s sudden turn as peacemaker \u2013 after financing, arming, and shielding Israel as it completed its campaign \u2013 strikes critics as the height of hypocrisy: the arsonist selling himself as the fireman.
\nEven after the unveiling of the so-called \u201cpeace\u201d plan, Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza, killing hundreds, while maintaining an unrelenting siege.
\nGaza City remains sealed off, all aid blocked for weeks, with no food, water, medicine, or fuel allowed in, leaving the population trapped and suffocating under a punishing blockade.
\nIsrael\u2019s policy is chillingly consistent: Anyone who refuses to flee is branded a terrorist or sympathizer, and thus marked for destruction.
\nIf verified, these actions \u2013 indiscriminate bombing, starvation as warfare strategy, and collective punishment \u2013 would almost certainly qualify as war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity if proven systematic and deliberate.
\nFinal legal judgment rests with a competent international tribunal after full investigation and due process, but the moral implications are already clear.
\nThe irony is stifling: Israel drops US-supplied bombs while both Jerusalem and Washington claim to be advancing peace. Even amid the wreckage, Washington, in the Gaza plan, calls its own entanglement and the entrenched subjugation under Israel\u2019s yoke \u201cpeace\u201d \u2013 draping devastation in the language of diplomacy.
\nPeace, it seems, has been redefined to mean enforced silence under fire. Against this backdrop, critics may say that the so-called peace framework is no blueprint for reconciliation; it is a project of enforced regime change, a bid to break Gaza into submission and remake it after exhaustion and ruin. It is not an agreement, but an ultimatum: Change your rulers, or be annihilated.
\nIn short, the US peace plan cannot stand unexamined; it demands unsparing interrogation through five hard questions \u2013 the Five Whys (see Figure 1).
\nFigure 1<\/p>\n
Beyond questioning why the US peace plan is cast as an all-inclusive, all-or-nothing ultimatum, skewed, brokered by a self-appointed partial mediator, and blind to the roots of Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, one must ask: Why is the framework nevertheless welcomed by leaders across the globe, even unlikely ones such as Iran, just months after suffering an Israeli attack, or the Palestinian Authority, castigated time and again by Trump and Netanyahu? Odysseus may have had it right: \u201cNothing feebler does earth nurture than man, of all things that on earth are breathing and moving.\u201d
\nWhy the applause?
\nExplanations for the Gaza plan\u2019s surprisingly broad embrace run the gamut \u2013 from shadowy conspiracies to the interplay of deep-seated structural and psychological forces \u2013 each offering a partial lens on a complex reality.
\nThe conspiracist\u2019s account
\nConspiracy theorists might point to the so-called Jewish lobby, arguing that its sprawling networks, fundraising clout, knack for strategic advocacy, and media reach allow it to shape narratives, bend policymakers, and advance Israel\u2019s interests on the global stage \u2013 ensuring that pro-Israel positions are adopted or celebrated abroad.
\nIn particular, a purported Jewish influence machine has long been constructed as a powerful force in shaping US foreign policy and international attitudes toward Israel \u2013 garnering support even for policies that might otherwise provoke skepticism or opposition.
\nAs one supposed piece of corroborating evidence for this line of argument, conspiracists may cite the outsized publicity that Western politicians and media grant to attacks on Jews \u2013 as if Jewish life carried more weight than the lives of all others.
\nYet even if a powerful Jewish clique existed, it hardly explains the surprising enthusiasm for the US peace plan among regions traditionally little swayed by Israeli influence. As happens so often, conspiracy theories simplify the complex, exaggerating the agency and power of individuals or groups.
\nAgainst this backdrop, the Gaza plan\u2019s broad acceptance calls for a deeper, more discerning analysis \u2013 one that weighs the convergence of political, economic, diplomatic, and psychological forces, rather than reducing the global current to a single convenient culprit.
\nStructural reasons
\nIn terms of world stage politics, the fact that the eclectic US Gaza peace plan met with broad acclaim across the political spectrum reflects realpolitik, self-interest, and external pressures, rather than wholehearted endorsement of the blueprint itself.
\nLeaders and commentators praise it as bold and historic, an ambitious blueprint that signals much-coveted political decisiveness in a long-stalled conflict, while the public is drawn to the narrative of hope and resolution after decades of bloodshed.
\nIts high-profile presentation, theatrical flair, and the clout of its fronting figurehead lends it credibility and a sense of inevitability. Meanwhile, endorsing it allows governments to align with Washington, secure economic benefits, gain diplomatic leverage to advance their own interests \u2013 including in a fractious Middle East \u2013 and signal reliability to other regional and global allies alike. Media attention and the perception of a potential breakthrough further amplify support.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Prof. Schlevogt\u2019s Compass No. 29: Peace on powder kegs \u2013 Balm and bluff in Gaza<\/p>\n
Due to these reasons even many Muslim countries, traditionally the standard-bearers of the Palestinian cause and guardians of solidarity with the Palestinian people, rushed to line up in support of the US Gaza peace plan \u2013 a strategic calculus rather than genuine conviction and alignment with its content.
\nBy endorsing the plan, Muslim leaders bank credit abroad \u2013 normalization with Israel, reinforced by US backing, offering prosperity and security. At home, they smother unease by repurposing the plan\u2019s own language of \u201cstability\u201d and \u201chope.\u201d Cloaked in this rhetoric, acquiescence passes for vision, and compliance masquerades as courage.
\nAt minimum, Arab pressure on Hamas to release hostages without a concurrent, firmly guaranteed Israeli payout may be read as political theater and cold calculus: the ostensible concession being a staged breakthrough to cast a halo over Trump, nudge the Nobel Committee before its imminent peace prize decision to hand him a spur-of-the-moment prize, and let the Arab orchestrators rack up Trump bonus points. The pledge costs nothing: Once the announcement has landed, Hamas \u2013 apparently doomed to be obliterated anyway \u2013 could renege freely.
\nMingling with diplomacy\u2019s performative rituals, these factors explain why the US Gaza plan has captured international attention and endorsement, producing a chorus of approval blind to fairness or feasibility \u2013 convinced it preserves what, in truth, it is undoing.
\nPsychological reasons
\nBeneath the surface, a tangle of cognitive biases drives how the US peace plan is seen \u2013 and embraced.
\nThe framework\u2019s deliberate vagueness and ambiguity invite competing readings and endless interpretation. In the end, it serves as a mirror \u2013 each actor seeing only the reflection of its own ambitions.
\nHope, sheer wishful thinking, casts the plan as the only lifeline, while the scarcity of alternatives anchors attention to whatever is on the table. Supporters overestimate its promise, trust in the negotiators\u2019 supposedly noble motives, and frame morally dubious outcomes as just, all reinforced by emotional fatigue from decades of conflict.
\nPartisan loyalty, selective attention, the magnetic pull of a charismatic leader, and the allure of being on the \u201cwinning side\u201d or the \u201cright side of history\u201d further cement approval.
\nTaken together, these cognitive shortcuts transform a skewed, improbable scheme into a \u201chistoric\u201d opportunity, proving that perception often outweighs reality.
\nCognitive biases, remarkably, could help partially explain why even Hamas and Iran \u2013 its staunch supporter \u2013 signaled support for the US Gaza plan.
\nBoth actors might be fixated on favorable cues in the plan in a self-interested manner (selective attention and confirmation bias), while disputing its tougher terms, from disarmament to Gaza\u2019s future rule.
\nFurthermore, they may seek a positive image (social desirability), fear the costs of rejecting the plan (negative framing and loss aversion, as perceived downsides loom larger than upsides), and align with prevailing views (conformity bias) \u2013 neither wanting to be singled out or stigmatized globally as obstacles to peace.
\nAlas, the beguiling yet toxic mix of realpolitik and bias offers an unsteady, morally thin rationale for endorsing a plan that, on paper, provides scant cause for celebration.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Prof. Schlevogt\u2019s Compass No. 28: The self-coronation of Trump \u2013 Peace or puppet show in Gaza?<\/p>\n
One of the greatest days of civilization?
\nJournalists were barred from asking questions at the 29 September 2025 press event unveiling the Gaza plan \u2013 an un-American press blackout, Trump-style.
\nOtherwise, they might have inquired what makes this date, as Trump proclaimed, \u201cone of the great days ever in civilization\u201d \u2013 a breakthrough of epic proportions, destined to transform the world completely.
\nDoes it truly rival humanity\u2019s defining triumphs \u2013 the alphabet, Hammurabi\u2019s Code, the Ten Commandments, Marathon, the Parthenon, Christ\u2019s resurrection, paper, the compass, the Edict of Milan, the printing press, Columbus\u2019s voyage, the Declaration of Independence, the moon landing (if true), or the human genome \u2013 just to name a few watershed phenomena, some of which unfolded gradually, but culminated in marked discontinuity?
\nCan 29 September 2025 honestly stand among these milestones? Trump would no doubt thunder, \u201cAbsolutely!\u201d To him, being denied the Nobel Peace Prize for the purported triumph of civilization would be nothing short of a profound affront \u2013 to his person, and to his nation.
\nBut history will judge differently. The solemn truth is this: He who builds on biased realpolitik builds a house of conflict on sand; he who builds on justice and fair negotiation builds a house of peace on rock.
\nPeace by other means: Surrender, or be wiped out
\nA realist might be forgiven for drawing a grimmer historical parallel, casting the 29 September 2025 as a stain on humanity\u2019s record.
\nIn 146 BC, when Rome demanded Carthage\u2019s submission, refusal meant the city was sacked, its walls razed, the population enslaved, and the city itself obliterated. What does this example illustrate? It pairs an unambiguous ultimatum with a stark, catastrophic consequence, leaving compliance \u2013 or devastation \u2013 as the only choice.
\nCritics may argue that Israel possesses a core competence in commemorating victimhood and capturing worldwide attention, turning tragedy into global ritual.
\nIts label for Hamas\u2019s incursion \u2013 the \u201c7 October attacks,\u201d in which roughly 1,200 lives were reportedly lost \u2013 mimics the mnemonic punch of September 11, letting the Jewish state craft its self-styled response around that comparison.
\nBy contrast, Israel has killed some 70,000 Palestinians in just two years, with the real toll likely far higher \u2013 averaging 100 deaths per day. At that rate, a new grim \u201c7 October\u201d-style milestone comes due every twelve days, accumulating to roughly 60 haunting anniversaries over just two years, each a painful reminder of a relentless cascade of loss and devastation.
\nAfter all this Palestinian suffering, the US peace plan risks turning Gaza into a de facto protectorate \u2013 nominally led by local authorities, yet effectively puppeteered by a foreign power, sidestepping the unseemly label of \u201ccolony.\u201d Ultimate authority, hence, would rest not with Gaza\u2019s own people, but in external hands. In a striking inversion of Clausewitz\u2019s famous dictum, this proves that politics is the pursuit of war with other means.
\nBy appointing himself as the head of a \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d with overarching control, Trump effectively assumes the powers normally reserved for a sovereign government: setting security policy, supervising administration, and controlling resources.
\nA quasi-government run by Trump \u2013 celebrated by the Jewish state as the \u201cgreatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House\u201d \u2013 and set to include former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair \u2013 under whose tenure Iraqi Arabs were tortured at Abu Ghraib \u2013 is anything but \u201ctechnocratic.\u201d It would be unapologetically political, a powerful conduit for US and Israeli ambitions.
\nUnder the US Gaza plan, local authorities would retain little real autonomy, while decisions on governance, economic management, and defense would be dictated or tightly controlled by the external overseer \u2013 which, in what could be called the heist of the century, might sell out Gaza to its own constituencies.
\nIn practice, this mirrors historical protectorates: territories nominally independent, yet subordinated to a foreign power wielding real political, fiscal, and military control. Populations are left dependent, their futures dictated from afar, largely powerless to shape their own affairs. Consider post-war West Germany \u2013 and its later unified form \u2013 a US protectorate in all but name.
\nOne must ask why Palestinians should not lead a transitional government of their homeland from the outset \u2013 either through Hamas, which has been democratically elected, or, if the movement declines, the Palestinian Authority, both of which could then call swift elections to confer fresh legitimacy on the future government.
\nShockingly, the protectorate represents the \u201cbest\u201d case. In the worst-case scenario, Gaza \u2013 and the rest of Palestine \u2013 could be absorbed as Israeli provinces, with the Jewish state annexing the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and, for the first time, Gaza (Azzah in the Old Testament). In biblical times, Azzah was a stubborn Philistine city-state, never permanently part of the Israelite kingdom, despite its proximity.
\nShould annexation occur, 29 September 2025 would mark a historic day \u2013 not triumph, but tragedy; a grim watershed for the Palestinian people.
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\nDiplomacy or domination? The verdict is clear. The much-applauded US Gaza plan, far from resolving the Middle East\u2019s deepest conflict, worsens the plight of Palestinians \u2013 bombed into submission \u2013 while entrenching Israeli-American power.
\nPeace on paper, domination in practice: The US Gaza framework is a Trojan horse paraded and welcomed as a gift of peace, yet delivering the annihilation of the Palestinian cause and Palestinian statehood. The world should pause \u2013 and recognize that this \u201cpeace\u201d is war in disguise.
\nTo close, with a classical warning reimagined for our times: Timeo Americanos et dona ferentes \u2013 I fear the Americans, even when they bring gifts.
\n[Part 4 of a series on the 20-point Gaza peace plan. Previous columns in the series: <\/p>\n
Part 1, published on 1 October 2025: Prof. Schlevogt\u2019s Compass No. 27: Unraveling the Gaza peace ploy \u2013 Vital questions buried by hype;
\nPart 2, published on 2 October 2025: Prof. Schlevogt\u2019s Compass No. 28: The self-coronation of Trump \u2013 Peace or puppet show in Gaza?;
\nPart, 3, published on 5 October 2025:\u00a0Prof. Schlevogt\u2019s Compass No. 29: Peace on powder kegs \u2013 Balm and bluff in Gaza]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The glossy US peace plan masks Gaza\u2019s fate as an American-Israeli vassal \u2013peace in name, domination in practice. \u201cDiplomacy is the pursuit of war with other means.\u201d (The author). Time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t