The dehumanization of the Palestinians is something that comes natural to most Western leaders. And Barack Obama is no different in this regard.

Barack Obama knows full well that Israel committed genocide. He knows Gaza was obliterated by the Israeli military. He knows entire families were erased from the civil registry, yet he only mentions Israeli families. He knows that Israel decimated almost all of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, leveled hospitals and killed scores of doctors and nurses. He knows Israel destroyed universities, grade schools and entire city blocks. He knows Israel deliberately starved the people of Gaza. To omit these facts is a staggering feat of dehumanization.

But he is doing what every centrist politician in the West has done for decades. He is trying make this situation seem like a dispute between equals. He is making this all about the Israeli hostages while purposefully omitting the great injustice that led to October 7th. He is pretending that this is over and that we should all be “encouraged and relieved” instead of being horrified and enraged. He is nullifying the monstrous crime that was committed by using the language of “conflict.” And that is an outright lie.

Israel is the occupier. Israel has ethnically cleansed historic Palestine. Israel blockaded Gaza long before October 7th, making it the world’s biggest, open-air concentration camp. Israel built an apartheid state over decades which culminated in genocide.

In addition to this, Obama is once again asserting American power on the people of Palestine whether they like it or not. To “rebuild Gaza” as if it were wiped out by a natural disaster. As if this was a tragedy and not official policy. Daring not to admit that it was Israel with the total support of the United States that destroyed it. And that is because of the unspoken truth.

Israel is the most important colonial asset of the United States. It has invested billions of dollars in it over many decades. It essentially serves as a US military base in the Middle-East.

Obama is often thought of as the pinnacle of American decency. A man who brought dignity to the White House. But he is really just another emperor in a long line of American emperors. Even when not in power, they continue to uphold the only acceptable narrative of American imperialism. And Obama is the most eloquent in the parlance of empire among them.

Kenn Orfanos, October 2025