Tag Archives: palestine

Israel isn’t the Greatest Threat to World Peace or to the Palestinians. The American Empire is.

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There is a pernicious belief among certain circles in the West which posits that Israel controls the governments of the US, UK, Canada and other nations. This idea has seen a resurgence amidst revelations in the Epstein files. While there is no doubt that Israel has enormous influence over politicians and political parties, it is not “calling the shots” as one influencer put it recently.

This idea comes from a false understanding of the arrangement of power in the current world order and the nature of imperialism itself. Israel is best understood as the most important colonial asset of the United States and other Western nations. In a sense, it is the last imperial outpost of the American Empire in the Middle-East. This explains why the US has and continues to invest so much money into it.

And this gets to the heart of the matter. The United States and other white, Western nations have created a false narrative of naive innocence to explain away their own crimes and atrocities. This can be summed up in the all too common refrain “this is not who we are” when Americans try grapple with the cruelty, mendacity and viciousness of the Trump regime or of ICE thugs. But even a cursory glance at American history demonstrates that this is indeed who they are.

Israel did not exist at the time of the genocide of Indigenous North Americans or during trans-Atlantic slave trade. It did not tell the US to occupy and annex the Kingdom of Hawaii and imprison its Queen. It did not ask the US to occupy the Philippines. It had no hand in Jim Crow segregation or lynching. It did not force the US to nuke Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It did not suggest it round up Japanese Americans and put them into concentration camps. It did not persuade the US to destroy the Bikini Islands for nuclear testing and displace the local inhabitants. It did not strongarm the US into carpet bombing Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

None of this is to absolve Israel of its copious crimes. It is guilty of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, stealing land, bombing nations that never attacked it and now genocide. It has and continues to meddle in the affairs of other countries and its mass surveillance technology is being used to subvert democracy. It is the quintessential example of a contemporary colonial settler state.

But the United States has funded and supported this project willingly for decades. In short, there would be no Israel without its imperial benefactor. And if Israel were to suddenly become a real liability to the empire, all support would stop.

Israel should be condemned for its crimes. But to stop there would be idiotic. Few of its crimes, if any, would have been possible without arms and diplomatic cover provided by the United States, along with the UK, Germany, France and Canada. To deny this is to participate in a fantasy where Israelis are somehow endowed with supernatural powers. One which conveniently casts American and Western nations as hapless victims who are completely powerless and ignorant. It is an idea that stems from an old antisemitic trope that Jews control the planet.

Without a doubt, the political ideology of Zionism is the very definition of colonial settlerism. And racism is foundational to its existence. It should be opposed by people of conscience. And it needs to be reiterated that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. In fact, there are more non-Jewish Zionists than there are Jewish Zionists. And Jews have been at the forefront opposing this ideology.

But the persistence of the idea that Israel controls Western governments is not only erroneous, it makes it more difficult to stop its crimes. Imperialism counts on this obfuscation. It relies on the proliferation of theories or ideas that distract from its crimes.

In short, the greatest threat to the world or even to the Palestinians isn’t Israel, it is the power behind Israel. The one which continually arms, funds and defends it from all scrutiny. The one that has subverted democracy and installed puppet regimes throughout the Global South for decades. The one that has 800+ military bases around the world. The one which continues to fuel a machinery of dispossession and death for the profit of a few.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

*Title illustration is by Fourate Chahal El Rekaby.

Epstein’s Connection with Israel Should not be Ignored

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Sometimes a lie is so apparent that it is obscured by its sheer audacity. A ruse so enormous that it defies our conceptualization of facts. In the case of Jeffrey Epstein, there are things about his life which seem to defy who he actually was.

Epstein moved amongst the most wealthy, influential and powerful men and women. Appearing like a rich, slick lothario. Yet, by all accounts, the man himself was dumpy, uncouth, outwardly vulgar and spectacularly stupid.

He had cunning. But his personality oozed qualities more commonly associated with a slumlord who runs a sleazy strip club and cheap brothel. Nothing about him comes across as authentic.

How was a working-class boy from Coney Island, son of a construction labourer and groundskeeper for the New York City Parks Department and a school aide and secretary, able to rise up so rapidly? Why was a man who never completed university hired to teach math and physics at the elite Dalton School on Manhattan’s monied Upper East Side?

Epstein was sacked from Dalton for inappropriate interactions with students and being abysmally bad at teaching. Yet despite this, he was hired by Wall Street executive, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, for the prestigious Bear Stearns. It is as if Epstein “failed up the ladder of success” from there. More on Greenberg later.

Epstein’s “success” has been easily explained away by media figures and influencers as being a classic “rags to riches” tale. But when one examines his life with any seriousness, a stunning mediocrity emerges which defies these fables. Some have noticed that Epstein’s riches mysteriously coincided with Robert Maxwell’s missing fortune. Robert Maxwell is the late father of the infamous Ghislaine.

Maxwell died in bankruptcy and disgrace, allegedly drowning after falling from his yacht. But he had established secret offshore trusts in places like Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Trusts which were beyond the reach of creditors and which reportedly provided his daughter Ghislaine with an inheritance of at least $10 million pounds. But there are other aspects that most likely contributed to the image of Jeffrey Epstein that deserve closer scrutiny.

Now, before I go further, I want to be clear about something. It is unfortunate that there are some who are peddling loathsome antisemitic tropes in reference to the Epstein files. Epstein’s worldview appeared to be far more informed by Zionism, which is a political ideology, than by Judaism, which is a religious and cultural identity. And that is an important distinction. Conflating the two is lazy and misinformed. There are many Jews who are not Zionists and many who are opposed to the ideology. And there are many Zionists who are not Jewish.

But Epstein’s ties to Israel have been well documented, although not widely reported on in mainstream media. He was very close to former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak. And the two joked about Epstein being a Mossad asset.

And thus we return to the man who got Epstein going, the late Alan “Ace” Greenberg. It is well known that Greenberg was an ardent supporter of the Zionist apartheid state. He had donated large sums of money to medical centres and the Israel Museum, and funded the construction of a middle school and sports centre in Gilo, which is an illegal settlement in East Jerusalem, naming them after his mother and father, respectively.

Greenberg likely met Epstein through a connection with the latter’s failed position at the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan. Epstein was known for schmoozing the wealthy parents of students. And Greenberg had a soft spot for working class men with aspirations to be rich. Even though Epstein was eventually compelled to resign from Bear Stearns due to involvement in insider trading, there is speculation that this opportunity connected him even more with Israel.

Epstein went on to fail upwards at businesses involved in “debt collection” and “hostile corporate takeovers.” He was named in the notorious Towers Financial scandal which bilked investors of nearly $500 million dollars. At the time, it was noted as being the “biggest Ponzi scheme in American history.”

Miraculously, Epstein avoided going to prison. His business partner, Steven Hoffenberg, wasn’t so lucky. Even though Hoffenberg maintained that Epstein was the architect of the scheme. Just two years after the case, Epstein would reinvent himself again and make a stunning comeback.

Here is where Epstein’s life became even more murky, with shadowy connections to figures like Adnan Khashoggi. The cousin of Dodi Fayed (who was killed with Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris) and the uncle of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, this Saudi businessman and arms dealer was known for being the richest man in the world in the 1980s, with a net worth of $4 billion.

Khashoggi lived an extravagant lifestyle, which included a owning 12 palatial estates worldwide, a fleet of private jets (including a DC-8) and a 282-foot superyacht, the Nabila, which he was later forced to sell to Donald Trump due to financial troubles. In 1986, Khashoggi sold his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine (originally named Princess Amar), to Robert Maxwell. He died in 2017.

The most important aspect of Khashoggi was that he was implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. Epstein’s consulting firm, Intercontinental Assets Group, listed him as a client. Khashoggi was the primary middleman for the U.S. weapons transfers from Israel to Iran that defined the scandal.

British arms dealer, Douglas Leese, apparently mentored Epstein in the early 1980s and introduced him to both Khashoggi and Robert Maxwell. Maxwell was known for having a deep connection with Israeli intelligence, and it is alleged that Epstein was involved in his network, which sought to facilitate Israeli arms sales to Iran and funnel the proceeds through offshore accounts.

Recent revelations from late 2025 seem to indicate that Epstein helped billionaire Leslie Wexner repurpose planes for his retail business which were previously used by Southern Air Transport, a CIA-linked airline used for Iran-Contra arms smuggling.

Epstein’s reported expertise in moving money through offshore accounts was allegedly utilized to facilitate the complicated flow of funds for these arms deals. During the planning of Iran-Contra, Epstein’s close friend Ehud Barak who served as the head of Israeli military intelligence (AMAN) at the time oversaw the logistics for Khashoggi’s shipments to Iran.

None of this is to say with absolute certainty that Jeffrey Epstein worked for Mossad. There is currently no definitive evidence to support that. But his relationship to Ehud Barak, who would go on to become prime minister of Israel, certainly raises legitimate suspicions.

It is worth noting that Barak and his wife visited Epstein’s Caribbean island, frequently stayed in one of Epstein’s Manhattan apartments and was seen visiting his townhouse on multiple occasions.

He was also was implicated in a violent sexual assault alleged by the late Virginia Guiffre who referred to him as “the prime minister.” He was the only prime minister Guiffre ever met. Former Epstein staff allege they saw Barak flying on Epstein’s private plane with young girls.

In a leaked three-hour recording from 2013, Ehud Barak was heard discussing a “selective” immigration strategy for Israel with Jeffrey Epstein. Barak suggested that the state should take in one million Russian immigrants to offset the Indigenous Palestinian population.

Epstein also served as a financial fixer for Barak, promising in a 2013 email to help him make “at least few hundred million” in the private sector. He reportedly facilitated Barak’s connections to tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and his cofounded, mass surveillance company, Palantir.

It is worth noting that Palantir has been heavily complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Through its extensive contracts with the Israeli military, it is largely responsible for providing the country with surveillance and drone technology, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Palantir technology was also used in the terrorist pager attacks Israel carried out in Lebanon in September of 2024, which killed scores of civilians, including children, and injured thousands, some of them with lifelong mutilations, eye loss and brain damage.

Palantir CEO, Alex Carp has been vociferous in his support of the genocidal apartheid state and the company held its first board meeting in Tel Aviv in 2024.

In addition to Epstein’s relationship with Ehud Barak, in 2006 he joined ultra-Zionist lawyer Alan Dershowitz to smear John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt as being antisemitic for their article: “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.” Epstein happily promoted the rebuttal by Dershowitz to all of his wealthy and powerful friends.

Alan Dershowitz, himself, was a key architect of the 2008 federal plea deal in Florida which allowed Epstein to serve only 13 months in a county jail with work-release for soliciting a minor, while granting immunity to unnamed “potential co-conspirators.” He continued to maintain his relationship with Epstein, saying it was predominantly “academic.” Yet he admitted to flying on Epstein’s private plane, staying at his homes, and taking a Lexus for his wife in lieu of legal fees.

In addition to this, the late Virginia Giuffre alleged she was trafficked to Dershowitz for sex on multiple occasions when she was a minor. Dershowitz vehemently denied these claims and Guiffre eventually dropped the lawsuit saying she “may have made a mistake.”

But other unsubstantiated allegations from former Epstein staff have surfaced alleging misconduct by the high profile lawyer. Dershowitz would go on to accuse Guiffre of lying about Andrew Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew). And most of us see how that turned out.

The revelations are monumental. Jeffrey Epstein and the notorious files cannot be separated from the murderous Israeli regime or the political ideology of Zionism. But this is just what we are seeing now, with mainstream media deliberately obscuring the connections and choosing instead to amplify a bigger Russian role.

Without a doubt, Epstein dealt heavily with Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin does not have clean hands in any of this. According to recently released emails, he arranged meetings with between Israel and Russian officials during the war in Syria. He also associated and consorted with a wide array of American politicians and billionaires and European aristocracy and royalty.

The idea that Jeffrey Epstein made it to where he was just before he died all by himself is the lie that is being peddled by many politicians and some in the media. It is a lie that is easily exposed. Yet it is being told repeatedly to reduce the urgency of interrogating these questionable ties.

The common markers of these relationships are simple: wealth accumulation for the wealthiest, obtaining and maintaining political power, arms dealing, money laundering and criminal impunity. And Epstein trafficked in all of these things as much, if not more, than he trafficked young girls. There are many villains in this story and they are from many places with many interests.

But despite the silence among Western politicians and legacy media, Jeffrey Epstein’s link to a nation-state that has implemented a decades-long campaign of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, ultimately culminating in the genocide the world has witnessed over the last 2+ years, cannot simply be brushed away.

Pointing this out is not bigotry. It is fact. And like the children in the files, the millions of victims of this sinister project deserve far better than being ignored once again.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

Navigating Trauma at the End of Illusions

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These past few years have been a reckoning on a global scale. From the genocide in Gaza to the rise of brutal fascist regimes to the revelations in the Epstein files, we are all bearing witness to the festering moral rot of the ruling class and the societal decomposition it has caused.

Our own governments supported and funded a genocide that they told us wasn’t happening, even though we saw it with our own eyes. We saw them lie and obfuscate and smear those who spoke out and contort themselves into the most grotesque spectacle to make excuses for blowing children to pieces, burying families under rubble, burning them alive in their makeshift tents, erasing entire bloodlines, shooting toddlers in the neck, torturing doctors and nurses, murdering journalists, teachers, poets and artists, leveling hospitals, schools, universities and shelters. We saw them run cover for the complete destruction of a society. And then draw up blueprints for a luxury, seaside resort over the mass graves.

We have seen the ascendency of a cruel, despotic narcissist in the most powerful and ruthless empire on the planet. A sadistic rapist, conman and gangster. One whose entire parlance is mendacity. One whose own body is a suppurating blob of Big Mac grease with bronzer slathered over its decay. One who has inspired grifters who turn a profit from sycophancy and a mob who delight in ignorance and humiliation and terror. Who have no problem with shooting women in the face or men beaten on the ground.

We have seen a billionaire class obsessed with living forever while condemning everyone else to a scorched earth. Who revel in demolishing the modest safety nets that keep people from absolute poverty. Who think democracy is quaint, but useless. And who use mass surveillance, usury and AI to suppress and distract us.

Now we are getting a glimpse into the nefarious machinations of the elite. A shadowy and sinister world of the most wealthy and powerful men, where human decency is a punchline. A world that uses sex as a bludgeon and treats the most vulnerable among us as objects to be used and discarded. And all the while we are seeing it, we are being gaslit again. Told that the world wants to “move on.”

Of course, none of this is new. Human history is littered with casual cruelties, unprovoked injuries, and banal evil. This world sits on top of a mountain of murdered corpses. The difference now is that the living biosphere, the one we all depend upon, is in the crosshairs. And the scope of brutality has expanded beyond the colonized or enslaved or racialized or otherized or dehumanized to include us all.

We have been integrated into the machinery of our own collective demise. Shoveling coal into a machine intent on our destruction for the profit of a few. And conditioned to see it all as necessary. As “progress.” If you are feeling overwhelmed or lost or shattered these days, you are not the abnormal one. You are grieving a world of illusion as it crashes to the ground.

Trauma can be a catalyst for change, but it can also be a drug. It creates bonds which can be regenerative, or ones which mire us in despair. Either way, it is unavoidable. Those who try to skirt its implications aren’t “the lucky ones.” They are like the ones who tell you to “stay put” in a building that is aflame. They aren’t saving you, they are choosing normalcy bias over urgency.

The trauma we are feeling is real. It is raw. It is unforgiving. But it is also a rejoinder to lived experience. It lives under our skin and its grammar is sorrow and confusion and rage. When we face it with integrity, we can eventually let the illusions go. It doesn’t mean the pain will be forgotten. But it can become the currency needed to unlock a door for our escape.

The rulers of this world have shown us who they are. Perhaps it is time we show them who we are.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, February 2026

Bread and Circuses, Without the Bread

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Since the US-Israeli takeover of TikTok, there have been endless complaints about censorship, banned content and banned content creators. Some are saying the platform isn’t even allowing viewers to type in the letters “ICE.” Others have said that the word “Israel” pops up in any search, regardless of the topic. And any search for the word “Epstein” apparently may get your profile flagged for violating “community guidelines.” It has been hemorrhaging members who are going to the new UpScrolled as an alternative.

This all began when billionaires and American politicians were wringing their hands over the influence it was having regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Unsurprisingly, all of them claimed it was because of Chinese censorship, date collection and surveillance. But everyone, except the feckless, understood the real reason.

After ardent Zionist and billionaire, Larry Ellison, bought the company via his corporation Oracle, everything changed. The new CEO of TikTok, Adam Presser, boasted about banning the word “Zionist” as a form of hate speech unless it was used in the context of being a “proud Zionist.” If the content criticized the political ideology, it would be considered a “dirty word” and be censored. Anti-Zionists, which include an enormous swath of Jews, are not welcome any more.

Larry Ellison, sixth richest person in the world and close friend of wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, has made significant donations to the IDF as it commits heinous crimes against Palestinian civilians, including children. His company Oracle is an enormous, AI-generated surveillance technology giant.

Ellison, himself, has said he would welcome a “1984-style” surveillance state where AI analyzes video feeds to track, record, and influence citizen behavior. The billionaire claimed “citizens will be on their best behavior” because they are constantly being recorded and reported. Larry Ellison and others claimed that they were afraid of “Chinese surveillance,” even as Oracle had ties to Chinese resellers who have provided surveillance technology to Chinese police.

What all of this means is rather simple and banal. Elites like Ellison understood that these social media platforms were sharing real content about the atrocities Israel was committing. For the first time in human history, a genocide became widely seen and livestreamed by the victims.

The new TikTok is shadowbanning and silencing critics of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism. But it is part of a larger project of social control in the United States. Larry Ellison financed his son David Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount Global (the parent company of CBS).

They then appointed journalist flunky Bari Weiss as the Editor-in-Chief of CBS News. Weiss, known for her crusade against woke windmills of the mind, has also peddled in genocide apologetics and denial from her virtually inconsequential platform The Free Press.

Since taking over CBS, Weiss has been busy making the once respected news organization into a facsimile of Fox News for old centrists. Her first big event was an interview with Charlie Kirk’s widow and grifter extraordinaire, Erika Kirk. It had some of the lowest viewership in the networks history.

What we are witnessing in the United States is the complete decay of its communications and journalism institutions. From CBS to TikTok to MGM Studios, the aim is in controlling the dialogue and manufacturing opinions and consent within the accepted framework.

MGM, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is most notoriously known for its recent bankrolling of the documentary “Melania,” which follows the first lady around for a few weeks as she does practically nothing but exist and wear lampshade-sized hats.

Regardless of how much money billionaire elites spend, what they are managing is nothing more than the death spiral of American society. The rapid unraveling of an empire, now headed by a dying, narcissistic, rapist who is terrorizing Black, Brown, Indigenous, women, queer and immigrant communities and occupying American cities as he rattles his saber at allies and adversaries abroad. Meanwhile, Americans struggle to make ends meet, terrified of medical bankruptcy and choosing between rent and food.

This is Bread and Circuses, but without the bread.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Jared Kushner’s ‘New Gaza’ is in Keeping with Zionism’s Colonial Project

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One of the most striking features of the Trump-Kushner plan for Gaza is that it erases anything resembling Palestine. The ancient architecture, most of which has been reduced to rubble by Israel, is replaced by something more akin to Dubai. And this is no accident.

Like so many Americans, Kushner and Trump view the entire Middle-East region as a monolith. One people. One culture. No variations. No complexities. The clothing, language, food? All the same.

The only cities they are familiar with are from the Gulf monarchies. Gaza, whose history stretches back at least 5000 years, was filled with ancient souks, mosques, hammams, churches, Roman mosaics, alleyways and ports, is transformed into a glittering hyper-capitalist dystopia. One which could sit comfortably in any of the Gulf nations.

When one considers the notion that this city would be built over the mass graves of hundreds of thousands of people, it becomes obvious how odious it all is. But this is also the story of Israel.

The Zionists came into this region with the claim that it was a “land without a people, for a people without a land.” But this was always a lie. And they knew it.

This is why they destroyed so many villages and planted forests on top of the ruins with trees not indigenous to the Levant. The result has been wildfires every year, as these European pines ignite in the dry, hot climate.

The seaside Palestinian village of Tantura was referred by the ancient Greeks as Dor. During the Nakba, a Zionist death squad from the Haganah, which came under the command of one of Israel’s founding fathers David Ben-Gurion, murdered hundreds of the inhabitants and buried them in mass graves. A kibbutz was later erected on the site. Today, it is a popular beach for Israelis.

Kushner’s grotesque vision for Gaza is in keeping with the Zionist project, which never sat comfortably in the Levant. It attempted to import its European identity on to a land that already had a long and rich culture of its own.

Despite its glittering skyscrapers, casinos, hotels and 5-star restaurants, this “New Gaza” will forever be stained with the blood of thousands. Their bones will be in every foundational stone. Though they will try their hardest to whitewash its edifice, the genocide will never be forgotten, nor forgiven by the millions of people around the world who have witnessed its horror.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Gaza is What the Powerful are Planning for us All

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Imagine modern skyscrapers akin to Dubai. Imagine white sand beaches and hotels. Imagine first class restaurants. And imagine them all sitting atop the world’s biggest mass grave.

The New York Times, the so-called “paper of record.” presents Jared Kushner’s plan as “glittering.” It is almost as if Gollum, himself, penned it.

As this grotesque plan was presented in the posh resort village of Davos, a place where Nazis holidayed in the 1930s, where only the world’s most monied scoundrels convene to discuss their portfolios and prospects, Benjamin Netanyahu sat at home, unable to attend for fear of being arrested for war crimes.

The Trump regime, which resembles more a band of two bit gangsters, is assembling a pack of jackals to feast on the carcass of Gaza. With Israel razing what is left of its society to dust and pushing the remaining population into walled, militarized ghettos or deported somewhere else.

Gaza is the template for what the powerful plan for the rest of us. Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said in his speech in Davos that “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” He was talking about the so-called “middle powers.” But the stark reality is that most of us will never be invited to the party. And if we are, it will be through the kitchen door and straight into the oven.

Gaza is only the beginning. Trump’s sham “Board of Peace” is both an oxymoron and an insult. Its raison d’etre is a mechanism for the wealthy and powerful to extract even more wealth, property and power. Billionaires like Peter Thiel will be integral to this plan. Through his surveillance company, Palantir, it will clamp down on dissent in a manner only dreamed about by elites in decades past.

Others, like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Sam Altman and Michael Bloomberg, are heavily involved in this slash, extract and suture economy. Every region on earth is viewed as a capital investment to them. In truth, they were always viewed as such. But with the planet’s climate heating up, the game has become more cutthroat than ever before.

As for the rest of us, we are the dregs of the earth to them. An impediment which is best replaced by AI and robotics. Servants who cannot complain, cannot organize, cannot strike. We are expendable, as is democracy, a concept they see as quaint, but useless.

Gaza called out to us. It shouted its warning to the world. And it is still shouting. They aren’t listening. The question is, are we?

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

The ‘Rules Based Order’ Has Always Been a Farce

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Let’s be clear about this thing called “international law.” There are laws and treaties and agreements on the books which are designed to hold power to account. The contradiction lies within its application. In this supposed “rules based order” that we have been told is now in tatters, the powerful have always manipulated the terms and conditions.

This is no more apparent than in the genocide in Gaza. Without a doubt, there have been other atrocities and genocides committed. But this one was completely funded and supported by the United States and other Western nations. They are the engine of this project of annihilation. And in no other case is the hypocrisy more glaring.

Now that the Trump regime is in power, the same aggression meted out on the Global South is turning inward toward the states that have long been in the political and economic orbit of the United States. Remember, most European countries were not perturbed by the “rupturing” of international law when it was being shredded by bombs and drones in Gaza. They are only upset now when those threats and belligerence are being aimed at them.

This is not to excuse the Trump regime and its Hitlerian aspirations. It is not an excuse for imperialistic, oppressive or violent regimes outside the American Empire either.

But it underscores the truth about the arrangement of power throughout most of the 20th century, most especially following the second world war. Where was this order when the US carpet bombed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia? When it overthrew democratically elected governments or subverted democratic movements, from Iran to Chile and beyond? Where was it when the US invaded Iraq based on a lie?

NATO did not “keep the peace,” as some neoliberal politicians opine. It managed American imperialism and largely carried out its wishes, while handsomely profiting multinational corporations. It is an organization set up to ensure white, northern countries would always dominate the Global South. Now, that alliance is falling to pieces. But after watching it destroy Libya and turn it into the biggest, modern-day slave trading region on earth, it would be ghoulish to grieve the demise of what amounts to a consortium of white supremacy and violence.

If international law was ever to be evenly applied, it would not only condemn despotic leaders like Vladimir Putin or the brutal, clerical theocracy in Iran. It would have every US president, many Western leaders and every billionaire apprehended and taken to the Hague for crimes against humanity and the planet.

The unwillingness for so many in the West to see their leadership as fundamentally corrupt and deserving of criminal prosecution is not merely hypocritical. It is grounded in a racism that sees Western leaders and billionaires as somehow above the law. As flawed, but redeemable when they speak well or present themselves as stately. Essentially, as too white to be in the same league as some murderous tyrant from Africa, Central America, the Middle-East or Asia. And this racism has been the underpinning foundation for the farce of the “rules based order” for centuries.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is Grift on a Global Scale

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The absurdity of our times may best be summed up in the Trump regime’s brand new oxymoronic “Board of Peace.” Established by Trump on January 15, 2026, the board was initially conceived to coordinate the “rebuilding” of Gaza following Israel’s genocide and complete destruction of all infrastructure and most of its buildings and landmarks.

The founding executive members of this farcical board include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who is one of the biggest cheerleaders for the invasion and kidnapping of Venezuelan president Maduro, real estate vulture and son-in-law to the president, Jared Kushner, and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is best known for his war crimes in Iraq.

Unsurprisingly, Donald Trump, who possesses an ego with no bounds, appointed himself Chairman for Life. Permanent membership on the board requires an investment of 1 billion US dollars, to be paid in full in the first year.

While leaders in some 60 countries were invited, some have done so only symbolically or with caution. Others, like Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orban were eager to join.

But France’s Emmanuel Macron, rejected the offer outright, as it is widely seen as an attempt to subvert the United Nations. Trump, again unsurprisingly, has threatened 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne in an effort to pressure the French president into joining.

To say that the times we are living in are absurd is an obvious understatement. But at the root of this absurdity is a perverse inversion of truth. A “Board of Peace” created by a megalomaniac obsessed with imperial ambitions is the ultimate example of grift on a global scale.

As Palestinians suffer under an ongoing project of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide, perpetrated by Israel and fueled by the United States and other Western countries, its future is being determined by a pack of jackals, salivating over the carcass of Gazan society.

But this “board” won’t stop at Gaza. The nascent consortium, which will include some of the world’s most notorious swindlers, despots and gangster capitalists, see this as the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to carve up the world as they see fit. Filling their coffers under a noble, yet fetid, cloak of peace.

Trump didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, an award already stained with blood and made meaningless when it was given to Henry Kissinger. He has been obsessed with it for years. His “Board of Peace” is a pathetic attempt to exert dominance over the world under the guise of diplomatic cooperation. But, like every other venture and policy he has implemented, this one will be another con job.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

How to Show Solidarity with Iranians: a Principled Approach

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Since the recent protests in Iran, there have been a plethora of online commentary from various segments of the Western left. Sadly, much of it excludes Iranian voices that do not align with or represent the regime. It is a similar pattern we have seen before, from Syria to Ukraine. It is cynical approach that sees the world as a geopolitical chess game and demands that we automatically side with every state actor which is an enemy of the West or the American Empire over solidarity with the people of that nation.

One can be skeptical about how protests in Iran are going to be used by Western governments to subvert the Iranian government or think they are involved in fomenting unrest. I certainly think, based on history, that the US and Israel will use the protests for their own purposes. I certainly think that it is plausible that there are some agent provocateurs amongst the crowds, as this is a common practice. And US sanctions have definitely led to the economic strife in the country we see today.

But I draw the line at those who say all of the protestors are CIA or Mossad operatives or that they are being duped into protesting. That they are “empire simps,” as one condescending left-identifying writer once put it. Or that it is “undignified” for leftists in the West to express solidarity with people who are literally putting their lives on the line. This is nothing but orientalist racism dressed up as anti-imperialism. And the only thing that is embarrassing is seeing those same voices denigrating people while praising their oppressive governments for being supposedly “anti-imperialist.” Even as these regimes kill leftists and socialists daily.

The Iranians protesting understand their history better than anyone in the West. They know how Britain and the US overthrew the democratically elected, secular government of Mossadegh in 1953 and installed the brutal reign of the Shah. They know how this led to the revolution in 1979. They understand how the US and Israel have continued to meddle in their affairs.

The best we can do is to show our support for their justified rage and to protest our own governments in the West when they threaten airstrikes, war or regime change. To oppose all Western interference. To point out the hypocrisy among those who cheered on Israel as it committed genocide in Gaza or, like JK Rowling, didn’t say a word about the atrocities committed against Palestinians with full support of the West. Even though protesting our government and media may seem minimal, it is the only material leverage we have.

But doing this doesn’t mean we support the oppressive theocratic government in Iran either. Supporting them means listening to them. It means acknowledging their struggle. Giving them respect and dignity by refusing the narrative that they are merely geopolitical pawns, and not human beings with legitimate grievances, hope, and agency.

Just as in Gaza, we do not need to understand every single complexity or nuanced geopolitical issue to stand against state violence and oppression wherever it occurs. Solidarity with them isn’t supporting imperialism. It isn’t supporting American intervention either. It is merely taking a principled approach to universal human rights and universal liberation. And this is something I will never stop championing.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026

Atrocity and Gaslighting in the Post Truth Era

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We live in a post truth era. A time of gargantuan gaslighting. Immediately following the murder of an unarmed woman in her car by an ICE agent in Minneapolis as she drove away, Kristi Noem began the process of sanitization. Despite clear evidence that this was an unprovoked murder, she reframed it as domestic terrorism.

Donald Trump chimed in not long after with his usual lies and swift scapegoating of the “radical left.”

And since then, a swarm of online trolls, who are mostly white men, have flooded their newsfeeds and the comment sections of anyone who will still keep them on their friend list with comments like “FAFO” or “this is what happens when you try to run over law enforcement.”

The last one is the most striking. Renee Nicole Good was killed in cold blood in front of cameras. We all saw it. So, how can anyone not connected to power still defend ICE?

It demonstrates two things. One, they did not watch the video. Two, they did, but they simply don’t care about facts. Either way, protecting the fragile edifice of American power and domination is more important than evidence, even when that evidence is incontrovertible. The only options available to them are to ignore it or redefine it to fit the only acceptable narrative.

For over two years, we have witnessed a literal genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. The evidence is overwhelming in this regard. Thousands of photos, videos, testimonies, eyewitness accounts, doctors, nurses, journalists, scholars all attest to this. Yet, as with the murder of Renee Nicole Good, we are being gaslit to deny our own critical thinking and accept the version of the powerful, no matter how absurd or ridiculous it may be.

When truth becomes an option rather than the primary foundation of a society, the result is brutality. It always ends in atrocity. Genocide is the very worst crime against humanity. The US was and continues to be the primary engine of that crime. It has used every power it possesses to crush the truth about it. And this is the result.

Those defending the treacherous and murderous actions of ICE today are no different than those who defended Israel or the United States as they carried out a genocide. Both require a monumental suspension of critical thinking skills and the complete bankruptcy of moral integrity. And, in this regard, America excels at both.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026