Benjamin Netanyahu

Trump Knesset speech displays complete US backing of Israel

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Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Trump embraces Netanyahu in the Knesset (Photo via the White House)

Trump stirred controversy in several off-script moments in his address to the Israeli Knesset, including spotlighting a top pro-Israel donor

US President Donald Trump spoke in the Israeli parliament on October 13 amid the implementation of the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal he helped broker – labeling the deal as a “historic dawn for the Middle East.” 

Trump attempted to position himself not only as a behind-the-scenes mediator, but as a central actor in shaping post-war Gaza and the region as a whole. “Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms,” Trump proclaimed. “Now it’s time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”

Several unscripted moments of US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Israeli Knesset have become the subject of controversy, highlighting the unconventional diplomatic relationship between Israel and the US. 

In an extraordinary intrusion into Israeli domestic politics, Trump went off script and urged Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing corruption charges. 

“Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about this?” Trump proclaimed, referring to Netanyahu’s charges of fraud and breach of trust. 

Trump claimed that Netanyahu is “a very popular man” because he knows “how to win.” A Maariv poll from last month revealed that a majority – 52% – of Israelis do not trust Netanyahu as Prime Minister. However, polling by the Israeli Democracy Institute reveals that a majority of Israelis also support a hostage deal with Hamas that leads to a full withdrawal of forces, indicating that the recent ceasefire deal may boost support for Netanyahu.

Trump’s speech at the Knesset comes the same day that Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Israeli-Hamas hostage exchange. Before the ceasefire deal, there were about 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer.

Trump shines spotlight on pro-Israel lobby

In a separate controversial moment, Trump singled out one of his major donors, Israeli-American Miriam Adelson, who was in the audience at the Knesset. Adelson donated USD 106 million to Trump’s super PAC, which helped fundraise for his reelection last year. 

“Look at her, sitting there so innocently,” Trump said, pointing Adelson out. “She’s got 60 billion in the bank.”

Trump continued: “I’m gonna get her in trouble with this, but I actually asked her once, I said, ‘So, Miriam, I know you love Israel. What do you love more, the United States or Israel?’ She refused to answer.”

“That might mean Israel,” Trump said, before laughing.

Trump’s commentary on Adelson, who was awarded a Presidential of Medal of Honor by Trump during his first term, has inadvertently shined a spotlight on the ultra-powerful pro-Israel lobby in US politics. 

Some have noted the pattern of Trump saying “the quiet part out loud” throughout his political career. US law professor and public commentator Jody David Armour wrote on X that Trump “regularly just spills the beans on how US policy actually works,” in response to the president’s Adelson comments. 

“He might have been a bit too frank for her tastes. She looked uncomfortable,” remarked Electronic Intifada journalist Asa Winstanley on X. 

Independent journalist Sam Husseini summarized Trump’s comments as “she bribed me and she loves Israel more than the US.”

A major part of the recent resurgence of the Palestine solidarity movement in the past two years has been shining a light on the pro-Israeli influence in US politics. 

“By his own admission, the president of the United States is acting on the wishes of his top donors” like Adelson, wrote the account “AIPAC Out of US Politics” on social media. AIPAC Out of US Politics is a grassroots campaign recently launched by pro-Palestine activists in the United States, aiming to spotlight the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobbying group in the US. 

Quinnipiac University polling from September revealed that the share of registered US voters who believe that backing Israel aligns with their country’s national interests has dropped sharply over the 21 months of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Less than half of voters say they believe support for Israel aligns with US national interests, a sharp drop from 67% in December.

Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
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Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingTrump Knesset speech displays complete US backing of Israel

‘You cannot fight the world’: The hidden meaning behind Trump’s warning to Israel

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

US President Donald Trump (C) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. [Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

A single, candid statement by US President Donald Trump during a Fox News interview on 9 October may illuminate the true calculus behind Israel’s decision for a ceasefire in Gaza, following a relentless, two-year genocidal campaign that has tragically killed and wounded nearly a quarter of a million Palestinians.

“Israel cannot fight the world, Bibi,” Trump declared during the interview, a direct warning he said to have previously delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The stark reality is that very few people around the globe currently support Netanyahu. Crucially, a significant segment of his own populace has already held him in contempt, a resentment that predates the war on Gaza — a war which he treated as a desperate, personal quest for renewed domestic popularity.

Yet, his delusion persists. Even as millions globally protest his systematic extermination of innocent Palestinians, Netanyahu has seemingly convinced himself that world opinion is miraculously shifting in his favour — a shift that would require the world to have liked him in the first place.

But what precisely did Trump mean by, “You cannot fight the world”?

The term ‘fight’ here clearly transcends physical combat. Gaza, besieged, starved, and devastated, was the entity enduring the physical confrontation. Trump’s reference is unambiguously to the combative surge of anti-Israel sentiment worldwide: the official sanctions imposed by nations like Spain, the critical legal proceedings initiated at the world’s highest courts, the widespread demands for boycott, the organising of freedom flotillas, and more.

READ: The paradox of Arab money that destroys and rebuilds Gaza

It is profoundly significant that, in the minds of both Washington and Tel Aviv, these global events have registered as a serious strategic concern. Future historians will likely designate this moment as the definitive turning point in global attitudes toward the Israeli occupation of Palestine. If deliberately and strategically fostered by Palestinians, this burgeoning solidarity movement holds the potential to fully isolate Israel, compelling it to finally relent and free the Palestinian people from its enduring system of colonialism and apartheid.

However, ‘Bibi’ is not merely losing the world; he is fundamentally losing America itself. For decades, the United States has operated as Israel’s indispensable benefactor, underwriting every war, financing every illegal settlement, justifying every act of violence, and consistently blocking any international attempt to hold Israel accountable.

The reasons for America’s decades-long, unwavering commitment to sustaining Israel are profoundly complex. While the overwhelming influence of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in D.C. and Israel’s disproportionate sway over major media are correctly cited as factors, the dynamic is far deeper. The prevailing, mutually reinforced narrative in both nations has consistently framed Israel not merely as an ally, but as a crucial, essential extension of America’s political identity and core values.

Yet, cracks in this political edifice began to appear with unmistakable clarity. What were once marginalised dissenting voices, often labeled as ‘radicals’ within the American left, gradually solidified into mainstream dissent, particularly within the Democratic Party. Poll after poll demonstrated a mass shift, with the majority of Democrats turning against Israeli policy and lending their support, instead, to the Palestinian people and their rightful struggle for freedom. One of the most telling polls was conducted by Gallup in March 2025. It found that 59 percent of Democratic voters say they sympathize more with Palestinians, while only 21 per cent say they sympathise more with Israelis.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza catalysed more than just dissent within one of America’s two major political parties. Outright opposition to Israel has rapidly become mainstream, transcending traditional political lines — a rupture that has profoundly alarmed those determined to maintain the illusion that Israel can act with impunity, free from American objection.

The pro-Israel media apparatus in the US fought a shameful war to obscure the extent of the Israeli genocide. It consistently sought to blame Palestinians for Israel’s actions and brazenly promoted the insidious notion that the war against Gaza’s innocents was a necessary component of the ever-elusive ‘war on terror.’

But it was ordinary people, powerfully amplified by countless social media platforms, who collectively fought back. They successfully defeated a mainstream propaganda machine that had, for decades, served as the primary defense line for Israel.

A particularly troubling fact for Israel was the erosion of its newly established base of support: the Evangelicals and the broader Republican party. Polling indicated a significant exodus, especially among young Republican voters. A survey conducted by the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll in August 2025 found that only 24 per cent of Republican voters aged 18–34 said they sympathise more with Israelis than with Palestinians.

READ: The EU and Israel’s common ground

According to Politico, Israel even attempted to manipulate social media by paying influencers significant sums of money to circulate Israeli fabrications and deception. That campaign employed roughly 600 fake profiles posting over 2,000 coordinated comments per week, targeting more than 120 US lawmakers.

But can Israel possibly swing the narrative back in its favor? While vast sums of money will, undoubtedly, be committed to launching sophisticated campaigns aimed at polishing Israel’s severely tarnished image, the efforts will prove futile. The once-marginalised Palestinian narrative has surged, becoming a powerful, compelling moral authority worldwide. The strong, unyielding, and dignified resilience of the Palestinian people has garnered global sympathy and galvanised support in ways unprecedented in history.

This new reality may very well represent hasbara’s final stand, as truly no amount of money, newspaper coverage, or Netflix specials can ever successfully polish the image of a state that has so openly committed a genocide, one of the most thoroughly documented in recorded history.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.

Continue Reading‘You cannot fight the world’: The hidden meaning behind Trump’s warning to Israel

Netanyahu back in court over corruption charges

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv, on April 21, 2025. [MOTI KIMCHI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Israeli Channel 12 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to appear before court on Wednesday to face corruption charges, a day after former US President Donald Trump called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant him a pardon.

Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused of receiving luxury gifts worth more than 700,000 shekels ($210,000) — including “premium cigars, jewellery, and bottles of champagne” — from wealthy businessmen in exchange for political favours.

The prime minister is also facing two additional cases involving allegations that he sought to influence media coverage in his favour through two Israeli media outlets.

On Monday, Trump renewed his call to “forgive Netanyahu”, saying that it is time to close the chapter on these cases that have been pursuing him for years.

Jihad Movement: Resistance factions have not agreed to disarmament

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Continue ReadingNetanyahu back in court over corruption charges

Hail to the chief: Trump lands in Egypt to reap the glory, rescue Netanyahu, and rewrite the ending of the Gaza story

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US President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport on the outskirts of Lod near Tel Aviv on October 13, 2025, as he travels to Israel and Egypt. [Jack GUEZ / AFP/ Getty Images]

by Jasim Al-Azzawi

In a move dense with symbolism and political calculation, President Donald Trump is in Egypt to celebrate the handover of Israeli hostages by Hamas. What is cast as a diplomatic triumph is, in reality, a performance piece designed to salvage reputations rather than achieve peace.

For two brutal years, Israel—with full US backing—pounded Gaza. Despite superior firepower, advanced surveillance, and staunch diplomatic protection, it failed to crush Hamas. The war left thousands dead and Gaza flattened. The final bargain: not conquest, but concession. Hamas is still upright and resilient.

Trump was never a neutral mediator. From weapons to intelligence-sharing to U.N. veto cover, his administration served as Israel’s war partner. His “peace rhetoric” often concealed complicity in Netanyahu’s war logic. He wasn’t brokering peace; he was underwriting Israel’s campaign.

Rebranding defeat as victory

With global attention focused on him, Trump makes his entrance to recast the story. He wants to turn an inconclusive war into a story of triumph. But battlefield assessments suggest otherwise: Hamas, while wounded, remains a wild card.

“Israel misjudged the resilience of the resistance,” recounts Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, noting how the campaign strengthened Hamas’s political identity even as it devastated Gaza. In Israel itself, Haaretz lambastes what it calls Netanyahu’s “strategic blindness,” warning that his military-first obsession has isolated Israel and left it less secure. The critique is no longer fringe; it’s becoming mainstream in Israeli discourse. Netanyahu’s boastful and unachievable goals may ultimately lead to his downfall. He never listened to Machiavelli: “The tongue has destroyed more men than the sword, for words once released can never be recalled”.

A Washington Post analysis frames Trump’s Gaza gambit as risk-laden: he may have coerced a settlement, but sustaining it demands pressure he may lack. The war may be paused, but the contradictions are unresolved.

Trump’s optics of redemption

This Egyptian excursion is more about spectacle than diplomacy. The stage is set; hostages are reunited, arms clasped, a president framed as a peacemaker. Yet touch the surface and you find the fissures.

An article by David Ignatius in The Washington Post praises Trump’s coalition-building but also notes his modus operandi: declare victory first, work out the details later. The inversion of selling the banner of peace before securing the foundation is the key to understanding this visit.

Former CIA analyst Graham E. Fuller warns: “Washington has burned moral capital defending Israel’s conduct—only to offer a ceasefire that everyone expects will collapse.” The optics may dazzle. The substance, however, is brittle.

READ: The defeat of Israel and the rebirth of Palestinian agency

Netanyahu’s survival pact

For Netanyahu, Trump’s arrival is a lifeline. His coalition teeters, public weariness grows, and international patience wanes. With Trump’s arrival, a deadlocked war becomes a shared pageant. A faltering gambit can be reframed as a shared triumph. If loyalty turns to envy, friends can become rivals.

But elites in Israel are whispering about failure. In The Times of Israel, a civil commission’s scathing report laments Netanyahu’s “arrogance and inherent blindness” in failing to prepare the country for the 7 October assault. He’s accused of undermining decision-making, sidelining security organs, and overcentralizing power. If very senior officials were barred from dissent, the political house was built on fear, not strategy.

Netanyahu needs Trump to save his skin and help reignite the narrative from gridlock to breakthrough, from defeat to deliverance. However, the miracle is contingent upon the illusions remaining solid. Netanyahu kept Trump in the dark during the war. He knows knowledge is a blade, and when you hand it freely, you place the weapon in your enemy’s hand.

Trump and Netanyahu are inevitably poised to exchange barbed accusations over Gaza’s unresolved chaos. That verbal exchange of blaming each other for Hamas’s survival, strategic missteps, and ignored counsel is looming on the horizon. Beneath the rhetoric simmers a quiet charge of betrayal, as both leaders subtly imply perfidy and failed promises, their alliance fraying under the weight of unmet expectations and diverging ambitions. Throughout the war, Netanyahu underestimated Presidents Biden and Trump, believing he could manipulate them as well as the US. Now he discovers that being underestimated is far safer than being fully known.

The pivot to Iran

The Gaza theatre will soon be over, and both men will pretend it never happened the way it did. Both men share the instinct to pivot—and nothing is more convenient than Iran. With Gaza’s devastation already disputed, Netanyahu is already telegraphing a shift to Tehran as the new existential rival. The script is familiar: rally behind a new threat, reset internal consensus.

Within US defense circles, pressure is mounting for a tougher stance on Iran. Israeli officials reportedly press Trump to re-impose sanctions, reassert deterrence, and prepare renewed confrontation. “Gaza needs to be forgotten. Iran must be next,” said an anonymous defense analyst quoted in strategic coverage. This is not a war of necessity, but a war of distraction: personal survival masquerading as a national imperative. Trump, ever the opportunist, may again be lured into conflict he helped mismanage, chasing legacy on borrowed time.

Conclusion: The mirage of victory

No statue in Cairo will change Gaza’s rubble. No press conference will erase the war’s toll. History judges more slowly than headlines. It is Trump’s turn to quote the author of The Prince: “Power does not belong to the one who speaks loudly, but to the one who withholds”.

Trump may strut down a tarmac, declare peace, and bask in the global applause. However, the pieces left behind—displacement, devastation, silent tunnels, and the political phoenix of resistance—testify to a war that remains unresolved. Until genuine leadership replaces spectacle, peace will remain a prop rather than a policy.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

Continue ReadingHail to the chief: Trump lands in Egypt to reap the glory, rescue Netanyahu, and rewrite the ending of the Gaza story

When María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “peace” has lost its meaning

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Original article by Michelle Ellner republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

In 2002, former US President George W. Bush meets María Corina Machado, then director of Súmate, an "independent democratic civil society group" funded by the US government to "oversee the electoral process in Venezuela". Source: White House/Eric Draper
In 2002, former US President George W. Bush meets María Corina Machado, then director of Súmate, an “independent democratic civil society group” funded by the US government to “oversee the electoral process in Venezuela”. Source: White House/Eric Draper

Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but there’s nothing peaceful about her politics

When I saw the headline María Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents. She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty, and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who María Corina Machado really is:

  • She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
  • She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
  • She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
  • She pushed for the US sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
  • She helped construct the so-called “interim government,” a Washington-backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
  • She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
  • Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.

Machado was also one of the political architects of “La Salida,” the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”

She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by US migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under US ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK.


Original article by Michelle Ellner republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingWhen María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “peace” has lost its meaning