Robby Starbuck speaks in an interview in New York in March. Photograph: Bess Adler/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for ‘peddling lies and pushing extremism’
A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests.
Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms – in an August lawsuit settlement.
Since his appointment, Starbuck has baselessly claimed that individual shooters in the US were motivated by leftist ideology, described faith-based protest groups as communists, and without evidence tied Democratic lawmakers to murders.
Starbuck’s online posts have not changed in tenor since the “anti-DEI agitator” was brought into the Meta fold, and his Trump administration connections raise broader questions about the extent to which corporate America has capitulated to the Maga movement.
The Guardian repeatedlycontacted Meta for comment on Starbuck’s role, and his rhetoric online, but received no response.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hamas members hand over some of the 20 Israeli hostages to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams as part of the ceasefire and prisoner and hostage swap deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza City, Gaza, on October 13, 2025. [Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea – Anadolu Agency]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Monday morning the start of the process of releasing Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire agreement, Anadolu reports.
According to Israeli Channel 12, seven hostages were handed over to ICRC teams.
The remaining 13 living Israeli hostages will be released at 10 pm local time (0700GMT) from the central Gaza Strip, the channel added.
According to the Israeli I24 News Channel, the released Israeli hostages include Eitan Mor, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Matan Angrest, Omri Miran, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, and Alon Ohel, who are on their way to Israel.
US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his 20-point plan aimed at implementing a ceasefire in Gaza. The plan includes the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. The first phase took effect on Friday.
Phase two of the plan envisions the creation of a new governing body in Gaza, excluding Hamas, the deployment of a multinational force, and the disarmament of Hamas.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.
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.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.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
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
President Donald Trump gives opening remarks during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC on September 29, 2025. [Stringer – Anadolu Agency]
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was unsure whether former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would join the new “Peace Council” planned to oversee the governance of the Gaza Strip, amid ongoing criticism of Blair’s role in the Iraq war.
“I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody,” Trump told reporters, without naming specific leaders who might have a say in Blair’s appointment.
The Gaza peace plan, announced by the White House last month, listed Blair as a proposed member of the new council.
Trump made his remarks to journalists aboard Air Force One during his flight to Israel, where he is scheduled to deliver a speech to the Knesset on Monday.
He also plans to attend a world leaders’ summit in Egypt aimed at formally ending the war in Gaza, as the ceasefire enters its fourth day.
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.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
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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]
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.
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 TheTimes 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.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.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
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A limited number of aid trucks carrying gas and fuel entered Gaza for the first time in ten months, after Israel had blocked their entry for nearly two years—except during the January 2025 truce and the small amounts previously delivered to international organisations.
According to Anadolu Agency, sources confirmed that several trucks loaded with gas and fuel arrived through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, which is under Israeli control. The entry took place under the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on Friday.
For more than two months, Israel had allowed an average of 60 to 70 aid trucks per day to enter Gaza, in addition to a small number of commercial trucks. However, these shipments did not include fuel or gas.
Earlier, an official committee of the Palestinian government in Gaza published lists of beneficiaries eligible to receive cooking gas, as part of efforts to regulate distribution across the governorates.
Distribution of cooking gas will begin on Monday. Each person will receive one cylinder containing eight kilograms of gas at a cost of 60 shekels (approximately 18.33 US dollars).
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.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.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
