{"id":55534,"date":"2025-10-08T07:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=55534"},"modified":"2025-10-08T07:41:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:41:22","slug":"whither-gaza-the-next-phase-of-genocide-and-ethnic-cleansing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/08\/whither-gaza-the-next-phase-of-genocide-and-ethnic-cleansing\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither Gaza?: The Next Phase of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Matt\u2019s Thoughts on War and Peace<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I shared yesterday with Danny Davis<\/a> my views on the October 7 attacks, views I have held since before that day. This is important because the right of the Palestinians to resist occupation is the most cogent and sincere understanding missing from US discussions on Israel-Palestine. Likewise, the claim of Israeli self-defense, as they carry out occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing throughout Palestine, is the most damaging, unjustified and incorrect assertion by American officials and journalists. As long as this warped understanding of the foundational aspects of the Israeli-Palestine relationship of occupier and occupied is misunderstood and misrepresented, a political solution will remain impossible.<\/p>\n

So, to your point exactly, what did people expect the Palestinians to do? And under international law, and I would add also as well, natural law, people have a right to resist. And so while I agree with you about the attacks on October 7th that killed hundreds of civilians being war crimes and reprehensible, as well as strategically counterproductive, the attacks by the Palestinians on the Israeli military and security forces, the people that were keeping them in what was effectively a concentration camp, were justified.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe in this current peace plan or process for Gaza. If it goes forward and it holds, it is nothing more than an American-Israeli subjugation of Gaza. It will be an occupation that may have international colors with a British war criminal as its colonial governor, with foreign proxy soldiers under his command, but the occupation\u2019s purpose will be to realize as much as possible of the US and Israeli visions for Gaza, whether that be Trump\u2019s towers or settlers\u2019 caravans. If the plan fails, immediately or after some time, it will certainly be a failure as part of Israeli intentions<\/a>. Without a doubt, the case is ready-made for Western politicians and media to apologize for a restart of Israeli military action, with the blame placed upon the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Either way, the plan failing or succeeding, I think we\u2019ll see a continued push of Palestinians from their homes in northern Gaza. It\u2019s important to remember that this time last year, Israel was carrying out what it called The General\u2019s Plan<\/em>, a massive military operation to cleanse the northern half of Gaza through massacre, destruction and starvation. I was in Palestine in November of 2024, just a short distance from that operation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Israelis were largely successful in that ethnic cleansing campaign, having to abandon it and allow the Palestinians to return to their homes in northern Gaza as part of the January-March 2025 ceasefire. That ceasefire had a great deal to do with President Trump\u2019s inauguration, and once the benefits of the inauguration ceasefire <\/em>had expired for Trump and his administration, the Israelis resumed their genocide and ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

We see the Israelis again having to halt their campaign to eradicate Palestinians from the north of Gaza to appease Donald Trump, this time not for his inauguration but quite likely for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded at the end of this week. Yes, it is fantastical, an absurd satire, that the President of the United States would muscle the Israelis to end their genocide to win a trophy, but that is the reality in which we live.<\/p>\n

If Trump doesn\u2019t win the Nobel, the peace plan presumably becomes terminal; perhaps a decent interval will be allowed for appearances, or maybe the Israelis will go fully back to their genocide immediately. The continued Israeli pursuit of the eradication of Palestinians from Gaza may be tempered by the greed of the Americans, a greed of the Americans that is more akin to Gordon Gekko<\/a> than to that of tales of a 3,000-year-old magical real estate agent in the sky. If Trump\/Witkoff\/Kushner<\/a> really do see riches and wealth in Gaza, then maybe they can hold the Israelis off from all-out genocide while still allowing for substantial ethnic cleansing; ethnic cleansing being necessary to realize the full profit of the Trump Riveria plan.<\/p>\n

Regardless, for the Palestinians in Gaza, the consequences may be similar whether the deal holds or fails. The Israelis have invested too much in Gaza to let go of their gains. October 7 gave the Israelis a once-in-a-decade opportunity to finish what was started in 1948 and continued in 1967. The Palestinians forced from northern Gaza over the last months will be kept in the south. Those half a million or so who may still be in the north will face a repeat of 2024\u2019s The General\u2019s Plan, which was essentially abandon your homes and flee south or be killed by the IDF\u2019s weapons or starvation.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s 20 Point Plan<\/a><\/em> has enough of both general vagueness and specific guarantees for Israeli security to allow for a northern Gaza that remains largely depopulated, with the remaining population trapped in a free fire zone blockaded from aid. The 20 Point Plan uses the phrase terror-free zones. <\/em>My understanding is that it will be the Israelis who decide when a neighborhood is terror-free. I assume that status will be met when all are dead or have fled, and there is not one building left standing. Any large pockets of people left in northern Gaza will be corralled in concentration camps where technology, privatized military forces and greed will intersect not only to imprison but to track, immiserate and reduce those who remain.<\/p>\n

For a detailed discussion on what these camps might look like, please watch my interview with Dan Cohen and read his accompanying report<\/a> from last year (note that the January-March 2025 ceasefire delayed this Israeli plan for Gaza).<\/p>\n