Cool Zone Media. Hello everyone, and welcome to it could happen here. My name is Dan Alperd. I'm a professor of political science and a researcher of Arab and Palestinian politics. Since I last recorded an episode, those in power have been very busy. The world looks different from a month ago. What would the assault on Minneapolis, the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro, the as of this recording, possible invasion of Greenland. It's been hard for even the best of us to
keep up. As Znemic from the series and Or would say, the pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind forty atrocities than a single incident. I will never not squeeze in an and Or reference when I can, given that this is the state of the world. What's happening in Shalstein has largely slipped out
of most people's speeds and certainly the media headlines. But lots is happening, Lots of dangerous things are happening, and I'm going to take this episode to give an update of about what's been going on. Since the ceasefire was announced three months ago, four hundred and forty nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks and another one thousand, two hundred and forty six have been injured. Over one
hundred of those killed were children. According to UNISEF, the Gaza Strip has been reduced even further with a new quote yellow line demarketing where Israeli troops will remain and where Palestinians are not allowed to go. They literally placed concrete yellow blocks on the ground in Gaza, and as the BBC notes from a report January sixteenth of this year, Israel continues to push the yellow line further and further
into what remains of Gaza. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes, quote the israel Early military remains deployed in over fifty percent of the Gaza Strip beyond the yellow line, where access to humanitarian facilities and assets, public infrastructure, and agricultural land are either restricted
or prohibited. In this context, and despite this context, the Trump administration has declared that Phares one of the Cispar agreement is now over and that fes tow will commits.
The US has announced the launch of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire Agreement. Special ENVOYE. Steve Whitcoff shared the news in a social media post, writing that Phase two establishes a transitional, technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. He also wrote that it begins the full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza,
primarily the disarmament of all unauthorized personnel. Whitcoff says the US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage, and warns that the failure to do so will bring serious consequences.
Now, this is the declaration, even though really, aside from the return of Israeli hostages, no part of the twenty point plan that the Trump administration put forward as the quote peace Plan was realized. On the ground, eight is being let in, but not at the levels that it's needed. Attacks against Palestinians haven't stopped. Nonetheless, Phase two is apparently
starting with the naming of members of the Board of Peace. Now, if listeners will recall from a previous episode, Trump declared himself the chair of this Board of Peace that's supposed to bring peace to the Middle East, and Tony Blair was tapped to run it, much to the outrage of anyone who witnessed Blair's cooperation and the destruction of Iraq.
Now this Board of Piece is going to run the Gaza strip and its quote unquote technocratic government, and it's going to make sure how Masty militarizes and that Palestinians don't step out of line. The Board of Peace is one aspect of the Great Plan, Great Standing for Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Plan, a plan that apparently will
turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East. The Huffington Post reported January seventeenth that Trump is setting a billion dollar price tag for any country that wants to participate on this board. Members so far include Tony Blair, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, son in law Jared Kushner, US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, Mark Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, Israeli billionaire Yakir Gabey,
and a number of others along the same vein. Among those Trump has invited include Vladimir Putin, famously very interested in peace and not at all in eradicating Ukrainian existence. Trump also sent a letter to Victor Orban, far right wing president of Hungary, to join the Board of Peace. Orbon has apparently accepted this invitation. To remind listeners, Orbon is one of Trump's models for authoritary takeover of democratic institutions.
Orbon is also very close ties with Prime Minister Nitaniehu in Israel, despite his anti Semitic politics. Now, I thought the letter he sent to Orbon and to every other right wing politician he's been inviting was quite telling. In the letter, Trump invites Orbon to join, presumably with the billion dollar pay to play, and calls the Board of Peace a quote bold new approach to resolving global conflict.
Reuter Is reporting on this issue, quoted an anonymous diplomat saying it's a Trump United Nations that ignores the fundamentals of the UN Charter. In fact, the charter of the Board of Peace doesn't even mention Gaza. So what is this bold new approach to resolving global conflict? It's apparently a resolution to conflict that includes a neocolonial oversight board run by white men to make sure the natives don't
get too excited. Now, this oversight board is intended to manage conflict, because let's be clear, this isn't about solving conflict at the expense of the people who have been facing the brunt of this conflict. So we should take them at their word that this is going to be the way that global conflict is going to be resolved
from now on. This is the blueprint. Gaza is only the test case, and in this new form of authoritarian conflict management, the world will operate without any pretensions under the premise of might is right, and if the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Plan is any indication, this plan is predicated on encouraging Palestinians to ultimately leave Gaza, at least some significant segment of them. So not only might is right, but ethnic cleansing is a more than fine
way to resolve a dispute. And finally, the plan is dedicated on the idea that reconstruction is a business opportunity. So to review, Mike is right, ethnic cleansing is AOK, and war is a prime real estate development opportunity. Now things get even worse when we bring in the guy who's been tapped to be the director general of this board. Nikolai Maladanov is a Bulgarian politician, an x UN envoy
who has been tasked with quote disarming Gaza. According to a report by Al Jazira published January fifteenth, he's the guy who's going to oversee the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic government which is run by a Palstinian bureaucrats, and make sure that they stay in line during the reconstruction phase. Somehow, these bureaucrats are supposed to reconstruct Gaza while not being able to operate in most of it. Anyway, Maladanov, this guy is really something.
He's a Bulgarian diplomat that worked as a minister for one of the most corrupt governments in Bulgaria, a government that faced mass protest pretty persistently. He is part of a right wing populist party in Bulgaria. His father was also involved in politics, specifically in the Bulgarian Virgin of
the KGIB before the transition from the communist regime. Since twenty twenty one, he's been working in an Amarati institution, the Unwar Gagaesh Diplomatic Academy, where he came out as a quote vocal proponent of the Abrahamic courts, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states. Now it all checks out, honestly that this is the guy who's going
to be the director General. The fact that this person is the one being chosen for face two of the ceasefire, and the fact that he has this kind of political background should make clear that the plan for Gaza isn't just a blueprint for the world new levels of authoritarian conflict management with no pretense, but also a part and
parcel of the US Israeli Imarati vis for the region. Now, this vision is one where Arab authoritarian regimes and Israel, with the US supporting, remake the Middle East into a quote modern, developed, tolerant Middle East, essentially by pouring concrete over graves and building megacities on top of rubble. Their vision of the Middle East is one that is authoritarian
and contained. More citizens are subjects. These subjects can have some social freedoms and maybe some economic opportunities, but should never think that they can have an opinion on anything that happens to them. This is a vision where states like the UAE the United Arab Emirates can arm militias to conduct ethnic cleansing in Sudan and Israel can get away with ethnic cleansing in Palestine because ethnic cleansing and genocide are apparently a perfectly reasonable way of getting rid
of undesirables. Now, I'm not saying that this isn't how these states operated even before the genocide and Gaza, and I'm not saying it wasn't how the US allowed certain allies to operate even before Trump. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Palestinians were indefinitely occupied and no one cared, or when Artzach was ethnically cleansed and Azerbaijan
got away with it. President Biden gave his blessing to the destruction of Gaza after October seventh, after all, but there used to be a pretense, a pretense of international law and a quote liberal international order. There also used to be variation on these issues. This type of authoritarian conflict management wasn't always tolerated. In fact, Arab liberals who advocated for democracy would often say that the US is different from China or Russia in that at least it
was committed to democracy and international law and human rights. Rhetorically, even if there was hypocrisy, they thought that that space between reality and rhetoric could be leveraged and exploited. But now there is nothing to be leveraged. Authoritarian conflict management is the motor oparandee of powerful states, and according to Donald Trump's new doctrine, the don Roade Doctrine, each powerful state gets to do what it wants in its own
sphere of influence. In fact, not only is territorial aggression valid, it's actually the way the world should work. According to all of Trump's spokespeople and parts of his administration, conquest is totally fine. Here's Stephen Miller on Greenland, for example.
Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for five hundred years, to control a territory, you have to be able to defend a territory, improve a territory, inhabit a territory. Denmark has feeled that every single one of these tests.
So Gaza is indeed the blueprint for what happens to weaker states in war, or what happens in this case to stateless people deemed undesirable and expendable. Now, what are the Palestinians saying about all this? The technocratic government made up of Pastine bureaucrats, is saying it's committed to a reconstruction of Gaza that is rooted in quote, peace, democracy
and justice. The Palestinian Authority, the largely illegitimate and undemocratic governance body that apparently governs the West Bank somehow and represents Palestinians. They're putting out statements welcoming the Board of Peace and Trump's vision, maybe because they think this will earn them a seat at the table, or maybe it's a way to sideline their main opposition, Hamas in whatever crumbs of Palestine they're allowed to control in the future.
Hamas has said in a statement that they also welcome the formation of the Administrative Committee for the Gaza Strip to quote achieve comm in Gaza, while noting that they are working with mediators to get to the next stage of the ceasefire, and they accuse Zuel of trying to break the ceasefire agreement. The Israeli government ironically rejects any Palestinian involvement, even at the technocratic level, and have vowed to take it up with their friend Trump and the
Palestinian people. Well, here is Gazen journalist Hintrodare of Al Jazir English.
And what has been the reaction in Gaza to that announcement of a move to Phase two.
Well, just like you said, it an announcement, a symbolic announcement to Phase two.
Palatinians did not see anything on the ground. There's no change.
And despite all of that, we're still hearing drones as you can hear in the background. We also heard a couple of explosions since the early hours of the morning, where demolishings are still going on across the Gazza strip, especially after the yellow line. Palatinians are frustrated, They're very disappointed.
They thought that Phase two.
Would give them the freedom of movement, that would give them reconstruction of Gaza would also give them a little bit of what they lost. But on the ground, nothing happened, nothing changed. What we know so far is there are fifteen members that have been approved.
On to be ruling Gaza.
But there are a lot of questions and concerns this is going to happen. What is going to happen to the people here? The reconstruction, the rough crossing thousands who need to get education and also people who need to travel abroad to either get their treatment to get.
To reunite with their family.
So there's a lot of questions, but mainly there is a lot of frustration because there's nothing changing on the ground.
People in Gaza are beyond exhaustion. Everyone wants some path forward out of this nightmare. But I really don't think, for all the reasons I described here today, that this is it and we shouldn't let them, the Trumps and Orbonds and billionaires of the world, get away with the narrative that they're peacemakers and that apparently this is all in the name of tolerance and peace. That's it for me today. Thank you for listening, and hope you're all staying safe.
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