The United Nations Colonized Palestine

Trump's "peace plan," Sarah Hurwitz, and the never-ending refusal to admit Palestinians are human.

Since the latest ceasefire went into effect on October 10th, Israel has broken it almost 500 times. In less than a month and a half, IDF strikes have killed over three hundred and forty-two civilians, a rate of nearly eight per day. The press has called the ceasefire “fragile.” IDF bombings that kill dozens “test” the truce. Israel is apparently the only country in the world, the only military force in human history, that can “pause” ceasefires, slaughter hundreds, then “resume” the prohibition on hostilities – the same tactic I used as a child during a game of tag. Pause. Unpause. “Tag, you're it!” “You can’t tag me back I paused again.”

Under the West’s pretense of peace, the potential of sudden death looms over Palestinians. If they survive, another horror awaits: colonization.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council approved President Trump’s Gaza plan. (Russia and China abstained, allowing the plan to proceed.) Calling this a “peace plan” baffles the mind, though it’s par for the course when assassinating doctors is labelled Israeli self-defense. The resolution calls for an International Stabilization Force (ISF) composed of yet-to-be-determined countries, ruled by a "board of peace” composed of yet-to-be-determined governors, which are mandated to disarm Palestinian resistance groups by yet-to-be-determined measures. This is not a U.N. peacekeeping mission. There will be no U.N. helmets deployed, and the ISF will not be subject to the United Nations or its past resolutions. The United Nations is not stabilizing Gaza. It’s given Donald Trump’s hand-picked technocrats a blank slate to rule however they see fit.

The ISF is not meant to be a U.N. Blue Helmet mission. It will not be led or overseen by the UN, and will not follow its procedures or its rules. But it will have the council’s legitimacy and its backing. — Daniel Forti, International Crisis Group¹

Having beaten the odds and survived two years of… something I struggle to describe, Gazans will now be policed by a private army police force that will patrol refugee camps, dragging anyone they call Hamas into the mud and off to prison. In The Palestine Laboratory, Antony Loewenstein detailed how the IDF tests weapons and surveillance systems on Palestinians, then exports them around the world. Whatever Palantir and Raytheon produce from the U.N.-approved Gaza ghetto will exceed the limits of the most sadistic imaginations.

Map of the plan, courtesy of Al-Jazeera

At the end of 2027, the ISF’s mandate expires, spilling the contents of another Pandora’s Box over the ruins of a once-vibrant society. The plan makes no promise of Palestinian statehood, nor does it admit the right to self-determination; a violation of the Security Council’s first article.² Instead, the resolution offers a pipe dream of hope to further entice the Palestinian Authority to work as a subcontractor of the Israeli Army. If the Palestinian Authority has sufficiently reformed, the proposal says, “conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”³ No specifications about what constitutes “sufficient reform” are provided. No destination specified for the pathway to lead. This is not a peace plan. It’s the death certificate of the so-called Rules-Based International Order, the enshrinement of the United Nations’ unspoken rule that international law does not apply to Palestinians.

How did we get here? How did the post-World War II order, which was supposed to prevent another holocaust and end illegal occupations, permit the former and enact the latter? Simple. The United Nations made an exception for Israel. Europe’s guilt and colonial desires pressed it to look the other way, to create a state contrary to its espoused values of equal rights and self-determination for all. The U.N. thought the creation of Israel would be a one-time thing. A minor exception to humanist doctrine, rarely noticed. However, emboldened by its free rein, Israel has ignored its international boundaries and has expanded ever since. Rather than admit its error and demand a single state in line with democratic values, the world comforted itself with fantasies about a secondary Palestinian state, a convenient excuse to avoid muzzling the terror it had unleashed upon the Middle East.

---

---

Its edges worn from overuse, the two-state solution is the get-out-of-jail-free card played by liberal Zionists to squirm out of a difficult question. The vague, never-explained proposition suggests a Palestinian state should exist beside Israel. The theory might have worked fifty years ago, but with Israeli settlements snaking throughout the West Bank and Gaza now under foreign occupation, it has been unfeasible for decades. Some say the Palestinians rejected their own state. They also say Hamas funds Ms. Rachel, so take their claim with a bath of salt.

History shows that offers of Palestinian statehood were never sincere. The two-state solution wasn’t an olive branch, but a fig leaf to hide Zionist colonization under the guise of necessity. “The Palestinians only want to kill us. Occupation is the only way for Israelis to survive.” What Palestinians have been offered in the past is a codification of second-class status. Bill Clinton still points the finger at Yasser Arafat for walking away from Camp David, never mentioning the “state” he offered would give Israel the right to invade whenever it deemed necessary. A state without sovereignty is like a home without walls. Nothing. Yet, the Palestinians were expected to accept, because the United States and the rest of the world never saw them as equals to the Israelis. Or even themselves. They saw Palestinians as a nuisance. A problem to be dealt with, not a people to be freed.

The true intent of politician’s opining for a two state solution becomes clear whenever they are asked. They believe in a two state. But never now. There’s always a reason why the can must be kicked down the road, preserving the reality of apartheid. Case in point from this future presidential hopeful.

The continuing genocide, the world’s rubber stamp on the colonization of Gaza, and the nearly century-long strong-arming for Palestinians to accept a state-that’s-not-a-state isn’t a push for second-class citizenry, but second-class humanity. The U.N. charter calls for equal rights and self-determination of all peoples. Yet the Security Council waves its protective resolutions and hands Gaza to Trump, encouraging him to build and destroy as a child in a sandbox. The United States preaches multi-pluralistic democracy, yet the ostensibly liberal political class contorts itself into previously unseen shapes to avoid acknowledging that it deprives this specific population of this right.

Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz has become the face of this contradiction. Currently on a book tour, Hurwitz has had some *interesting* comments on Jewish communities in a post-Gaza genocide world.

“Unfortunately, the very smart bet that we made on Holocaust education to serve as anti-semitism education in this new media environment, I think, is beginning to break down a little. Holocaust education is absolutely essential. But I think it may be confusing some of our young people about anti-semitism because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews, and they think, “Oh, anti-semitism is like anti-black racism, right? Powerful white people against powerless black people.” So when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, “Oh, I know the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel. You fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.”

It’s never fun to admit you’re wrong. But clearly I must. Apologies, Mrs. Hurwitz. I did mistake the lesson of the Holocaust as a need to stop powerful people from killing weaker people. I have done a growth, and I will never make this mistake again.

In seriousness, this is a detestable thing to believe. To Zionists like Hurwitz, Palestinians are so alien, so far from being seen as fellow people, that she cannot fathom that Arab suffering is equal to Jewish suffering. Rather than explore her psyche and face her delusions, Hurwitz would rather the world forget the most painful lesson of the 20th century — which was paid mainly by the Jews she claims to advocate for — than grant her enemies basic humanity. And that’s not all Michelle Obama’s speechwriter has to say.

If all day long, your brain is smashed by TikTok of really upsetting carnage in Gaza. Sorry if this is a graphic thing to say, but when I’m trying to make arguments for Israel, I’m talking through a wall of dead children. That’s what people are seeing. So when I [try to argue], they’re just seeing carnage…

So I really think Jewish day schools should say, ‘No child owns a smartphone until senior year.’

At one point in her tirades, Hurwitz blames this “wall of dead children” for making her sound obscene. Mrs. Hurwitz, you don’t sound obscene. You are obscene. Not because of TikTok, and not because young Jews are being misled. You are obscene because you do not recognize human beings as human beings. You’re trying to shove the square peg of 19th-century colonial attitudes into the round hole of a modern, multi-pluralist society. Rather than admit the honest truth and face your contradiction, you would rather diminish anti-genocide education and end free access to information for Jewish children.

---

---

Hurwitz’s ideology would be funny if it weren’t the basis for the next phase of the Gazan genocide, which will be carried out with the United Nations’ approval. Hamas and other Palestinian groups (including unarmed ones) have rejected the call to disarm. As they should. The right to resist occupation through force is also enshrined in the U.N. charter. The world’s refusal to recognize Palestinian rights does not dampen those rights, but proves their necessity. The unspoken exception in the U.N. charter that its rights do not apply to Palestinians still exists. It is the rationale for the plan passed through the U.N. Security Council, and it will infect the mind of every mercenary and foreign soldier who terrorizes Gazans with fire and fist. As a consequence, the United Nations will own the atrocities about to unfold, and unseen bloodstains will tarnish its crisp blue flag, covering those left by the Nakba.

The United Nations will not be remembered as a check against man’s vilest instincts, but an enabler of them.

---

If you appreciated this article, please click the ❤️ to help it rise in Substack’s algorithm. Don’t forget to subscribe so future articles are delivered straight to your inbox. If you’re a returning reader, consider a supporting subscription. It only costs one cup-of-coffee a month, unlocks you exclusive bonus content, and ensures I can keep writing articles such as these. Thanks in advance.

In Solidarity — Joe

1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/11/17/live-hamas-rejects-foreign-guardianship-of-gaza-before-un-vote

2. https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/purposes-and-principles-un-chapter-i-un-charter

3. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/18/one-of-the-oddest-un-resolutions-in-history-seeks-to-solidify-shaky-gaza-ceasefire-into-an-enduring-peace