What this Article is About?
This article argues that the actions in Gaza were planned long before the conflict began, carried out with the belief that no one would stop them. It links these events to a global system where capitalism and extreme nationalism often outweigh human values. Leaders are able to act with little consequence, while ordinary people bear the suffering. The piece shows how past and present crises are connected by the same structural problems. It warns that power continues to protect aggression and injustice. Overall, it calls for rethinking global politics so that life, justice, and human well-being matter more than profit and pride.
In Gaza, this is not the fog of war or a knee-jerk overreaction. It is the deadliest assault on civilians since the 1940s-over 100,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and children. It is a genocide carried out in deliberate, systematic phases-broadcast live to a shocked world. This was no accident, but a premeditated operation, developed over years by think tanks, detailed in policy papers, and approved by governments. The destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, the starvation of its population, and the targeting of medical workers and journalists were all calculated decisions-executed with the certainty that no state would intervene.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t gamble on silence. He banked on it. As he once told Likud lawmakers: “You must never show weakness… This is the time to subdue our enemies, not seek compromise.” In another address to the Knesset, he confidently stated: “We will continue until we achieve complete victory – and no one will stop us.”
The Design of Genocide
The events in Gaza did not unfold spontaneously. They followed a well-rehearsed blueprint of destruction, rolled out in carefully timed stages:
- Displacement and Ethnic Cleansing: Nearly 2 million were displaced. Declared “safe zones” were bombed hours later. Amnesty International described the campaign as “a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.”
- Total Siege: Electricity and water were cut off, plunging over 2 million civilians into darkness and dehydration. Fuel and energy sources were blocked. Gaza was sealed from all directions, including Egypt’s Rafah crossing.
- Humanitarian Strangulation: International aid was deliberately halted. Food convoys, medical supplies, and even baby formula were obstructed or bombed. According to UNRWA, over 90% of Gazans faced food insecurity within weeks.
- Infrastructure Elimination: Civilian infrastructure-schools, universities, sewage systems, and hospitals-was systematically destroyed. Satellite imagery from December 2023 confirmed that over 70% of Gaza’s water infrastructure had been wiped out.
- Cultural and Religious Erasure: More than 130 mosques were bombed, alongside libraries, cemeteries, and Islamic landmarks dating back centuries. The aim was not just death-it was deletion.
- Targeted Assassinations: Journalists, medics, and aid workers were systematically killed. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Gaza witnessed the highest journalist death toll in any conflict since records began.
- Mass Starvation: Wheat silos, bakeries, and food warehouses were targeted. Oxfam and the World Food Programme reported over 90% of Gazans skipping meals daily. Starvation became a weapon.
- Manipulated Ceasefires: Ceasefires were offered to stall global outrage, rearm, and resume killing. The Washington Post reported that IDF officials internally described them as “strategic breathing spaces.”
This blueprint mirrors tactics from historic colonial purges driven by starvation:
- Herero and Nama genocide (1904-1908): Germany forced tens of thousands into deserts to die. Survivors were denied water, with rivers poisoned.
- Bengal famine (1943): Britain’s redirection of food supplies caused up to 3 million deaths. Churchill said: “The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.”
- Congo Free State (1885-1908): King Leopold’s forced labor system starved millions to death. Over 10 million perished under quotas that disrupted food production.
- British repression in Kenya (1952-1960): During the Mau Mau uprising, Britain forcibly relocated over 1 million Kikuyu into detention camps and “protected villages,” where food was restricted and famine conditions caused significant loss of life.
Capitalist Nationalist States Calculate Cost v Benefit Only
In today’s global system, responses to genocide are shaped not by conscience-but by cost.
Gaza, impoverished and resource-less, offers no strategic reward. With GDP per capita near $1,200 and no oil, it holds no economic value for the capitalist state. But opposing Israel? That carries immense risks: U.S. sanctions, IMF backlash, loss of military aid, and economic isolation.
Every government ran the same calculation:
- What do we gain by helping Gaza? Nothing.
- What do we risk? Everything.
As Foreign Affairs analyst Stephen Wertheim notes, “The structure of global governance is built to reward conformity and punish moral courage.”
Words Without Action Proves That Capitalism and the Nation State Model Fails to Protect
Many states issued statements of outrage. But almost none acted.
- Turkey, despite Erdogan calling Israel “a terror state,” increased its trade to $2.86 billion in 2024.
- Saudi Arabia, after condemning the bombings, secretly continued talks on normalizing ties. Intelligence leaks reported meetings between Mossad and Saudi officials in Manama and Riyadh.
- Ireland, one of Gaza’s most vocal supporters, maintained trade with Israeli cybersecurity firms.
- South Africa took Israel to the ICJ-but continued bilateral trade.
- Jordan and Egypt, reliant on U.S. military aid ($1.5bn and $1.3bn respectively), kept borders sealed. Egypt oversaw the blockade of Rafah as famine spread.
- UAE expanded economic cooperation, banking on $10 billion in future tech deals with Tel Aviv.
The pattern is clear. No sanctions. No expelled ambassadors. No arms embargo. Only headlines.
Capitalism and Nationalism Pose a Threat to the Human Race
As economist Ha-Joon Chang noted, “Capitalism is the belief that the wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” Slavoj Žižek warned, “The ultimate goal of capitalism is to turn everything into a commodity-even human suffering.” And UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared, “The world is on the edge of a climate abyss. We must end the merciless, relentless, senseless wars on nature, people, and planet.”
The genocide in Gaza is not only a regional atrocity-it is a stark warning about the global order we live under. An order dominated by capitalism and nationalism-ideologies that prioritise markets over morality and flags over humanity.
In such a system, moral boundaries erode. Mass death becomes acceptable collateral, and state-sponsored cruelty is rationalised as self-defence or economic pragmatism. The poor and stateless are not defended-they are ignored, silenced, or exterminated.
But this model doesn’t only endanger the weak. It endangers everyone. These ideologies empower nuclear states to pursue reckless brinkmanship. They drive environmental collapse through unsustainable exploitation. They legitimise authoritarian surveillance and militarised borders. And they render collective global action nearly impossible.
A civilisation driven by greed and tribal loyalty is a civilisation heading toward collapse. Capitalism and nationalism are not simply unjust-they have repeatedly brought humanity to the brink of catastrophe. The 20th century alone saw two world wars, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb-all products of nationalist fervor intertwined with capitalist expansion. Today, these ideologies fuel proxy wars, sustain military-industrial complexes, and paralyze climate action. They pit nations against one another in a zero-sum game for resources, leaving no room for global solidarity. From the famine in Yemen to the climate-driven displacement of millions in the Sahel, the same logic-profit over people, sovereignty over solidarity-turns suffering into policy and death into numbers on a spreadsheet.
To protect life, liberty, and any semblance of justice, this system must be dismantled-not moderated, not reformed, but replaced with one rooted in collective responsibility, moral clarity, and a shared human dignity.
Conclusion: What Must Change
Netanyahu knew he would not be stopped. Because the global system-the one built in Washington, propped up by London, enabled by Berlin and Paris, and tolerated in Riyadh, Cairo, and Ankara-was never built to stop him. It was built to protect men like him.
