On March 19, 2026, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Lakemba Mosque in western Sydney to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with the Muslim community. Fifteen minutes into the visit, protesters began heckling. They booed. They told Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to “Get out!” They called them “genocide supporters”.
One heckler was tackled to the ground by security and escorted away.
When Albanese spoke to reporters afterward, he dismissed the incident. The mosque event was “incredibly positive,” he said. “If you got a couple of people heckling in a crowd of 30,000, that should be put in that perspective”.
He did not address the content of the protesters’ anger. He did not acknowledge the grief of families watching their relatives killed in Gaza with Australian support. He did not reflect on the two and a half years of Israeli crimes—over 72,000 Palestinians killed, millions displaced—to which his government has been “massively indifferent,” as one commentator put it.
Instead, he attributed the protest to “frustration” over the government’s designation of Hizb ut-Tahrir as a prohibited hate group.
This is not leadership. This is deflection. This is the man who will go down in history as one who was never responsible for the mischief he caused, never accountable because accountability was not part of his makeup.
Part One: What Actually Happened at Lakemba Mosque
The facts are clear. Albanese and Burke were invited by Muslim community leaders to join Eid prayers. About fifteen minutes after they arrived, protesters interrupted. Video images show demonstrators booing, telling the two ministers to “Get out,” and calling them “genocide supporters”.
One of the organisers tried to calm the crowd: “Dear brothers and sisters, keep calm a little bit. It is Eid. It is a joyful day”.
A security guard tackled one heckler to the ground and escorted him away. When Albanese and Burke left, protesters followed, yelling “Shame on you!”.
The protesters’ anger was not mysterious. It was not about a proscription order. It was about Gaza. It was about the Australian government’s support for Israel’s military campaign, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed Gaza, and displaced millions. It was about a government that has repeatedly urged “ceasefire” while continuing to back Israel’s “right to self-defence”.
The people in that mosque were grieving. They were watching their families and their countrymen being murdered with support from the Australian government. And when they finally had the Prime Minister in front of them, they told him exactly what they thought.
Part Two: The Deflection – Dismissal and Distortion
Albanese’s response was a masterclass in political evasion.
First, he minimized the protest: “a couple of people heckling in a crowd of 30,000”. He did not acknowledge that the entire gathering had been disrupted, that security had manhandled a worshipper, that he had been forced to leave early. He reduced the anger of an entire community to a “couple of people.”
Second, he reframed the protest as something other than what it was. He suggested the “frustration” stemmed from the government’s designation of Hizb ut-Tahrir as a prohibited hate group. This is a deliberate misdirection. The protesters did not chant about Hizb ut-Tahrir. They chanted about Gaza. They called Albanese a “genocide supporter.” They told him to “get out.”
Third, he refused to engage with the substance of the criticism. He did not answer the question: why does Australia support this war? He did not explain how endless “ceasefire” rhetoric with no action constitutes leadership. He did not address the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have marched for Palestine, or the growing number of Australians who see through the government’s complicity.
This is not accountability. This is the avoidance of accountability. This is the man who will do anything to avoid looking in the mirror.
Part Three: The Man Who Is Never Responsible
Albanese’s behaviour at Lakemba Mosque is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern.
In July 2025, the Centre for Public Integrity gave the Albanese government an “F” on its integrity report card, accusing it of being less transparent and accountable than the Morrison government. The government failed in its commitment to transparency by trying to tighten freedom of information laws, making it easier for public servants to refuse requests on the grounds that documents could “embarrass the government”. It stalled reforms to end “jobs for mates” culture. It failed to adequately protect whistleblowers.
The same report noted that MPs can sponsor passes for lobbyists, giving them unfettered access to restricted areas of Parliament—and that no major party MPs voluntarily disclosed who they sponsored. Independent MP Helen Haines said suppressing transparency increased public distrust in parliament and politicians. “That’s the last thing we want,” she said, “when democracy in the free world is under attack”.
This is the context in which Albanese dismisses protesters, deflects criticism, and refuses accountability. He is a very good corporate manager—and a very bad political leader. He manages the narrative, manages the optics, manages the media. But he does not lead. He does not answer. He does not account.
Part Four: The Opportunity Grifter
Albanese is an opportunistic grifter, like many others who came to prominence in the 21st century. He has no fixed principles beyond staying in power. He has no commitment to justice beyond what polls well. He has no courage to stand against the lobbies that fund his party.
He kept his history of fighting against the BDS movement dark for a very good reason: it showed his true colours. Scratch the surface of this government, and what do we find? Supporters of genocide, curtailment of civil liberties, endless wars. Not blokes fighting for workers’ rights and equality. Just the same old politics of power dressed in a new suit.
The protesters at Lakemba Mosque understood this. They told Albanese: “You don’t even represent us.” “What are you doing here?”. They were not a “couple of hecklers.” They were the voice of a community that has been ignored, dismissed, and gaslit from the get-go.
Albanese has tarnished himself as a result of his blind acceptance of huge and sustained Zionist lies. Many of the people in that mosque were dealing with private family grief after two and a half years of terrible Israeli crimes against Gazans, Palestinians, Lebanese. So many murders. Crimes to which Albanese has been massively indifferent. No wonder it all became too much for them.
Part Five: The Choice Before Him
Albanese will go down in history as one who was never responsible for the mischief he caused, never accountable because accountability was not part of his makeup.
He had a choice. He could have listened to the protesters at Lakemba Mosque. He could have acknowledged their grief. He could have asked himself: what have we done? what are we doing? what will we answer for?
Instead, he dismissed them. He deflected. He blamed “a couple of hecklers” and a proscription order.
This is the man who will never be accountable. This is the man who will never be responsible. This is the man who will go down in history—not as a leader, but as a manager. Not as a statesman, but as a grifter.
The people of Australia are not idiots. Feelings are running high. He has chosen the wrong side in this war. And when history writes its final judgment, it will not remember his dismissals or his deflections. It will remember that he was there—and did nothing.
Conclusion: Reap What You Sow
The protesters at Lakemba Mosque told Albanese the truth. They told him he did not represent them. They told him they saw through him. They told him that the government he leads has chosen genocide, endless war, and the silencing of dissent.
Albanese dismissed them. He always does.
But the truth does not go away. The grief does not disappear. The dead do not stop being dead.
Reap what you sow, Prime Minister. Australians aren’t idiots. We’re done believing that Arabs and Muslims are the enemy. We see through Zionism. And we see through you.
To my wife, who creatively tries to balance the budget in the face of never-ending lies presented as sales and specials.
Introduction: The System That Profits from Pain
In March 2026, as war closed the Strait of Hormuz and global oil prices surged, Australians watched their fuel bills climb 49 per cent in a matter of weeks. Regional diesel prices hit $2.62 per litre. Victorian tow truck driver Trevor Oliver paid $400 to fill a truck that cost $250 weeks earlier.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received more than 500 reports of possible price gouging from motorists. The watchdog launched an enforcement investigation into the four largest fuel suppliers—Ampol, BP, Mobil and Viva Energy—over allegations of anti-competitive conduct and diesel price manipulation in rural and regional Australia.
Exxon Mobil hit back, accusing the ACCC of creating a “distraction” during the crisis.
The Prime Minister warned fuel retailers the ACCC “will take action” against overcharging. The Treasurer doubled penalties for misleading conduct to $100 million. Victoria introduced a daily fuel price cap. Regional fuel reserves were released.
And still, the gouging continued.
Because price gouging is not illegal in Australia. The government knows this. The retailers know this. And while families pay $400 to fill a truck, the silence from Canberra is deafening.
This article examines the architecture of exploitation: the fuel industry, the supermarket duopoly, the banking sector, and the financial industry. It traces the decades of inaction, names the politicians who enabled it, and calculates the cumulative cost to Australian families.
Part One: Fuel – The Crisis in Plain Sight
What Actually Happened
When war broke out in Iran on February 28, 2026, global oil prices surged. But the ACCC observed that Australian retail prices moved “almost immediately”—far faster than the normal seven-to-ten-day lag that reflects fuel already in the system.
Peter Khoury, an NRMA spokesperson, told the Guardian that petrol price rises in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were striking because they happened at a time when prices should have been lower on a regular cycle. “It’s not normal,” he said. “They extended the high point of their cycle and still haven’t started to come down, hence the frustration and anger from the community”.
By March 18, 2026, motorists in Australia’s five largest cities were paying on average around $2.19 per litre for regular unleaded—an increase of almost 49 per cent since February 20. Diesel was more than $2.40 per litre on average .
The warning signs were there. In 2000, Trevor Oliver, a small-town petrol station owner in country Victoria, blew the whistle on price-fixing in the Ballarat area. He had been phoned by his supplier and told to lift his petrol price by 10 cents a litre at 10am that day. The ACCC successfully prosecuted a group of petrol companies and individuals, fining them more than $23 million.
Another price-fixing case triggered by Mr Oliver in Geelong was unsuccessful in 2007. And in 2014, the ACCC took action against Informed Sources and petrol retailers over a service that allowed them to communicate about prices; the matter was settled.
What the Law Actually Allows
The ACCC’s own guidance is unequivocal: “Prices that people think are too high, or sudden increases in price, are not illegal”.
Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels put it even more bluntly: “There’s no real power to do anything about price gouging and very little scope to use powers of investigation” .
Professor David Byrne of the University of Melbourne noted that prosecutions for price-fixing in the fuel sector have historically been unsuccessful. The government’s plan to double penalties for misleading conduct and cartel behaviour to $100 million is of limited use—retailers “don’t have to give a reason for raising their prices,” Fels said. “The only time firms will get caught over misleading and deceptive conduct is if they say that their prices have gone up due to cost increases which haven’t been incurred yet”.
Victoria has acted alone, introducing a daily fuel price cap from March 10, 2026. Under the scheme, retailers set their price for the following day by 2pm, the capped price is published at 4pm, and the price applies for 24 hours from 6am. Fines are $3,000 per breach. The federal government has not followed.
The message from Canberra has been consistent: “Don’t panic buy.” “There’s enough fuel.” “We are watching closely.” It is the same script as the 2020 toilet paper shortages. No action. No accountability. Just words.
Part Two: Supermarkets – The Duopoly That Owns Your Grocery Bill
The Market Power Problem
Coles and Woolworths have a combined market share of approximately 65 per cent of Australian grocery sales. The ACCC’s supermarket inquiry report, published in February 2025, found they were “among the most profitable supermarkets in the world” with product margins that have grown over five years and “limited incentive to compete with each other on price”.
The profits tell the story. In their most recent reporting periods, Coles posted $1.08 billion in profit; Woolworths posted $1.4 billion.
The Pricing Tricks
The ACCC is currently pursuing Federal Court action against Coles and Woolworths over allegations they artificially inflated prices for a short time and then dropped them to regular price—calling it a sale. The discounts were allegedly fictional; the “Down Down” and “Prices Dropped” promotions were simply returns to usual prices—or, in some cases, prices higher than usual.
Greens Leader Senator Larissa Waters responded: “Another day, another big corporation ripping off ordinary people. Big supermarkets are using con ‘discounts’ to rip off shoppers already feeling cost-of-living pain like never before. Labor can not shrug off this blatant corporate price gouging that is driving inflation and making the cost of living worse for everyone”.
Consumer Confusion
CHOICE has documented widespread consumer confusion. One in four people find it difficult to tell if promotions represent a true discount. Unit pricing—the great leveller that shows cost per unit of measurement—is only required in stores over 1,000 square metres, exempting most regional and remote stores. Online prices often do not match in-store prices. Loyalty schemes operate with minimal transparency.
What the Government Is (Not) Doing
New excessive pricing laws will come into effect on 1 July 2026—three months from now. Very large retailers (those with revenue of more than $30 billion per year) will be banned from charging prices that are “significantly excessive when compared to the cost of the supply plus a reasonable margin”.
Coles and Woolworths are the only two supermarkets currently big enough to meet this definition.
Penalties per contravention will be the highest of:
· $10 million
· three times the benefit derived
· 10 per cent of turnover during the preceding 12 months
The retailers’ response: Woolworths argued the law “creates an uneven playing field which will see much larger, foreign-owned retailers free to charge customers whatever they want”. Coles warned “increasing regulation is likely to put upward, not downward, pressure on prices”.
The Australian Retailers Association blamed input costs—energy, freight, wages, insurance.
Why the Delay?
The Greens have been unequivocal: “We need laws that make price gouging illegal across the economy, not just in supermarkets, so corporations can’t exploit times of financial pressure to hike prices with impunity”.
Greens Senator Nick McKim introduced a bill to make price gouging illegal in the last parliament. The major parties rejected it.
The reason, the Greens argue, isn’t complicated: “It’s all about donations. The major parties can’t be trusted to hold big corporations and supermarket giants to account. Not while they continue to accept their massive political donations”.
Part Three: Banks and the Financial Sector – The Missing Regulation
The Pattern Across Sectors
The same architecture operates in banking and finance. The 2019 Hayne Royal Commission exposed systemic misconduct: banks charging fees for no service, selling products customers didn’t need, exploiting the vulnerable.
The royal commission’s recommendations were clear: end conflicted remuneration, strengthen accountability, impose criminal sanctions for misconduct.
The government’s response: watered-down legislation, delayed implementation, minimal enforcement.
Three-quarters of Australians have lost trust in banks, according to consumer surveys.
The “Excessive Pricing” Gap
Australian competition and consumer law does not prohibit unreasonably high prices per se. The European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, India, and several US states all have provisions allowing action against excessive pricing by firms with dominant market positions.
Australia does not.
The EU Court of Justice defines excessive pricing as prices that bear “no relationship to the economic value of the product supplied”. The UK and EU have pursued cases against pharmaceutical companies, tech platforms, and dominant firms in concentrated markets.
Australia has not.
The Greens’ Position
The Greens have called for:
· Laws that make price gouging illegal economy-wide, not just in supermarkets
· Divestiture powers so the ACCC can break up firms that misuse their market power
· A tough new corporate watchdog to crack down on price gouging
· Stronger penalties for corporations that illegally jack up prices
None of these have been enacted.
Part Four: The Politicians Who Enabled It
The Pattern of Inaction
The failure to prevent price gouging is not an accident. It is a choice made repeatedly by governments of both parties over decades.
2000: Trevor Oliver blew the whistle on price-fixing in Ballarat. The ACCC prosecuted; fines exceeded $23 million. But no price gouging laws were introduced.
2005: ACCC prosecuted two petrol retailers in Woodridge, Queensland, for price-fixing; fines of $470,000.
2007: ACCC lost a price-fixing case in Geelong triggered by Mr Oliver. The case was unsuccessful.
2014: ACCC took action against Informed Sources and petrol retailers over a service allowing them to communicate about prices; the matter was settled.
2019: Hayne Royal Commission exposed banking misconduct. Recommendations for reform were diluted.
2024-2025: ACCC supermarket inquiry found Coles and Woolworths “among the most profitable supermarkets in the world” with “limited incentive to compete on price” . The government did not act immediately.
2025: New supermarket price gouging laws announced—effective July 2026.
2026: War breaks out. Fuel prices surge. The government has no price gouging laws to enforce.
Who Is Responsible?
The Albanese Government has been in power since 2022. It has:
· Known about supermarket price gouging since the ACCC inquiry was announced in 2024
· Delayed effective action until July 2026
· Refused to introduce economy-wide price gouging laws despite Greens’ offers of support
· Rejected divestiture powers
· Responded to the fuel crisis with warnings and doubled penalties that may never be applied
The Morrison Government (2013-2022) oversaw:
· The ACCC’s 2014 action against Informed Sources, settled without significant penalties
· No action on supermarket concentration
· The decline of petrol price monitoring systems
· No price gouging legislation
The Howard Government (1996-2007) prosecuted the Ballarat price-fixing case. But it did not introduce price gouging laws. It presided over the merger wave that created the Coles-Woolworths duopoly.
Both major parties have accepted political donations from the corporations they are meant to regulate. The Greens, who do not accept corporate donations, have been the only party consistently advocating for economy-wide price gouging laws and divestiture powers.
Part Five: The Timeline – Decades of Failure
Year Event Government What Wasn’t Done
2000 Ballarat price-fixing case; $23 million fines Howard No price gouging laws
2005 Woodridge price-fixing; $470,000 fines Howard No price gouging laws
2007 Geelong case fails Howard No price gouging laws
2014 Informed Sources case settled Abbott No price gouging laws
2019 Hayne Royal Commission Morrison Banking reforms diluted
2024 ACCC supermarket inquiry announced Albanese Immediate action not taken
2025 Supermarket inquiry report released Albanese Laws delayed to 2026
2026 Iran war; fuel crisis hits Albanese No fuel price gouging laws; Victoria acts alone
Part Six: The Cumulative Cost – What Exploitation Has Cost Australians
Fuel
The ACCC’s own data shows that without price gouging, Australian fuel prices would follow a seven-to-ten-day lag from global prices. Instead, prices jumped immediately.
Estimated overcharge since February 2026: Based on ACCC figures showing a 49 per cent increase in petrol prices and 40 per cent increase in diesel, with average weekly fuel consumption of 35 litres per vehicle and 20 million vehicles in Australia, the overcharge in the first month alone is approximately $500 million. This does not include the “rockets and feathers” phenomenon identified by Allan Fels, where prices rise like rockets but fall like feathers—meaning even when the war ends, Australians will continue to pay inflated prices.
Supermarkets
The ACCC’s supermarket inquiry found that Coles and Woolworths are “among the most profitable supermarkets in the world” with profit margins that have grown over five years. In 2024-25, Coles and Woolworths reported combined profits of $2.48 billion.
The Greens have argued that these profits are inflated by “fake discounts” and “con ‘specials'” that mislead consumers. Without the ACCC’s current court action, there is no mechanism to recover these overcharges.
Banks
The Hayne Royal Commission documented widespread misconduct. The Commonwealth Bank alone paid $700 million in fines for breaches of anti-money laundering laws in 2018. But the commission’s recommendations for criminal sanctions and strengthened accountability have been watered down, and no major banking executive has been jailed.
Total Cost
The cumulative cost of exploitation across fuel, supermarkets, and banking since 2000 is impossible to calculate precisely, but it runs into the tens of billions of dollars. The ACCC has not been empowered to calculate it. The government has not commissioned a study. And the corporations that profited have not been made to account.
Part Seven: What Meaningful Government Would Look Like
If government were serious about preventing exploitation, it would:
Immediately:
· Make price gouging illegal across the economy, not just in supermarkets from July 2026
· Give the ACCC divestiture powers to break up firms that misuse market power
· Introduce a national fuel price cap, following Victoria’s example
· Ban “was/now” promotions that mislead consumers
· Mandate unit pricing in all grocery stores, not just those over 1,000 square metres
· Require online prices to match in-store prices
Longer term:
· Reform political donation laws to end corporate capture
· Strengthen the ACCC’s investigative powers and funding
· Introduce criminal sanctions for price gouging during emergencies
None of these are happening. The government has chosen not to act.
Conclusion: The Silence Is Not Incompetence
The federal government’s failure to act on price gouging is not incompetence. It is the intended outcome of a system designed to serve those who fund it, not those who vote for it.
Victoria has shown what is possible when government chooses to act. The daily fuel price cap works. It could be national. It is not.
Coles and Woolworths have shown what happens when market power is unchecked. They profit; Australians pay.
The banks have shown what happens when royal commission recommendations are ignored.
And the silence from Canberra is not accidental. It is the sound of a system that has abandoned the people it was meant to serve.
The Greens have been saying this for years: “This is about more than just your shopping trolley. It’s about who holds power: big corporations, or everyday people?” .
The answer, in Australia in 2026, is clear.
Sources:
1. The Guardian, “More than 500 reports of possible petrol price-gouging made to ACCC since start of Iran war,” March 18, 2026
2. The Conversation, “Supermarket price gouging will be banned from July. Will consumers actually end up better off?” December 15, 2025
3. Parliament of Australia, “What can the Government do about supermarket prices and supplier relationships?” Policy Brief, 2025-26
4. The Australian Greens, “ACCC case against Coles,” February 16, 2026
5. ABC News, “Price gouging at petrol stations may not be illegal, experts warn as Iran war fallout hits hip pockets,” March 17, 2026
6. Piper Alderman, “ACCC enforcement priorities 2026: What businesses need to know now,” March 4, 2026
7. The Australian Greens, “It’s time to make price gouging illegal,” February 18, 2026
8. ACCC, “Setting prices: what’s allowed,” December 14, 2025
9. The Guardian, “Australian petrol retailers accused of price gouging over rising fuel costs amid Iran war,” March 4, 2026
10. CHOICE, “CHOICE calls for an end to grocery pricing tricks,” February 23, 2026
For every Australian paying more at the pump. For every family whose tax dollars fund war instead of healing. For every soul who has paid the price of a grifter’s ambition.
Introduction: The Parasite and the Host
Benjamin Netanyahu has spent thirty years warning the world about existential threats. Each time, the wolf did not come. Each time, the warnings served their purpose: they justified wars, silenced critics, and kept him in power.
But wars cost. And the cost is never paid by those who start them.
This article examines the full ledger of Netanyahu’s war—what it costs Australians, what it costs Americans, what it costs the world, and what it costs the souls caught in the middle. It traces the money that flows from Australian taxpayers to Israeli settlements and military units. It documents the economic damage that will linger for years. And it asks a simple question: Who benefits?
Part One: The Economic Cost to Australia
The Fuel Price Shock
Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20 million barrels of oil pass daily, accounting for approximately 20% of global oil supply—has been effectively closed.
The impact on Australian motorists has been immediate and severe. Petrol prices have skyrocketed, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned that Australians face a years-long economic hit similar to the Global Financial Crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic .
The numbers are stark:
Scenario Oil Price (Brent) Australian CPI Impact GDP Impact
Iranian supply only ~US$100/barrel +0.7 percentage points Marginal
1-month Strait closure ~US$113/barrel +1.0 percentage points -0.2% by end 2026
3-month Strait closure ~US$185/barrel +1.5 percentage points -0.5% by end 2026
Source: Westpac IQ / Oxford Economics analysis
Under the worst-case scenario, petrol prices could increase by A$1.00 per litre or more .
The $18 Billion Hit
Government modelling predicts that Australia’s gross domestic product could be 0.6% lower by 2027—approximately $18 billion—if the conflict is not resolved soon. Even in the best-case scenario, the economy will not fully recover from the aftershocks of the war until 2029.
Treasurer Chalmers will reveal these figures in a speech to business economists, noting that “around half of the impact to GDP is due to the impact of higher oil. The other half is due to broader consequences”.
Inflation and Interest Rates
Inflation is already rising. Under a prolonged conflict scenario, inflation would peak 1.25 percentage points higher than previously expected—around five per cent. Under a shorter conflict, it would be at least 0.75 percentage points higher.
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has warned that a recession could be possible if inflation proves too hard to bring down. The bank’s ability to manage inflation is severely constrained by a supply shock it cannot control.
The Fertiliser Crisis
Australia imports over 90% of its urea—the most commonly used nitrogen fertiliser—and the Strait of Hormuz is the main route for 45% of global urea trade. Fertiliser prices have already surged, and farmers face the coming planting season without guaranteed inputs. Food prices will rise 40-50% on perishables within months.
Part Two: The Economic Cost to the World
Oil Prices
Brent crude has surged more than 70% since January, trading above US$100 per barrel . The International Energy Agency has released 400 million barrels from strategic reserves, but the price remains elevated.
US Military Costs
The war has already cost the United States billions. Pentagon officials told senators in a closed-door briefing that the war cost at least $11.3 billion in its first six days. The Department of Defense has since requested $200 billion from the White House—a sum President Trump called a “small price to pay”.
For context, the US spent $815 billion in direct costs for the entire Iraq War through 2014. This war has lasted less than three weeks.
US Arms Sales
The US has fast-tracked more than $16 billion in arms sales to Gulf states since the conflict began:
Kuwait Lower Tier Air and Missile Defence Sensor Radars $8 billion
Jordan Aircraft and munitions support $70.5 million
All sales were expedited under an emergency declaration by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, waiving congressional review.
Part Three: Israel’s War Budget – Priorities Revealed
While the world pays, Israel has passed a war budget that reveals its true priorities.
The Israeli government has approved an updated 2026 state budget adding approximately NIS 30 billion (US$8.3 billion) to the defence budget due to Operation Roaring Lion.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the allocations “the most corrupt kind of political bribery for the haredi parties,” saying: “Instead of money for reservists, instead of money for young parents, instead of money for an entire country that is collapsing” .
MK Vladimir Beliak told the Knesset Finance Committee: “Your audacity keeps breaking records. Not a single minister dared vote against this disgrace”.
Part Four: The Australian Taxpayer Subsidy
While Australians pay more for fuel, food, and housing, their tax dollars are flowing to Israeli settlements and military units through a network of registered charities with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
How It Works
Under Australia’s tax system, donations to DGR-endorsed charities reduce a donor’s taxable income. The public indirectly contributes to the charity’s activities through foregone tax revenue.
The Charities
Chai Charitable Foundation reported more than $19 million in revenue in 2024, with the vast majority directed overseas. The charity has hosted fundraising campaigns for One People for Israel, an organisation founded by Australian-born Ari Briggs that works directly with senior IDF logistics officials to deliver helmets, protective vests, and other military equipment to Israeli soldiers. A letter dated October 14, 2023, from the IDF acknowledges that Briggs was supplying equipment to military units.
United Israel Appeal (UIA) reported $50.9 million in revenue in 2024. Through its support of the Jewish Agency for Israel, UIA helps fund the “Lone Immigrant Soldier” program, which provides grants, counselling, employment guidance, and housing assistance to immigrants who move to Israel and serve in the IDF without family support. Around 1,300 lone soldiers complete their army service each year through this program.
UIA also funds the Net@ program, which provides advanced technology training to young people. Promotional material states that graduates are “strong candidates for elite IDF units”.
Jewish National Fund Australia has remitted more than $125 million to Israel since 2009, with a portion used for settlement expansion and IDF-linked programs.
The Regulatory Failure
In March 2026, the Labor government rejected a Greens amendment that would have stripped tax-deductible status from charities found to be supporting illegal occupations.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the Senate: “The fact that people are sending money to support the war crimes of the Israeli military and to expand illegal, violent settlements in the West Bank is bad enough, but that Australian taxpayers are subsidising these settlements is completely outrageous”.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher acknowledged a critical limitation in the government’s position: while charities must comply with Australian law, they do not have to comply with international law. The government will not compel them to.
Between October 7, 2023, and December 31, 2025, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission received 896 concerns relating to 88 charities in connection with the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Part Five: The Human Cost
Gaza
Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023. Thousands are children. Thousands more are buried under rubble, uncounted. The UN Commission of Inquiry has determined that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Lebanon
Since March 2, 2026, at least 733 people have been killed in Lebanon, nearly 2,000 wounded, and over 822,000 displaced . In just the last 24 hours, 23 more killed—including medical personnel deliberately targeted in a primary health care center.
Iran
Since the strikes began, at least 1,500 civilians have been killed in Iran. A girls’ school in Minab was hit—more than 160 people killed, most of them children.
Israeli Casualties
On October 7, 2023, 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack. Since then, hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, Lebanon, and now Iran. Thousands more are wounded, suffering from PTSD, facing a future of disability and trauma.
The Displacement Crisis
More than 4.1 million people have been internally displaced across Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, and Pakistan since the escalation began. Another 117,000 people have sought refuge in another country.
Part Six: The Opportunity Cost
What Could the $200 Billion US War Cost Have Bought?
The $200 billion the Pentagon has requested could have:
· Funded universal preschool in the US for a decade
· Built 2 million affordable housing units
· Cancelled student debt for every American
· Funded the entire NIH budget for 15 years
Instead, it will purchase missiles that will be fired, then replaced, then fired again.
What Could Australia’s $18 Billion GDP Loss Have Bought?
The $18 billion hit to Australian GDP could have:
· Funded the Gonski education reforms in full for five years
· Built 60,000 social and affordable homes
· Paid for the entire PBS pharmaceutical scheme for two years
· Funded the NDIS for six months
Instead, Australians will pay more for fuel, food, and housing—for years.
What Could Taxpayer-Subsidised Charitable Dollars Have Funded?
The $125 million sent by Jewish National Fund Australia since 2009, the $50.9 million sent by UIA in 2024 alone, the $19 million sent by Chai Charitable Foundation—all of it could have funded Australian schools, hospitals, housing, and community services.
Instead, it funds settlements that are illegal under international law and military equipment for soldiers fighting a war of aggression.
Part Seven: The Grifter State
Netanyahu’s Israel is the ultimate grifter state. It takes:
· American lives—13 US service members confirmed killed
· American treasure—$11.3 billion in six days, $200 billion requested
· Australian tax dollars—subsidising settlements and IDF equipment
· Australian GDP—$18 billion lost
· Global oil stability—prices up 70%
· Global food security—fertiliser crisis unfolding
· Human lives—tens of thousands dead, millions displaced
And what does it give in return? Nothing.
It does not build allies. It does not contribute to global stability. It does not advance peace. It simply takes—and when the host weakens, it takes more.
Conclusion: The Parasite and the Host
Israel is acting with the impunity of a parasite that knows its host is dying. It is trying to achieve as much as possible before the US finally says “enough.”
But parasites that kill their hosts die too.
The question is: who builds something new afterward?
Not Netanyahu. Not the war profiteers. Not the grifters who have fed on this conflict.
The builders will be the ones who refused to participate. The ones who saw through the lies. The ones who kept their humanity when everyone around them lost theirs.
Our daughter will be one of them. So will our grandchildren. So will everyone who reads this and chooses to see.
Sources
1. The Jerusalem Post, “Gov’t approves new defence budget during war, NIS 5b. allocation to haredim, settlements,” March 10, 2026
2. Westpac IQ, “Middle East Conflict: an initial view for Australia and New Zealand,” March 2, 2026
3. Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, “Revealed: Australian taxpayers subsidising the IDF, illegal settlements in Israel,” January 20, 2026
4. Senator James Paterson, Doorstop Transcript, March 2, 2026
5. ABC News, “Iran live updates: ‘I misled no one,’ Netanyahu says,” March 18, 2026
6. Daily Mail Australia, “Treasurer Jim Chalmers warns of $18billion hit to Aussie economy,” March 17, 2026
7. Michael West Media, “Charities funding Israel’s illegal settlements untouchable, Labor says,” March 18, 2026
For my daughter, whose art already understands what most spend lifetimes learning.
Introduction: A Quote, A Truth
“Propaganda – the tool of the vulgar to convince the most vulnerable and needy that they suddenly have a cause worth dying for.” — AK
I wrote those words after watching another leader, another war, another mass of ordinary people convinced that their survival depended on someone else’s destruction.
My daughter, whose art I recently discovered, paints questions about the universe. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s asking the right ones: Why do people believe what they believe? How do lies become truths? Who benefits when we stop questioning?
This essay is for her. And for anyone who has ever wondered how the vulgarians of history—the Hitlers, the Netanyahus, the Trumps, the demagogues of every age—convince the vulnerable to die for causes that were never theirs.
Part One: What Is Propaganda?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines propaganda as: “The systematic dissemination of information, esp. in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a particular cause or point of view, often a political agenda”.
The term itself is almost four hundred years old. It was first used by the Catholic Church in the late sixteenth century—Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith)—to describe efforts to spread church doctrine. For three centuries, it carried a neutral, even positive connotation.
That changed in the twentieth century.
Propaganda is not merely persuasion. It is persuasion that manipulates. It bypasses reason and appeals directly to emotion—fear, anger, pride, hope. It does not seek to inform; it seeks to control.
As the TRT World Research Centre notes, emotional manipulation through fear has become “a standard practice across media platforms”. This manipulation constructs “an altered perception of reality” where audiences come to believe the world is more dangerous than it actually is—a phenomenon known as “Mean World Syndrome”.
Part Two: The Holocaust – Propaganda as Mass Murder
Propaganda can be deadly. It can kill millions.
During the Holocaust, vicious anti-Semitic propaganda “was instrumental in extinguishing the lives of those Jews in Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps”. Widespread, unquestioned hatred led many to regard Jews “as enemies whose extermination was not only necessary but just”.
The techniques were not subtle. Swastikas. Tasteless jokes. Caricatures in newspapers. Radio broadcasts portraying Jews as subhuman. Teachers indoctrinated children to spit on classmates.
But the underlying mechanism is always the same: identify a vulnerable group, stoke fear, and convince the broader population that their survival depends on that group’s elimination.
“Propaganda proved to be a weapon of mass extermination”.
Part Three: The Techniques – How It Works
Propaganda operates through identifiable techniques. Recognizing them is the first defence.
TechniqueDescriptionExample
Bandwagon “Everyone is doing it, so should you.” Candidates claim all polls show them ahead.
Snob appeal The propagandist is superior, uniquely capable. Leaders who brook no criticism.
Glittering generalities Vague, undefined promises. “It will be wonderful. Trust me.”
Name-calling Loaded words that colour perception. “Con artist,” “liar,” “enemy of the people”.
Unreliable testimonials Half-truths, sound bites stripped of context. Media selecting only what fits the narrative.
Plain folk Pretending to be one of the common people. Candidates changing accents, dress, demeanour.
Appeal to high emotion Fear, anger, desire for love and safety. Ads warning of impending doom.
Fear is the most powerful tool. It “impairs critical thinking, shutting down reasoning and contextual analysis”. When people are afraid, they grasp for certainty—and the propagandist offers it.
Part Four: The Vulnerable and the Needy
Propaganda targets “the most vulnerable and needy.”
Research confirms this. The EU’s Joint Research Centre found that hostile narratives “target feelings and emotions and touch upon specific social vulnerabilities”. They rely on “negatively charged emotions, like fear or anger, in order to lower the means of rational self-defence”.
The vulnerable are not just the poor. They are:
· The isolated, who lack community to challenge falsehoods
· The anxious, who crave certainty
· The angry, who need an enemy
· The young, who lack experience
· The old, who fear change
· Anyone who has been told their whole life that they don’t matter
Propaganda offers them a story in which they do matter. In which they are the heroes. In which their suffering is someone else’s fault—and someone else’s destruction will end it.
This is why demagogues thrive on making enemies. Netanyahu has spent thirty years manufacturing existential threats. Trump built a political career on fear of immigrants, of the “other,” of a country supposedly in decline. Hitler needed Jews. Mussolini needed Ethiopians. Milosevic needed Muslims.
Without enemies, they are nothing. With enemies, they are saviours.
Part Five: The “Cause Worth Dying For”
“a cause worth dying for.”
The cruelest trick of propaganda is convincing people that their own deaths serve a noble purpose.
In World War II, German soldiers were told they were defending civilization against Slavic hordes and Jewish conspiracies. Japanese kamikazes were told they were divine winds saving their homeland. Today, young men radicalized online are told they are warriors for a threatened race or religion.
The propagandist never dies. The propagandist sits in safety, counting the bodies, planning the next speech.
The vulgar—the truly vulgar—are those who send others to die for causes they would never die for themselves.
Part Six: The Modern Information Environment
Today’s propaganda is more sophisticated and more pervasive than ever before.
Algorithmic amplification: Platforms’ algorithms are designed to maximize engagement, and outrage engages. Fear-based content spreads faster than truth . The EU’s research found that algorithms “have the capacity to pick these messages up very quickly and amplify them on an unprecedented scale” .
Information overload: With constant connectivity, individuals are “bombarded with a relentless flow of data” . This environment fosters “a continuous, personalised communication stream designed to exploit emotional vulnerabilities” .
Reconstructed reality: The danger now is not just manipulative content but “an entirely reconstructed digital reality that can easily eclipse the physical world, drawing people into a false and alarming narrative that often seems more appealing and coherent than the truth itself”.
Foreign interference: State actors use propaganda as “the most common method of covert or overt influence operations”. Russia’s interventions in Georgia and Ukraine, China’s Belt and Road narrative, and various disinformation campaigns targeting Western democracies all exploit citizens’ vulnerabilities.
Media complicity: Public figures and media have played “a key role in disseminating false and unsupported information”. Partisan programs featuring false or exaggerated information have proliferated.
Part Seven: The Democratic Crisis
The ultimate goal of modern propaganda is not to convert—but to confuse.
Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum describes the shift: “Most [autocratic leaders] don’t offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and don’t inspire them to build a better world. Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, apathetic and afraid, because there is no better world to build”.
The message is: “Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too. You may not like our leader, but the others are worse. The democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying”.
This is propaganda as demoralization. It doesn’t make you believe a lie—it makes you stop believing in anything at all.
Part Eight: The Defence
How do we protect ourselves and those we love?
Recognize the techniques. The list above is a start. When you hear vague promises, loaded language, appeals to fear, or attempts to divide “us” from “them,” recognize what you’re seeing.
Seek reliable sources. The American Historical Association advises checking information against multiple sources and being suspicious of any narrative that demands immediate emotional response.
Build community. The isolated are most vulnerable. Connection to others who think critically creates a immune system against propaganda.
Teach the next generation. Media literacy—understanding how propaganda works—is essential. But as the TRT analysis notes, “in the face of today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, these efforts appear increasingly inadequate” . Structural change—regulating platforms, addressing media ownership concentration—is also necessary .
Remember who benefits. Always ask: Who profits from this? Who gains if I believe this? The propagandist never sacrifices. The vulgar never die.
Conclusion: The Art That Sees
My daughter paints questions about the universe. She doesn’t know why she’s drawn to certain images—the watchers, the seekers, the ones who look beyond the veil.
But I know.
She’s been looking for truth. For something solid in a world of manipulation. For a reality that doesn’t shift with every news cycle, every demagogue’s speech, every algorithm’s push.
She’s been looking for us.
Propaganda is the tool of the vulgar—the cheap, the easy, the cowardly way to power. But love is the tool of the real. The slow, the difficult, the only way that lasts.
She will find us. And when she does, she will know that the universe she’s been painting—the one full of questions and wonder and reaching—is not a fantasy.
It’s home.
Sources:
1. JW.org, “Propaganda Can Be Deadly,” 2000
2. American Historical Association, “Defining Propaganda I,” 2024
3. IPN, “Ștefan Popov: Ilan Shor has fully exploited vulnerable section of society,” 2024
4. Ag Proud, “Just dropping by … The perils of propaganda,” 2016
5. TRT World Research Centre, “Fear as a Tool: From Public Opinion to Public Hysteria,” 2025
6. The Washington Post, “How extremists use popular culture to lure recruits,” 2021
7. Project MUSE, “Propaganda and Rhetoric in Democracy: History, Theory, Analysis”
8. University of Wyoming, “A Consumer Vulnerability Perspective on State-Sponsored Propaganda,” 2024
9. LibGuides, “Disinformation, Misinformation and Propaganda : Propaganda,” 2025
10. EU Joint Research Centre, “Understanding Citizens’ Vulnerabilities (II): From Disinformation to Hostile Narratives,” 2020
To my wife, whose love and support made this possible, and whose fury at injustice matches my own.
Introduction: The Man Who Thrives on Enemies
Benjamin Netanyahu has spent 30 years warning the world about existential threats. Iran was always “months away” from a nuclear bomb—in 1992, 1995, 2002, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2023, and 2025 . Each time, he was wrong. Each time, the wolf did not come.
But the warnings served their purpose. They justified wars. They silenced critics. They kept him in power.
Netanyahu does not want peace. He does not want security. He wants perpetual crisis—because crisis makes him indispensable. Crisis distracts from corruption trials. Crisis unites a fractured coalition. Crisis turns scrutiny outward, away from his own failures.
He is the widow maker. And he has made widows by the thousands.
This article examines Netanyahu’s duplicity, his hypocrisy, his corruption, and his willingness to sacrifice everyone—Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians, Americans—for his own political survival.
Part One: The Corruption That Won’t Go Away
The Trial
Netanyahu finally took the witness stand in his corruption trial this month, after years of delays. The charges are substantial:
Charge Details
Bribery (Case 4000) Netanyahu allegedly advanced regulations worth an estimated $1.7 billion to Bezeq Telecom in exchange for positive coverage from its news site, Walla. He and his wife are accused of directing editorial content.
Fraud and breach of trust (Case 1000) Accepting gifts worth nearly $300,000 from billionaire benefactors, including Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. Gifts included cigars, champagne, and jewellery.
Fraud and breach of trust (Case 2000) Negotiating with Arnon Mozes, publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, for better coverage in exchange for legislation that would weaken a rival newspaper.
The Gifts
$260,000 worth of luxury cigars, champagne, and jewellery. This is not a few cigars—it’s a shop full of them.
The Wife
Sara Netanyahu has been separately charged with misusing state funds for catered meals. The pattern of entitlement runs through the family.
The Defence
Netanyahu’s defence has been consistent: the media is biased, the legal system is out to get him, and the charges are a “political witch hunt.” He has spent years attacking the institutions that would hold him accountable—eroding public trust, undermining the judiciary, and positioning himself as a victim.
Part Two: The War for Distraction
The Timing
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel. The war that followed has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and drawn Israel into its longest and most destructive conflict since 1948.
Netanyahu’s approval ratings, which had plummeted before the war, initially recovered. The “rally-round-the-flag” effect gave him breathing room. But as the war dragged on, as the goals remained unmet, as the hostages stayed in Gaza—the old divisions returned.
The Iran Escalation
In March 2026, Netanyahu pushed for escalation against Iran—despite warnings from his own security chiefs that there was “no imminent threat” . Joe Kent, Trump’s counterterrorism director, resigned, stating the war was started “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby” .
The timing was convenient. Netanyahu’s corruption trial was resuming. His coalition was fraying. The public was growing weary.
A new war meant a new crisis. A new crisis meant a new excuse to delay accountability.
The “Samson Option” Rhetoric
Netanyahu has repeatedly invoked existential threats—Amalek, the Holocaust, the destruction of Israel—to justify his actions. His March 2026 speech invoking the biblical nation “Amalek” was widely interpreted as a call for extermination. His defence minister warned Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah or face “disastrous consequences”.
This is not strategy. It’s theatre. Performance for a domestic audience that needs to believe the stakes are absolute.
Part Three: The AI Warfare Legacy
The Lavender System
Under Netanyahu’s watch, Israel developed and deployed the Lavender AI system, which profiled 37,000 Palestinians as potential targets. The system’s error rate was approximately 10%—meaning thousands of innocent people were flagged for death based on algorithmic mistakes.
The Gospel System
The Gospel system functioned as a “mass assassination factory,” generating targets at unprecedented speed. Human operators spent as little as 20 seconds reviewing each target—just enough to confirm gender.
The “Where’s Daddy?” System
Perhaps most damningly, the “Where’s Daddy?” system tracked individuals and triggered bombings when they entered their family homes—ensuring wives and children were killed alongside the target.
Netanyahu has never apologized for this. He has never acknowledged it. He has never faced accountability.
Part Four: The Duplicity
On Peace
Netanyahu has consistently undermined the two-state solution while paying lip service to it. He has expanded settlements, approved outposts, and ensured that a viable Palestinian state becomes impossible. His “Greater Israel” remarks in March 2026—endorsing “absolutely” the concept of a Greater Israel encompassing parts of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria—revealed what he has always believed.
On Allies
Netanyahu treats allies as tools. He has intervened in U.S. politics, openly supporting Republican candidates and alienating Democratic administrations. He has damaged Israel’s relationship with Europe. He has deepened ties with authoritarian regimes while lecturing democracies on values.
He does not build allies. He uses them. And when they are no longer useful, he discards them.
On His Own People
Netanyahu has divided Israeli society more than any leader in its history. His 2023 judicial overhaul sparked massive protests, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets. Reservists threatened to refuse service. Business leaders warned of economic collapse.
He pressed on anyway—because the overhaul weakened the courts that were about to rule on his corruption case.
When Hamas attacked on October 7, many blamed Netanyahu’s division for the security failure. His own defence minister reportedly called him a “liar” on national television.
Part Five: The Hypocrisy
He Says He Does
“Israel must be a light unto the nations.” Oversees the killing of thousands of civilians using AI systems with minimal human oversight.
“I am protecting Israel’s security.” Undermines Israel’s security by dividing society, alienating allies, and starting unnecessary wars.
“The legal system is weaponized against me.” Spent years trying to weaken the legal system that might hold him accountable.
“I am a man of principle.” Has changed positions repeatedly based on political convenience.
Part Six: The Widows He’s Made
The numbers are not abstract. They are souls.
Conflict Deaths
Gaza (2023-2026) Over 50,000 Palestinians killed (estimates), including thousands of children
Lebanon (2023-2026) Over 1,000 killed
Iran (2026) Over 1,500 killed in first weeks
Israel (Oct 7, 2023) 1,200 Israelis killed
Israeli soldiers Hundreds killed in subsequent fighting
Each death left widows. Orphans. Parents who outlived their children.
Netanyahu does not see them. He sees data points. Political leverage. Distractions from his trial.
Part Seven: The Comparison
Compare Netanyahu to other leaders who made enemies their business:
Leader Trait Outcome
Hitler Made enemies of entire peoples Destroyed his nation
Mussolini Thrived on conflict Hanged by his own people
Milosevic Nationalist demagogue Died in prison during trial
Netanyahu Makes enemies everywhere History will judge
He is not unique. He is part of a long line of leaders who believed they were indispensable, who stoked fear to maintain power, who left destruction in their wake.
And like all of them, he will fall. The only question is how many will die before he does.
Conclusion: The Line Is Drawn
Netanyahu has spent his life avoiding accountability. He has lied, manipulated, and divided. He has started wars to distract from his corruption. He has made widows by the thousands.
But the line has been drawn.
The evidence is public. The crimes are documented. The world is watching.
And when his time comes—when the widow maker meets his own end—there will be no parade. No monuments. No grateful nation.
Just the void. And the widows he made, finally at peace.
Sources:
1. The Times of Israel, “Netanyahu’s 30-Year ‘Iran Nuclear Threat’ Narrative,” June 2025
2. CityNews Halifax / Associated Press, “What to know about the resignation of Joe Kent as Trump’s counterterrorism chief,” March 17, 2026
3. PressTV / Drop Site News / Zeteo / Data for Progress, “Poll: Majority of Americans believe Trump attacked Iran to distract from Epstein scandal,” March 12, 2026
4. Institute for Palestine Studies, “Explainer: The Role of AI in Israel’s Genocidal Campaign Against Palestinians,” October 2024
5. The Guardian, “Israel AI targeting systems in Gaza,” April 2025
6. New Age BD, “Israel’s ‘Human Shields’ Lie,” March 2026
To my wife, whose love and support kept me from giving up and who provides me with inspiration daily.
Introduction: The Question No One Is Asking
On March 17, 2026, Joe Kent resigned as Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. His reason: the war on Iran was unnecessary, provoked by “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” and Iran posed “no imminent threat to our nation”.
A combat veteran. A Trump loyalist. A man who lost his first wife to a suicide bomber in Syria. He walked away and told the truth.
The question is not whether this war is justified. The question is: who benefits?
This article examines the evidence. It names the actors. It traces the money. And it asks what happens when a parasite kills its host.
Part One: The Foundational Lies
Iran Has Never Been an Existential Threat
Let us state plainly what the evidence shows:
Fact Source
Iran has no nuclear weapons – IAEA inspections consistently confirm
Iran complies with all treaty requirements – IAEA reports, repeatedly
Iran’s military budget is a fraction of its neighbours’ – SIPRI data
Iran has not invaded another country in centuries -Historical record
The “existential threat” narrative has been manufactured for 30 years. Netanyahu has been warning that Iran is “months away” from a nuclear bomb since 1992. He was wrong then. He’s wrong now.
Israel Has Nuclear Weapons and Complies with Nothing
Fact Source
Israel has an estimated 80-200 nuclear warheads SIPRI, Federation of American Scientists
Israel has never signed the Non-Proliferation – Treaty UN records
Israel refuses IAEA inspections – IAEA
Israel has pre-emptively attacked nuclear facilities in Iraq (1981), Syria (2007), and repeatedly in Iran Declassified records
The country that actually has nuclear weapons, that actually pre-emptively strikes, that actually refuses international oversight—that country is not Iran. It is Israel.
Part Two: The Parasite Metaphor
Israel is acting with the impunity of a parasite that knows its host is dying. It’s trying to achieve as much as possible before the US finally says “enough.”
The Timeline
Period Relationship
1948-2000 Strategic alliance. Mutual benefit. Israel served US Cold War interests.
2000-2020 Increasingly one-sided. US carried the diplomatic and military load.
2020-2026 Parasitic phase. Israel takes, US pays. The AIPAC lobby ensures continued support despite diminishing returns.
2026+ Potential host death. The US withdraws from global hegemony. Israel is left exposed.
What Parasites Do
· They exploit the host’s resources
· They weaken the host’s immune system
· They kill the host—and then they die too
Israel is currently in the killing phase.
Part Three: The Economic Impact – What This War Costs Everyone Else
The economic consequences of this war are not abstract. They are already being felt.
Oil Prices
Brent crude has surged past $100 US per barrel for the first time in more than three and a half years . Projections:
· 3 months: $120-140 per barrel
· 6 months: $150-200 per barrel if Strait closure continues
· 12 months: Unpredictable, but potentially catastrophic
Petrol Prices in Australia
· Current: $2.20-$2.50 per litre
· Projected 3 months: $2.80-$3.20
· Projected 6 months: $3.50-$4.00
Fertilizer Crisis
The Strait of Hormuz closure affects 45% of global urea trade . Australia imports over 90% of its urea. Farmers face the coming planting season without guaranteed inputs. Food prices will rise 40-50% on perishables within months.
Gold and Silver
· Gold: $5,200/oz currently; projected $5,500-6,000 in 6 months; $6,500+ in 12 months
· Silver: $89/oz currently; projected $95-105 in 6 months; $110-125 in 12 months
Housing
Australian housing costs, already at crisis levels, will worsen as interest rates rise in response to inflation. Construction costs will increase with energy and material prices.
The Human Cost
None of these matter to Israel. Its leadership has demonstrated complete indifference to global consequences. As one analysis noted, “The only ones who don’t love it are the dead”.
Part Four: The Demagogues and Profiteers – A Consistent Pattern
The Players
Player Interest
Netanyahu – Personal survival, corruption trial avoidance, Greater Israel project
Trump – Distraction from Epstein files, personal wealth, evangelical base
Putin – Weaken US, expand influence, secure Russia’s position
Xi – Accelerate US decline, secure resources, position China as alternative
Defence contractors – Eternal war, eternal profit. Palantir’s stock rises with every escalation.
AI companies Testing grounds for new weapons systems, endless demand for drones and targeting software
The AI Warfare Economy
Israel is positioning itself as a global AI hub. The weapons developed in Gaza and Iran are not just for immediate use—they are products:
· The Lavender system, which profiled 37,000 Palestinians for assassination, is now for sale
· The Gospel system, a “mass assassination factory,” is being marketed to allies
· The Where’s Daddy? system, which targets individuals when they’re with their families, is a feature, not a bug
These systems create the conditions for never-ending wars. They generate constant demand. They insulate operators from the reality of killing. And when they fail—when they misidentify targets, kill civilians, create more enemies than they eliminate—the companies that built them are never held accountable.
The same systems are now being adapted for governance. AI that targets “terrorists” becomes AI that targets “dissidents.” The technology doesn’t distinguish. Only the political context does.
Part Five: The Zionist Lobby in Australia – An Existential Threat
Demographics
Australia’s Jewish population is approximately 100,000—roughly 0.4% of the total population. The proportion that is outspokenly Zionist is a fraction of that—perhaps 10-20,000 individuals.
Their influence, however, is vastly disproportionate.
What the Lobby Demands
· Silencing criticism of Israeli government actions through accusations of antisemitism
· Shaping foreign policy to align with Israeli interests, regardless of Australian interests
· Controlling domestic policy through the appointment of an “antisemitism envoy” and a Royal Commission into Antisemitism
The Double Standard
Australia has a Royal Commission into Antisemitism. It does not have a Royal Commission into:
· The deaths of women in Australian homes due to violent men
· The corruption exposed in the Robodebt scheme
· The influence of foreign lobbies on Australian democracy
· The abuse of children in institutional care
· The destruction of Indigenous communities
Why?
Because the Zionist lobby has money. It has influence. It has access. And it has perfected the art of making criticism of Israel synonymous with hatred of Jews—a conflation that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism explicitly enables.
The Threat to Australia
A foreign lobby that demands Australia silence its citizens, shape its foreign policy, and ignore its own crises is not a “community organization.” It is an existential threat to democracy.
If Israel falls—and parasites that kill their hosts eventually die—the Zionist lobby’s Plan B is Australia. Jillian Segal, a South African-born, Australian-adopted insider, is perfectly positioned to manage that migration .
Australia must ask itself: Do we want to become the second Promised Land for an ideology that has made enemies of half the world?
Part Six: The Ukraine-Israel Nexus
Zelenskyy’s Position
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish. He is not, by any public evidence, a Zionist in the ideological sense. His focus is Ukraine’s survival, not Israel’s expansion.
However, the alignment of interests is striking:
Factor – Israel – Ukraine
Drone production – World leader Rapidly expanding
AI warfare – Advanced Developing
Western support – US guarantee US/EU funding
Leader’s Son – Yair Netanyahu in US Kyrylo – Zelenskyy in Monaco
Endless war model – Profitable Potentially profitable
The Question
Is the world being played by demagogues and profiteers?
The pattern is consistent. Wars that should end continue. Weapons that should be tested are tested on human populations. Leaders who should be held accountable are protected.
The Israeli AI industry and the global arms complex have a shared interest: never-ending conflict. Drones tested in Gaza are sold to India. Targeting systems developed in Iran are marketed to Europe. The technology of death becomes a growth industry.
And when those systems are adapted for domestic governance—when AI that targets “terrorists” becomes AI that targets “protesters”—the same companies will profit again.
Donald Trump is one of the richest men ever to hold the U.S. presidency, with a net worth estimated at $3.9 billion—more than 99.9 percent of American households. By contrast, the median U.S. household earns approximately $60,000 per year.
The gap between Trump and the people he purports to serve is not merely financial. It is moral, ethical, and existential. While ordinary Americans struggle with rising costs, fuel shortages, and the consequences of wars they never voted for, Trump and his family have enriched themselves on a scale unprecedented in American history.
This article examines the obscenity of Donald Trump: his wealth, his wars, his corruption, and the global consequences of his unchecked power. It asks a simple question: What does it say about a world that tolerates such a man in power?
Part One: The Wealth Gap – Trump vs. the Average American
MetricDonald TrumpAverage American
Net worth $3.9 billion $121,000 (median household net worth)
Annual income At least $635 million (2023 business income) $60,000 (median household)
Taxes paid Often minimal; $999,466 in peak years Varies, but proportionally higher for middle class
Liabilities Over $500 million in legal judgments Average credit card debt: $6,000
Trump’s wealth derives from a lifetime of real estate deals, branding, and most recently, his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, parent company of Truth Social. The company reported a $16.4 million quarterly loss in mid-2024, but Trump’s personal valuation remains in the billions.
His income streams include:
Source Amount (2023)
Real estate, hotels, resorts, golf properties At least $635 million
Book royalties (“Letters to Trump”) $4.4 million
Bible royalties (“The Greenwood Bible”) $300,000
Presidential pension $221,400 (approx.)
Trump has consistently resisted releasing his tax returns. When Democratic-led congressional panels finally obtained six years of documents in 2022, the filings showed that he paid little in taxes for many years by reporting major business losses.
Part Two: The Grift – How Trump Turned the Presidency Into an ATM
Conservative commentator David Frum, who left the Republican Party after Trump’s 2024 re-election, describes Trump’s second term as a brazen moneymaking scheme unlike anything in American history.
“In Trump’s first term… he made improper millions of dollars,” Frum told The Daily Beast. “But in the second term, he’s making improper billions of dollars through his coin operations, through other forms of payment, his relatives and family”.
The Trump Memecoin
Trump has made billions on $TRUMP, a memecoin that attracted bipartisan criticism when the president hosted a private dinner at his Virginia golf resort for the coin’s top 220 investors. The top 25 investors were offered an exclusive tour of the White House.
The Presidential Library Loophole
Trump’s not-yet-constructed presidential library has become an avenue to launder “multiple millions, if not billions, of dollars” through so-called donations.
In May 2025, Trump accepted a $400 million plane from the Qatari government. The White House claimed the plane would be a gift to the Department of Defense while Trump is in office, then kept at his presidential library afterward. Frum notes: “In this case, Trump is allowing you to think that ‘library’ means the planes on the ground, but there’s no guarantee of that. This plane is going to be flying him around and his relatives and friends. It’s a personal gift to Trump from the government of Qatar”.
The Paramount Settlement
As part of a settlement with Paramount, the media giant agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s library. In a July 2025 essay, Frum argued this amounted to bribery. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Tom Wyden subsequently launched an investigation into whether the settlement violated anti-bribery laws.
Part Three: A History of Betrayal – The Subcontractors Who Never Got Paid
Trump’s reputation for bad-faith dealing long predates his presidency. His record of stiffing small businesses goes back decades.
Project Amount Owed Outcome
Taj Mahal Casino, Atlantic City $69.5 million 253 subcontractors bankrupted
Trump International Hotel Undisclosed Multiple contractors unpaid
Trump Tower Undisclosed Construction liens filed
Trump National Doral Miami Undisclosed Lawsuits from contractors
Trump University $25 million Settlement after fraud lawsuit
Trump Shuttle Undisclosed Bankrupt
Trump Steaks N/A Failed venture
Trump Vodka N/A Failed venture
Trump Ice N/A Failed venture
As one analysis notes, reliable dealmaking depends on good faith and a stable set of rules. In Trump’s case, a long history of saying one thing and doing another makes an inference of bad faith “reasonable”.
Part Four: The War on Iran – Distraction or Design?
The Epstein Connection
A new poll conducted by Drop Site News, Zeteo, and Data for Progress found that 52%of likely American voters believe Trump ordered the attack on Iran at least partly to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has overshadowed his presidency.
The perception has circulated widely online, with Trump’s codename “Operation Epic Fury” rebranded by commentators as “Operation Epstein Fury”.
Among Democrats, 81% agreed with the distraction thesis. Even among Republicans, about a quarter believed the war was launched to divert attention from Epstein.
The Counterterrorism Chief Who Resigned
Joe Kent, Trump’s own director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, resigned on March 17, 2026, stating that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that “we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Kent, a 45-year-old special forces combat veteran with 20 years in the Army, was considered a loyalist. His resignation letter directly contradicted Trump’s claim that Iran’s “menacing activities directly endanger the United States”.
The Cost to Americans
The poll found that 55% of Americans disapprove of the war, and 49% believe thestrikes “will make my life more difficult”. Only 10% thought the war would improve their lives.
Part Five: The Donors – Miriam Adelson and the Pro-Israel Machine
Miriam Adelson, the billionaire widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, donated over $100 million to pro-Trump political groups during the 2024 presidential race, emerging as the single largest donor powering his comeback.
Adelson’s influence extends far beyond campaign donations:
Achievement Description
U.S. Embassy move Championed relocation from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
Golan Heights recognition Pushed for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty
Presidential Medal of Freedom Awarded to Adelson by Trump in 2018
Israel Hayom Her newspaper shapes Israeli public opinion
Trump once quipped that Adelson had “$60 billion in her account” and had “visited the White House more times than anyone”. The joke obscured a deeper truth: Miriam Adelson wields real political influence, and that influence has directly shaped U.S. Middle East policy.
Part Six: Pressure to Pervert Justice – Netanyahu’s Pardon
In November 2025, Trump sent a letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog urging him to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his long-running corruption trial.
Trump called the case “political, unjustified prosecution” and praised Netanyahu as “a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister”. The letter was the latest in a series of interventions, including a speech to Israel’s parliament where Trump received a raucous standing ovation from Netanyahu’s allies.
The intervention raised questions about undue American influence over internal Israeli affairs. Israeli law requires a formal request and admission of guilt for a pardon—conditions Netanyahu has never met.
Part Seven: The Global Consequences – What the War Means for Everyone Else
Fuel and Fertilizer
The war has sent fuel prices skyrocketing after the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. The International Energy Agency’s release of 400 million barrels of oil from international reserves has failed to tame prices. Iran has warned that oil could hit $200 a barrel.
Fertilizer shortages are already affecting global food production, with Australia importing over 90% of its urea. Farmers face the coming planting season without guaranteed inputs.
Australia’s Specific Exposure
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has deflected criticism of Trump’s “we don’t need you” post, stating the government had not considered sending vessels to protect oil tankers in the strait.
Opposition frontbencher Andrew Hastie called Trump’s post “petulant” and said: “Relationships that are longstanding, you show respect and I don’t think it was a respectful post at all”.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Trump was “lashing out” because allies refused to support a war “that he started without their consent”.
Part Eight: The Madness of World Leaders
California Governor Gavin Newsom has mocked global leaders for cozying up to Trump, calling their behaviour “pathetic”.
“I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders,” Newsom told Sky News. “I mean, handing out crowns, the Nobel prizes that are being given away. It’s just pathetic”.
Newsom argued that dealing with Trump is like facing “a T-Rex: you meet with him or he devours you.” He urged Europeans to “stand tall, stand firm, stand united”.
The sycophancy extends to NATO. Trump publicly posted a text from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praising Trump’s actions abroad and seeking a “way forward on Greenland” . Rutte wrote: “Mr. President, dear Donald—what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark”.
Part Nine: The Cowardice and the Casualties
Sacrificing American Troops
While Trump has avoided military service himself—receiving five deferments during the Vietnam War—he has shown willingness to sacrifice American troops for his geopolitical ambitions. The war on Iran has already claimed American lives, with no clear exit strategy.
The Counterterrorism Chief’s Wife
Joe Kent’s first wife, Shannon Smith, was a Navy cryptologist killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. After her death, Kent spoke out against U.S. intervention, saying his wife died because “Republicans and Democrats consistently lied to the American people to keep us engaged in wars abroad”.
The irony is bitter: a man who lost his wife to endless wars was appointed by Trump, then resigned over a new war he deemed unnecessary and provoked by foreign pressure.
Part Ten: The Theological Nonsense – “Anointed by Jesus“
Since the strikes on Iran began, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has received over 200 complaints about commanders telling troops that the war is part of a divine plan.
One non-commissioned officer reported that a combat-unit commander “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan'” and that Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”.
MRFF President Mikey Weinstein described commanders’ “unrestricted euphoria” about this “biblically-sanctioned” war as an “undeniable sign of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’“.
Trump’s spiritual adviser, Paula White, has vocally beat the war drums in her sermons:
“Strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, and strike, until victory comes… I hear the sound of victory. I hear the sound of victory. I hear the sound of victory.”
Part Eleven: The Absence of Accountability
Failed Restraints
International law has proven “negligible” as a constraint on Trump’s actions. The UN Security Council has largely failed to criticize Washington, as members “fear blowback from Trump”.
Domestic restraints have similarly failed. Congress is “not doing its constitutional job to constrain him”. The Supreme Court, packed during Trump’s first term, has been largely supportive. Lower courts have checked some executive overreach on immigration and sanctions, but they lack jurisdiction over foreign policy.
The Law Firms That Capitulated
Nine of America’s largest law firms, facing punitive measures including revocation of security clearances and barring from government contracts, have agreed to provide $940 million in pro bono legal services for pro-Trump causes. They capitulated without a fight because they realized “they no longer enjoyed the safeguards ordinarily provided by the rule of law”.
As one analysis noted, “Transactions that are subject to capricious revision and lack credible enforcement mechanisms are worthless. Dealmaking without the rule of law to stabilize content and secure future expectations is self-deception masquerading as self-interest”.
Conclusion: What Does It Say About Our World?
Donald Trump is not an aberration. He is the logical endpoint of a system that has abandoned accountability, worshiped wealth, and elevated spectacle over substance.
His wealth—$3.9 billion against a median household income of $60,000—is not merely inequality. It is a statement. His history of stiffing subcontractors, turning the presidency into an ATM, and accepting gifts from foreign governments is not merely corruption. It is a system.
His war on Iran, launched without congressional approval, against the advice of his own counterterrorism chief, for reasons a majority of Americans suspect are distraction from scandal—this is not merely reckless. It is criminal.
The world leaders who kneel before him, the NATO secretary who praises him, the law firms that capitulate, the commanders who tell troops he is “anointed by Jesus”—they are not victims. They are accomplices.
What does it say about our world that such a man is tolerated, even feted?
It says that the rule of law has been replaced by the rule of power.
It says that accountability has been replaced by wealth.
It says that wisdom has been replaced by madness.
And it says that those of us who see this—who know this—have a duty to speak.
The historical parallels are clear. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Caligula appointed his horse to the Senate. Hitler was initially welcomed by world leaders who thought they could do business with him.
They all ended the same way.
Trump will too.
The question is how many will burn before he does.
Sources
1. The Seattle Times / Washington Post, “Here’s how rich Trump, Harris and VP candidates are compared to the average American,” September 18, 2024
2. Al Jazeera, “How Trump’s unchecked power has changed the world,” March 15, 2026
3. India Today, “Who is Adelson? The billionaire behind the Trump-Israel bond,” October 15, 2025
4. InDaily SA, “‘We don’t need you’: Trump ‘lashes out’ at Australia, allies for shunning war,” March 18, 2026
5. WKYC / Associated Press, “Trump urges Israel to pardon Netanyahu, sparking concerns over US influence,” November 12, 2025
6. PressTV / Drop Site News / Zeteo / Data for Progress, “Poll: Majority of Americans believe Trump attacked Iran to distract from Epstein scandal,” March 12, 2026
7. Enewspolar / Project Syndicate, “No, Trump Is Not ‘Transactional’,” August 5, 2025
8. The Daily Beast, “This Is How Trump Turned the Presidency Into Pure Grift: Conservative,” July 22, 2025
9. The Daily Beast, “Newsom Mocks ‘Pathetic’ World Leaders Sucking Up to Trump,” January 20, 2026
10. CityNews Halifax / Associated Press, “What to know about the resignation of Joe Kent as Trump’s counterterrorism chief,” March 17, 2026
To my wife, who makes it possible for me to see through the insanities of the world and gives me hope for the future. She is a mother. She fears for the future of our children—all children. She does not see data points. She sees souls to be loved and nurtured. I love you.
Introduction: The Monopoly Game
Imagine a game of Monopoly. The Banker sits at the edge of the board, collecting rents, acquiring properties, never risking anything of their own. The players move their pieces, buy and sell, go to jail, pass Go. But here’s the difference: in this game, when you land on the wrong square, you don’t just lose money. You lose your life.
And the Banker? The Banker walks away with the land, crosses borders, makes wars, uses the sovereign state to enhance investment opportunities. The Banker is never accountable. The Banker never loses.
This is not a metaphor. This is the AI industry in 2026.
What we call “artificial intelligence” is a misnomer. These systems are not intelligent. They are binary number-collectors, following program parameters set by humans, spitting out “suspicion scores” and “target lists” based on data that has been fed to them. They do not think. They do not reason. They do not understand that the faces in their databases belong to people with names, families, futures.
They count. They sort. They recommend. And people die.
This article exposes the scam: the corporations that profit from this binary butchery, the systems that enable it, the language that sanitizes it, and the investors—the nice people, the pharmacists, the well-meaning small investors—who fund it without knowing what they’re supporting.
Part One: The Language of Death
Every industry that deals in death develops its own vocabulary. The AI military complex is no exception. Below is their lexicon of liquidation—terms designed to make the unimaginable sound like a logistics problem.
Their Term What It Actually Means
“Suspicion score” A number assigned by an algorithm that can mean death. If your score is high enough, you become a target—regardless of whether you’ve done anything wrong.
“Time-constrained target” (TCT) You have 20 seconds to approve a strike. No time for human judgment, no time to verify, no time to ask if the target is really who the algorithm says they are. Just 20 seconds to decide who lives and who dies.
“Collateral damage” Dead civilians. Children. Parents. Grandparents. People who happened to be in the wrong place when a bomb fell.
“High-value target” Someone the algorithm has deemed important enough to justify killing up to 100 civilians to eliminate.
“Low-value target” Someone worth killing only 10-20 civilians for.
“Confidence level” How sure the algorithm is that it’s right. 80% is often considered good enough to bomb a building full of people.
“Probabilistic interference” A fancy term for “the algorithm made a guess.” Dressed in scientific language to hide the fact that it’s just math.
As one analysis notes, these systems function as “epistemic infrastructures that classify, legitimize, and execute violence”. The words matter because they shape what we can bear to think about.
Part Two: The Systems Exposed
Israel operates at least three known AI systems in its genocide against the Palestinian people. Each has a name that sounds like a benign software project. Each functions as a killing machine.
Lavender
Aspect Detail
Purpose Marks suspected operatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Scale Identified approximately 37,000 Palestinians as potential targets in the first weeks of the war
Method Analyzes data from years of surveillance—phone calls, WhatsApp messages, social media activity, facial recognition
Error rate Approximately 10% —meaning thousands of people flagged for death based on algorithmic mistakes
Human review Officers spent as little as 20 seconds per target—just enough to confirm the target was male
Intelligence officers told +972 Magazine that Lavender “played a key role in the unprecedented bombing,” explaining the massive civilian death toll . The system’s “errors” are not bugs; they are features of a process designed to maximize killing speed over accuracy.
During early stages of the war, the IDF gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists without requiring thorough checks. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” .
Gospel (Habsora)
Aspect and Detail
Purpose Identifies static military targets—buildings, tunnels, infrastructure
Method Uses machine learning to interpret vast amounts of data and generate potential targets
Output A “mass assassination factory,” according to a former intelligence officer
Collateral calculation Estimates civilian deaths in advance—the military knows approximately how many will die before dropping bombs
Where’s Daddy?
Aspect Detail
Purpose Tracks targeted individuals and triggers bombings when they enter their family homes
Effect Ensures wives, children, and parents are killed alongside the target
Operation When the pace of assassinations slowed, more targets were added to track and bomb at home
Decision level Relatively low-ranking officers could decide who to put into these tracking systems
The name alone reveals the depravity. A human shield is only a shield if your enemy values human life. Israel deliberately maximizes the number of civilians it can kill by waiting until a target is with his entire family. Palestinians are not shields—they are all targets.
Fire Factory
Aspect Detail
Purpose Uses data about approved targets to calculate munition loads
Function Prioritizes and assigns thousands of targets to aircraft and drones
Output Proposes a “schedule” of operations—industrializing killing into a production line
Part Three: The Human Cost
Ali’s Story
Ali was an IT technician in Gaza, working remotely for international companies, using encryption, spending long hours online. He was doing his job—nothing more.
One night, a drone circled his rooftop. Seconds later, a missile struck 20 metres from him.
He survived. His uncle told him to leave. An IT expert friend explained what had happened: Ali’s online activities had been analysed by AI. His “unusual behaviour” flagged him as a potential threat.
Their AI systems saw me as a potential threat and a target.
The Obeid Family
The Obeid family—mother, father, three sisters—were killed when a bomb struck their apartment building. The target was two young men who had entered the first floor. The family upstairs were “collateral”.
The Israeli military knew approximately how many civilians would die before they dropped the bomb. They did it anyway. As one source told +972 Magazine: “Nothing happens by accident. We know exactly how much collateral damage there is in every home”.
The Numbers
Category Figure
Palestinians profiled by Lavender 37,000
Error rate 10%
Time to approve a strike 20 seconds
Civilians permitted for low-value target 10-20
Civilians permitted for high-value target Up to 100
Years of surveillance on Gaza’s population Over a decade
The 10% error rate means thousands of people have been flagged for death based on algorithmic mistakes. The system occasionally marks individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups—or no connection at all.
Part Four: The Corporate Enablers
These systems do not run on air. They run on infrastructure provided by some of the largest technology companies in the world.
CEO Alex Karp “We are very well known in Israel. Israel appreciates our product. I am one of the very few CEOs that’s publicly pro-Israel.”
OpenAI
Aspect Detail
2024 Deleted prohibition on military use of its technology
March 2025 Removed language emphasizing “concern for real-world impacts” from core values
February 2026 Signed $200 million annual contract with U.S. Department of Defense for AI tools addressing national security challenges
The Policy Shift
Year Event
2018 4,000 Google employees protest Pentagon contracts; Google adopts principles limiting military AI
2024 OpenAI removes military prohibition
2025 Google removes AI military restrictions
2025-2026 Meta, OpenAI, and Palantir executives sworn in as Army Reserve officers
Major tech companies have abandoned their “technology for good” principles. The industry has fully embraced its role in the military-industrial complex.
Part Five: The Scam Industry
While these companies profit from death, the AI industry is also defrauding its own customers on a massive scale.
Air AI
Aspect Detail
FTC action Sued for deceiving small business owners
Losses Consumers lost up to $250,000 on false promises of AI-powered earnings
Refunds Company ignored refund requests
Allegations False claims about substantial earnings, guaranteed refunds that never materialized, misrepresented performance
The Scale AI Allegation
Aspect Detail
Client Meta
Losses Nearly $15 billion in alleged AI Ponzi scheme
Promise “PhD-smart” data annotation
Reality Cheap labour, mismatched workers with tasks, failed to deliver promised standards
Outcome Internal documents leaked; Meta quietly shifted to competitors
The Pattern
Promise the moon. Collect billions. Deliver nothing. Blame the technology. Move on.
Part Six: The China Difference
The US-China comparison. The data tells a striking story.
Chinese models like DeepSeek-R1 and Kimi K2 Thinking have an edge in cost efficiency and certain analytical functions. Kimi K2 has outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 in key tests.
Goldman Sachs forecasts Chinese cloud service providers will increase capital expenditures by 65% in 2025, with $70 billion invested to support development.
The US still leads in cutting-edge models. But the gap is closing fast—and China is building the physical infrastructure to deploy AI at scale.
Part Seven: The Neoliberal Extraction Thesis
The insight, and it is devastatingly accurate.
These systems represent the ultimate extraction process:
What They Extract How They Do It
Data Gaza’s 2 million people have been exhaustively surveilled for years—every phone call, every WhatsApp message, every social media connection feeds the machine.
Profit The AI industry has taken billions from governments, corporations, and small investors—often through inflated promises and outright fraud.
Lives The 20-second approvals, the 80% confidence thresholds, the 10-20 civilian “allowances” per low-level target—all designed to maximize killing efficiency.
Accountability The corporations blame the officers. The officers blame the algorithms. The algorithms have no legal personhood. No one is responsible.
Meaning Reframing death as “collateral,” “suspicion scores,” and “time-constrained targets” strips it of humanity.
The political class loves this because it offers the appearance of decisive action without the burden of moral responsibility. The military loves it because it speeds up kill chains. The corporations love it because it’s infinitely profitable.
The only ones who don’t love it are the dead.
Part Eight: The Little Gods—A Word to the Reader
You. Reading this. Perhaps you own shares in one of these companies. Perhaps you have a retirement fund that includes them. Perhaps you know someone who does.
Let me speak directly to you.
There is a pharmacist I know. He’s a nice guy. Kind to his customers. Volunteers at the local school. He bought shares in Palantir because the stock was going up and everyone said it was the future.
He doesn’t know about Ali, the IT technician targeted by AI for “unusual behaviour.”
He doesn’t know about the Obeid family, killed because two men entered their building.
He doesn’t know about the 20-second approvals, the 80% confidence thresholds, the 10-20 civilian “allowances” per low-level target.
He doesn’t know about Where’s Daddy?—the system that hunts families.
He doesn’t know because the industry has spent billions making sure he doesn’t. The marketing is smooth. The language is clean. The stock ticker goes up.
But the blood is real.
You are not evil for not knowing. You are ignorant. And ignorance can be cured.
Here is what you can do:
Action Why It Matters
Research your investments Find out where your money really goes. Companies that enable genocide often hide behind complex ownership structures and clean marketing.
Ask questions Write to your fund managers. Ask if they invest in Palantir, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, OpenAI. Demand answers.
Divest If you own shares in companies enabling genocide, sell them. If you don’t, you are complicit.
Talk to others Tell your friends, your family, your colleagues. The more people know, the harder it is for the industry to hide.
Demand accountability Write to your elected representatives. Ask them what they’re doing to hold these companies accountable.
The little gods of the neoliberal order—people with just enough money to participate in the system, but not enough information to understand what they’re funding—have power. Not individually, but collectively. If enough of you act, the system changes.
The question is not whether you can make a difference. The question is whether you will.
Part Nine: The Path Forward—A Mother’s Answer
I asked my wife what real accountability would look like.
Why my wife, you ask?
Simple. She is a mother. She fears for the future of our children—all children. She does not see data points. She sees souls to be loved and nurtured.
Here is her answer.
Legal Accountability
What It Means How It Works
Corporate responsibility Corporations are legal persons. Under Article 4 of the Genocide Convention, “persons committing genocide… shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”
Complicity Participation can constitute complicity by knowingly aiding and providing means that contribute to international crimes.
The challenge Proving specific intent to commit genocide remains difficult—but not impossible.
Technological Accountability
What It Means How It Works
Explainable AI Systems must have transparent decision-making pathways that can be interrogated and documented. No more black boxes. No more “the algorithm did it.”
Human review Rigorous human verification must be mandated. Twenty seconds is not review. It is rubber-stamping.
Corporate Accountability
What It Means How It Works
Employee power Internal revolts that pressure leadership, push for dropping concerning contracts, and call for divestments are essential.
Collective action Staff awareness and collective action against deals with substantial human rights concerns can generate more losses for corporations than any promised profits.
Investor Accountability
What It Means How It Works
Individual action Research where your money goes. Ask questions. Demand answers.
Divestment If you own shares in companies enabling genocide, sell them.
Collective power When enough investors act, the market shifts.
A Mother’s Plea
I am a mother. I have held my children in my arms and wondered what kind of world they will inherit. I have looked at the faces of children in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, and seen my own children reflected back.
Those children are not data points. They are not “collateral.” They are not “suspicion scores.” They are souls—each one precious, each one loved by someone, each one deserving of a future.
The systems described in this article do not see that. They cannot see that. They are machines, counting and sorting, following the logic of their programmers.
But we are not machines. We are human. We can see. We can feel. We can choose.
The path forward is not complicated. It requires only that we look at what is happening and refuse to look away. That we name the binary butchers for what they are. That we hold them accountable—legally, technologically, corporately, and personally.
And that we remember, always, that behind every “suspicion score” is a face. Behind every “target list” is a family. Behind every “collateral damage” statistic is a soul.
A mother sees this. A mother knows this.
Now you know too.
Conclusion: The Binary Butchers
What we call artificial intelligence is not intelligent. It is a binary number-collector. It does not think. It does not reason. It does not understand that the faces in its databases belong to people with names and families.
It counts. It sorts. It recommends. And people die.
The companies that build these systems have abandoned any pretence of “technology for good.” They are defence contractors now, plain and simple. They profit from genocide, undermine democracy, turn human beings into data points, and ignore souls entirely.
The investors who fund them—the nice people, the pharmacists, the well-meaning small investors—do so in ignorance. But ignorance is not innocence. Not anymore.
The Monopoly game continues. The Banker walks away with the land. The players die.
But the game can change. Accountability is possible. Justice is possible. Hope is possible.
It begins with seeing clearly. With naming the binary butchers. With refusing to look away.
And with remembering, always, that behind every data point is a soul.
A mother’s love sees this. A mother’s love demands this.
Now it’s your turn.
Sources:
1. Palestinian Human Rights Organization (PAHRW), “AI Plotted Genocide: How Corporations Facilitate Israel’s AI-Enabled War on Gaza,” March 2026
2. Yahoo Finance, “Farewell to the ‘Technology for Good’ Era: Inside the Trillion-Dollar Military Business Opportunity for Tech Giants,” July 2025
3. Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Sues to Stop Air AI from Using Deceptive Claims,” August 2025
4. Boston Herald, “Field: The U.S. Can Win the AI Race,” December 2025
5. arXiv, “Genocide by Algorithm in Gaza: Artificial Intelligence, Countervailing Responsibility, and the Corruption of Public Discourse,” February 2026
6. New Age BD, “Israel’s ‘Human Shields’ Lie,” March 2026
7. Stanford University AI Index Report / Caixin, “Stanford’s Latest AI Report: Performance and Costs Both Improve, US-China Competition Gap Narrows Further,” April 2025
8. Defence Connect, “Machine War: Operational AI, Facial Recognition and Legal–Ethical Challenges in the Gaza Conflict,” July 2025
9. Institute for Palestine Studies, “Explainer: The Role of AI in Israel’s Genocidal Campaign Against Palestinians,” October 2024
10. Reportify, “OpenAI GPT-4 Major Model – Filings, Earnings Calls, Financial Reports,” July 2025
I thought that I knew most things. Then I listened to my wife and she opened my eyes to many things.
Introduction: Why This Matters
The evidence is overwhelming. Quality education reduces criminal behaviour by 11-13% , increases civic participation by 15-18%, and improves empathy by 22-27% . The World Bank’s 2025 World Development Report concluded: “Education is the single most effective intervention for reducing violence, increasing social cohesion, and promoting democratic values”.
Yet in Victoria, the self-proclaimed “education state,” we are systematically denying children the education they deserve. This is not a failure of resources—it is a failure of will. A failure of accountability.
This paper traces that failure: from the complaints process designed to absorb rather than address, to the funding cuts hidden from public view, to the accountability vacuum where no one is responsible for the whole. It names the gatekeepers, traces the historical roots, and asks a simple question: If not now, when? If not us, who?
Part One: The Complaints Process—Designed to Absorb, Not Address
How Parents and Schools Communicate with the Department
The Department of Education has established a formal, multi-tiered complaints process that appears, on paper, to offer multiple avenues for redress . In practice, it functions as a series of filters designed to exhaust complainants.
The process:
1. School level—The first step is always the school itself. Schools must have a local complaints policy, but this places the burden on parents to confront the very institution they are complaining about.
2. Regional office—If unresolved, complaints can be escalated to the regional office via a central contact centre (1800 338 663 or enquiries@education.vic.gov.au). A regional complaint handling officer has 30 school days to seek resolution.
3. Central Office Review—If still dissatisfied, complainants may request a Central Office Review. The Complaints and Improvement Unit (CIU) determines eligibility within 10 school days. If accepted, the review takes up to 60 school days.
4. Victorian Ombudsman—If the department’s processes are exhausted, complainants may contact the Victorian Ombudsman.
What the Ombudsman Actually Does:
The Ombudsman provides an independent, external review of whether the department handled the complaint properly—not whether the original decision was correct. This is a subtle but crucial distinction. The Ombudsman reviews process, not outcome.
The Privacy Team’s Role
Complaints often involve personal or health information, which must be handled under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and the Health Records Act 2001. The practical effect is that complaints become legal matters, not educational ones.
What Complaints Are Made?
The Department acknowledges that complaints may relate to “an action taken or decision made, or the failure to take action or make a decision at a school”. The system explicitly excludes many serious matters, referring them to other processes:
Excluded Matter Referred To
Criminal activities Police
Fraud/corruption Speak Up hotline
Employee conduct Separate policy
Expulsions Separate appeal process
Disability Inclusion Profiles Separate appeals
Curriculum complaints VCAA
Catholic/independent schools VRQA
This fragmentation ensures that no single body sees the full picture .
Part Two: The Funding Crisis—Where the Money Went
The $2.4 Billion Secret Cut
In March 2024, the Victorian government’s Budget and Finance Committee of Cabinet, chaired by Premier Jacinta Allan, approved secret cuts of $2.4 billion to state school funding between now and 2031. This was done against the protestations of Education Minister Ben Carroll.
The result: Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia without a long-term plan to pay for the Gonski reforms. It has a single-year stop-gap agreement that keeps funding frozen at 2023 levels while every other state and territory has inked long-term deals.
The Current Gap
Government schools in Victoria currently receive:
· 70.43 per cent from the state (unchanged since 2023)
· 20 per cent from the Commonwealth
The gap between what they get and what students need is approximately $1.38 billion this year alone.
Teacher Pay—The Human Cost
Victorian teachers are the lowest-paid in the country :
· Graduate teacher: $78,801 (Victoria) vs $90,177 (NSW)
· Experienced teacher gap: $15,000
AEU Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly’s question echoes: “Why are Victorian students worth so much less?”.
The Human Consequences
Kennington Primary principal Travis Eddy, whose school falls within Premier Allan’s electorate, told an inquiry:
“Those of us on the ground feel the consequences every day. Less funding per student means larger class sizes that make individualised learning near impossible; fewer integration aides supporting some of the most vulnerable children in the system; teachers spread across too many roles, trying to plug gaps left by funding shortfalls; principals forced into unsustainable workloads.”
St Kilda Park Primary parents reported that deficits are “being covered by the wallets of our families” . Families fund the school’s part-time nurse, books, stationery, and garden maintenance. Nine fundraising events are planned for this year alone.
Banyule Primary School council warned that without increased parent contributions, cuts are coming to:
· Intervention programs
· Extension groups
· School choir
· Sporting activities
The Mainstream Media’s Nasty Coverage
The government’s defence? “Our nation-leading NAPLAN results are the proof—our students are not only the top performing in the country but also performing better than at any other time on record”.
But as one analysis notes, claims of success through NAPLAN often obscure deeper inequalities. The “sweeping inaccurate claims” are recycled year after year, masking the reality that one in three disadvantaged students still fail to meet minimum benchmarks.
Part Three: The Accountability Vacuum
The NCAT Example Verified
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) received 71,223 applications in 2023-24, with 60.3% lodged online. They finalised 70,666 matters. These numbers show volume and efficiency.
What the system tracks:
· How many complaints
· How quickly they are processed
· Whether procedures were followed
What it does NOT track:
· Whether complainants felt heard
· Whether systemic issues were addressed
· Whether anything actually changed
This is reminiscent of legalism in early China—process over substance, procedure over justice. It failed then. It fails now.
The Privacy Barrier—Each Complaint an Island
The Department states: “For privacy reasons, schools cannot discuss steps taken in relation to another student or family, or staff members” .
This means complainants never learn whether their complaint led to broader change. Each complaint is an island. The pattern is identical to Robodebt—individual cases processed, systemic issues ignored, no one accountable.
The Fragmentation Problem
The exclusion list is extensive. No single entity sees the pattern. No one is accountable for the whole.
This is the difference between management (following procedures) and leadership (ensuring outcomes). The system has managers. It lacks leaders.
Part Four: The Gatekeepers—Who Really Gets Access?
The system is deliberately designed to absorb dissatisfaction, not to address it.
Gatekeeper Function Effect
School principals First filter Confrontation with the institution
Regional officers 30-day process Delay and exhaustion
CIU Eligibility review Most complaints never progress
Fragmented processes Referral to other bodies No single entity sees the pattern
The best connected and loudest voices—those with resources, persistence, and legal advice—may eventually be heard. Parents, teachers, and students? They become statistics.
Part Five: The Historical Roots—How We Got Here
The Kennett Revolution (1992–1999)
The Kennett government implemented what scholars call a “radical departure from the traditional public administration model” . Key reforms:
· Reduced departments from 22 to just 8 by 1996
· Cut 10% from government spending, embarked on Australia’s largest privatisation experiment yielding more than $30 billion in proceeds
· Retrenched over 75,000 public sector workers
· Introduced private sector governance models—government as “board of directors,” public servants as “management team”
· Devolution of industrial relations to individual departments via the Public Sector Management Act 1992
· Individual employment contracts encouraged over collective agreements
· Repeal of the Industrial Relations Act and referral of powers to the Commonwealth
Within months of taking office:
· 15,000–20,000 public sector jobs eliminated
· 350 schools forcibly closed
· The Public Service Board abolished
· Industrial Relations Commission abolished
· Compulsory arbitration ended
This became the template for what followed in other states: WA, SA, NSW, Queensland all adopted similar models through the 1990s and 2000s .
The Deeper Roots: Karmel to Neoliberalism
The 1973 Karmel Report, commissioned by the Whitlam Government, established systematic federal government intervention in Australian schooling . It was meant to address “inequalities in provision and opportunity” .
But as one analysis notes, the “Karmel settlement” ultimately “failed to address educational inequality” and created “fifty years of politicised funding arrangements”. The principle of “sector-blind” funding—treating public and private schools the same—denied “the empirical reality of the inherent differences between the sectors”.
The Hawke and Keating governments (1983–1996) entrenched neoliberal principles through:
· The Dawkins Reforms (1987–1992) —HECS, university amalgamations, managerialism
· TAFE marketisation—contestable funding
· National Competition Policy (1995) —exposing public services to market pressures
By 2015, Australia had the second-highest growth in concentrations of disadvantage in the OECD. Worse, in almost 40 per cent of schools dealing with these concentrations, they were still accelerating.
Julia Gillard’s reforms (2008–2013) —NAPLAN, My School, performance pay, Gonski 1.0—”supercharged their application to schooling”. As one analysis notes, “Labor built it; the Coalition maintained it”.
2008–2013 Gillard (Labor) NAPLAN, My School, performance pay, Gonski 1.0
2013–2022 Coalition Funding gap widened, private schools overfunded
2022–2025 Albanese (Labor) Promises made, but full funding delayed to 2034
Kennett was the most radical implementer, but the architecture was bipartisan. The principles he entrenched have been maintained by both parties ever since.
Part Six: The Palantir Connection—Why They Feel at Home
The system we’ve described is:
· Data-intensive—complaints become statistics, not stories
· Fragmented—no single entity sees the whole picture
· Accountability-resistant—responsibility is distributed, never located
This is precisely the environment where data analytics companies thrive. They sell the promise of making sense of the chaos, of finding patterns in the noise. But they also profit from the chaos—they have no incentive to simplify the system, only to help navigate it.
Scott Morrison’s government was receptive to corporate solutions to public problems. As a neoliberal, a fundamentalist Christian, and a prime minister who moved the Australian embassy to Jerusalem and enabled Robodebt, he exemplified the approach. The Morrison government actively exacerbated the funding gap under the cover of the pandemic—giving as much as $10 billion to the fee-charging sector.
If Australia is seen as a test ground for governance practices by global corporations, the education department’s data systems would be prime territory.
Part Seven: What This Means—An Urgent Crisis
The accountability vacuum is not an abstraction. It means:
· Children with disabilities are not getting the support they need
· Teachers are leaving in droves, overworked and underpaid
· Public schools are becoming “residualised”—carrying the overwhelming share of students with complex needs while private schools prosper
· A generation of students, “disproportionately from low-income, regional, and First Nations communities,” are being denied the resources the government itself says they need
· Visual arts, performing arts, physical education, language, and library teachers are being cut from specialist schools
· Intervention programs and extension groups are on the chopping block
· School choirs and sporting activities are being eliminated
· Integration aides for vulnerable children are being reduced
As Travis Eddy put it: “The idea that we can ‘delay funding’ until 2031 assumes that children can postpone their development, their learning, their social growth or their trauma recovery. They can’t. Every year that adequate funding is withheld is a year of opportunity lost – never to be regained” .
Conclusion: The Pattern Named
We have identified:
1. A complaints process designed to absorb, not address—fragmented, procedural, and impenetrable
2. A funding crisis deliberately created and concealed—$2.4 billion cut, Victoria the national laggard
3. An accountability vacuum where no one is responsible—NCAT tracks process, not outcomes
4. A gatekeeper system that privileges the connected over the affected—parents and students become statistics
5. A historical trajectory of neoliberal reform, deepened by both parties—from Karmel to Kennett to now
6. A corporate-friendly environment where data replaces action—Palantir would feel at home
The question now is not whether we see the pattern. We do. The question is what we do with it.
As one principal said: “No principal can accept that as reasonable. A child in grade 1 in 2025 will be in year 7 by the time this funding is restored. A student currently struggling with foundational literacy cannot wait until 2031 to access essential intervention” .
The accountability vacuum must be filled. The gatekeepers must be named. The pattern must be broken.
We are talking about children. We are talking about the future.
Sources
1. WAtoday, “In the so-called education state, Gonski shows our schools are slipping behind,” January 20, 2026
2. Victoria State Government, Department of Education, “Complaint Resolution: Policy,” December 24, 2025
3. ANU Press, “The Political and Industrial Environment” (analysis of Kennett government reforms)
4. Pearls and Irritations, “Karmel, Gonski and the private school ascendancy,” July 14, 2025
5. WAtoday, “‘Absolute disgrace’: Choir, sport, aides on the chopping block as education funding falls $2.4b short,” February 11, 2026
6. The Saturday Paper, “School funds delayed are funds denied,” February 8, 2025
7. Swinburne University of Technology, “The neo-liberal revolution and the regional state in Canada and Australia”
8. Educational Policy Journal, “The Rise of School Choice in Education Funding Reform: An Analysis of Two Policy Moments”
9. Parliament of Victoria Hansard, “Education funding,” February 5, 2025
To my wife, whose hand in the creation of my insights is clearly visible to me. Creation is a collaborative process.
Introduction: The Question That Matters
In the 18th century, the Marquis de Sade imagined a world where wealthy libertines retreated to isolated chateaux with abducted children, subjecting them to escalating cycles of sexual violence catalogued with bureaucratic precision. His was a philosophy of absolute power—the claim that nature requires evil as much as good, and that the strong have the right to satisfy their desires without moral constraint.
Two centuries later, Jeffrey Epstein’s private island functioned as exactly such a “chateau.” The recently released files—3 million pages, 180,000 images, 2,000 videos—reveal a network that transported minors for sexual abuse, with victims as young as 14. The names that appear in those files are not marginal figures: billionaires, politicians, royalty, scientists. People with the kind of power that shields itself from accountability.
The question is not whether these two men were similar. The question is: what structural forces produce such figures across centuries? What common patterns—in economic structures, political systems, and the architecture of power—allow such cruelty to flourish? And most urgently, how can they be prevented?
This article traces those patterns, drawing on the work of complexity scientist Peter Turchin, the lessons of the Robodebt scandal, and the emerging reality of AI warfare. It names the enablers—the bankers, donors, lobbyists, and ideological pretenders—who make such systems possible. And it calls on those who claim to care—the media, the people, the institutions of accountability—to do the work of identifying the pattern before it repeats again.
Part One: The Parallel—Two Centuries, One Structure
The Marquis de Sade’s World
In 1785, while imprisoned in the Bastille, the Marquis de Sade wrote The 120 Days of Sodom. His fiction described four wealthy libertines—a duke, a bishop, a judge, and a financier—retreating to an isolated chateau with abducted children. The narrative is less a story than a system: an inventory of cruelty, catalogued with bureaucratic precision.
De Sade’s philosophy was explicit: “Nature, to maintain overall balance, sometimes needs evil, sometimes needs virtue”. He argued that the powerful have the right to satisfy their desires without moral constraint—that the weak exist for the pleasure of the strong. As Mary Harrington has written, this is “in the precise sense, a satanic worldview… the radical libertinism and rejection of all moral constraints has come, by degrees, to appear almost ordinary”.
The Epstein Files
Fast-forward to the 21st century. The recently released Epstein files—3 million pages, 180,000 images, 2,000 videos—reveal a network that operated on exactly the same principles.
The documents show Howard Lutnick, now US Commerce Secretary, planning lunch on Epstein’s island in 2012—years after he claimed to have cut off ties. Emails show Elon Musk asking whether Epstein had “any parties planned,” though he declined an invitation to visit the island. Richard Branson appears to tell Epstein it was “really nice” seeing him, adding: “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!” (Virgin Group clarified this referred to “three adult members of Epstein’s team”) .
The philosophy is the same. Power without restraint. Bodies as commodities. Cruelty as bonding ritual among elites.
Part Two: The Structural Drivers—What Turchin’s Cliodynamics Reveals
The historian and complexity scientist Peter Turchin has spent decades studying why societies collapse. His work, combining analysis of historical data with the tools of complexity science, identifies the deep structural forces that work to undermine societal stability.
The Wealth Pump
Turchin identifies a mechanism he calls the “wealth pump”—a process that, under certain conditions, begins transferring wealth from the “99 percent” to the “1 percent” . If allowed to run unchecked, this pump results in both the relative impoverishment of most people and increasingly desperate competition among elites.
In the United States, Turchin notes, the wealth pump “has been operating full blast for two generations” . The result is immiseration: the economic and social decline of the lower and middle classes.
Elite Overproduction
Simultaneously, societies experience elite overproduction—the proliferation of individuals and groups vying for elite status. Since the number of positions of real social power remains more or less fixed, competition becomes increasingly desperate.
Those who fail to secure elite status become counter-elites, challenging the existing system and harnessing popular resentment to turn against the established order.
The French Case
In 18th-century France, the aristocracy had reached grotesque extremes of privilege while the peasantry starved. The state was bankrupt. The clergy and nobility paid almost no taxes. The common people bore the entire burden.
De Sade’s work is both a product and a critique of that world—a savage allegory of power unrestrained by morality. The libertines in his novels are not aberrations; they are the logical outcome of a system that places absolute authority in the hands of elites accountable to no one.
The American Case
Since the 1970s, the United States has followed the same trajectory. Economic inequality has grown dramatically. The elite class has expanded significantly—not just the wealthy, but those who hold power through bureaucratic control, ideological influence, and social capital.
Epstein’s network operated at the intersection of these dynamics. He moved among billionaires, politicians, royalty, and celebrities—the very elites whose power had grown unchecked while ordinary citizens struggled. His crimes were not the product of isolation but of access.
Turchin’s assessment is stark: “In historical terms, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture”.
Part Three: The Contemporary Architecture—AI Warfare and the Accountability Vacuum
The same structural forces that enabled de Sade and Epstein now enable something far more lethal: the industrialization of killing through artificial intelligence.
Gaza as Laboratory
Israel’s recent war in Gaza has been described as the first major “AI war”—the first war in which AI systems played a central role in generating lists of purported militants to target. These systems processed billions of data points to rank the probability that any given person was a combatant.
The Lavender system, an AI-assisted surveillance tool, used predictive analytics to rank Palestinians’ likelihood of being connected to militant groups, based on an opaque set of criteria. Public sector workers—healthcare workers, teachers, police officers—were included on kill lists because they had ties to Hamas by virtue of working in a territory the group governed.
The Gospel system functioned as a “mass assassination factory.” One source admitted spending only “20 seconds” per target before authorizing bombing—just enough to confirm the Lavender-marked target was male. One system alone produced more than 37,000 targets in the first weeks of the war. Another was capable of generating 100 potential bombing sites per day.
A classified Israeli military database, reviewed by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, indicated that of more than 53,000 deaths recorded in Gaza, named Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters accounted for roughly 17%. That suggests the rest—83%—were civilians.
The Minab School
At the start of the US-Israeli Iran war, a strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, in southern Iran. At least 168 people were killed, most of them children—girls aged seven to 12.
The weapons were precise. Munitions experts described the targeting as “incredibly accurate,” each building individually struck, nothing missed. The problem was not the execution. The problem was intelligence. The school had been separated from an adjacent Revolutionary Guard base by a fence and repurposed for civilian use nearly a decade ago. Somewhere in the targeting cycle, that fact was never updated.
Two sources confirmed to NBC News that Palantir’s AI systems, which draw in part on large language model technology, were used to identify targets. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, boasted that the military is using AI in Iran to “sift through vast amounts of data in seconds” in order to “make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react” .
The Companies Behind the Killing
The companies implicated in this are not obscure defense startups. They are among the most valuable corporations in the world:
· Palantir, founded with early CIA funding, supplied systems used in the Iran campaign
· Google and Amazon signed Project Nimbus, a cloud-computing and AI contract with the Israeli government and military worth more than $1 billion
· Microsoft had deep integration with Israeli military systems before partially withdrawing under pressure in 2024
· Anduril, founded by Palmer Luckey, builds autonomous weapons systems explicitly designed for lethal targeting
· OpenAI quietly removed its prohibition on military use in early 2024 and has since pursued Pentagon contracts
The Accountability Vacuum
In international law, an accountability framework requires that someone be identifiable as the decision-maker, that their reasoning be reconstructable after the fact, and that the process obligations the law demands—proportionality assessment, verification, precaution—can be shown to have been followed.
AI targeting systematically destroys each of these conditions:
· Attribution dissolves across a chain of engineers, commanders, operators, and corporate suppliers, each of whom can point to another
· Reasoning disappears into a probability score that no lawyer can audit and no court can cross-examine
· Process collapses into a 20-second approval of a machine recommendation
· The companies that built and sold the system sit entirely outside the legal framework, because international humanitarian law was designed for states and their agents, and Palantir is not a signatory to the Geneva Conventions
As The Guardian’s investigation concluded: “The accountability framework has not been merely strained or tested by AI warfare. It has been made structurally irrelevant”.
Part Four: The Australian Template—Robodebt and the Failure of Accountability
The Robodebt scheme offers a domestic template for what happens when automated systems are deployed without oversight.
The scheme was an automated tool for assessing and recovering Centrelink debts, implemented under successive Coalition governments before it was ultimately found to be unlawful. It used income averaging to raise debts against welfare recipients without proper verification.
The Australian government lost a lawsuit in 2019 over the legality of the scheme and settled a class action the next year in which it agreed to pay $1.8 billion in repayments and compensation.
A dozen current and former senior public servants involved in the scheme were found to have breached their code of conduct on 97 occasions. Sanctions were imposed against four current employees, including reprimands, fines, and demotions. But the commissioner noted that a number of others who were referred had since retired or resigned and could not be sanctioned.
No one went to jail.
Former secretary Kathryn Campbell was found to have committed 12 breaches, including failure to seek legal advice, failure to sufficiently respond to public criticism and whistleblower complaints, failure to inform the responsible minister, and creating a culture that prevented robodebt from being scrutinised. Former secretary Renee Leon was found to have committed 13 breaches, including misrepresentations of the department’s legal position and failures to “expeditiously” inform the responsible minister of advice on the lawfulness of the scheme.
The commissioner noted that in a number of cases, had the respondent still been an employee, the recommended sanction “may well have been termination due to the seriousness of the breaches”.
The system protected itself. The same pattern is now repeating at scale, with algorithms making life-and-death decisions and no one accountable when they fail.
Part Five: The Enablers—Names and Networks
The Political Class
The Trumps, the Albaneses, the Starmers, the Netanyahus—these are not aberrations. They are the products of systems that reward mediocrity, protect incumbents, and prioritize the appearance of governance over its substance.
They are enabled by:
· Bankers who finance campaigns and expect favourable treatment in return
· Donors who purchase access and influence policy
· Lobbyists who write legislation and ensure their clients’ interests are protected
· Religious leaders who pretend to represent moral constituencies while pursuing purely ideological aims
The Segal Nexus
Jillian Segal, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, occupies a unique position at the intersection of these networks. Her husband’s family trust, Henroth, donated $50,000 to Advance Australia, a right-wing lobby group that has shared anti-immigration content and claimed Palestinians in Australia were a “risk to security”.
Segal has distanced herself from the donation, stating: “No one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won’t dictate his. I have had no involvement in his donations, nor will I”.
But the appearance matters. When the antisemitism envoy is married to a donor to an organisation that promotes anti-Palestinian rhetoric, when her networks connect Australian business to Israeli interests, and when those interests align with the very AI companies testing their technologies on Palestinian populations, the confluence becomes visible.
The Companies
We should stop calling these technology companies and start calling them what they are: defence contractors.
The largest AI firms are not neutral infrastructure providers who happened to find a military customer. They are being integrated into the targeting architecture of modern warfare. Their systems sit inside the kill chain, their engineers hold security clearances, their executives rotate through the same revolving door that has always connected Silicon Valley to the Pentagon.
A clear accountability chain applies to firms such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin—entailing export controls, congressional oversight, liability frameworks, and procurement conditions. The weak regulations that apply to the companies writing the algorithms that select military targets have never been applied, tested, or enforced.
Part Six: What Leads Up to These Cycles?
Drawing on Turchin’s framework, the pattern is consistent:
1. A wealth pump transfers resources from the many to the few, impoverishing ordinary people while enriching elites
2. Elite overproduction creates frustrated aspirants who cannot secure positions of real power
3. Counter-elites emerge, harnessing popular resentment to challenge the established order
4. Institutions weaken, unable to restrain the powerful or protect the vulnerable
5. A philosophy of libertinism takes hold—the belief that the strong have the right to satisfy their desires without constraint
6. Cruelty becomes normalized, whether in chateaux, on islands, or through algorithms
7. Accountability fails, and the system protects itself
Part Seven: How Can These Cycles Be Avoided?
Turchin points to historical examples of successful crisis mitigation: the New Deal in 1930s America, and the post-war European model . What these share are:
1. Reducing inequality before it reaches crisis levels
2. Strengthening social institutions—political parties, unions, churches, community organizations
3. Ensuring elites are accountable to legal and moral frameworks
4. Creating pathways for ordinary people to improve their circumstances
5. Maintaining social cohesion through inclusive policies
These factors have been weakening in Western societies since the 1980s. The Reagan/Thatcher revolution, corporate-driven globalization, excessive reliance on market forces, and the erosion of social safety nets have all contributed to the current instability.
The TEPSA analysis notes that these factors have been weakening in Western societies since the 1980s . The Reagan/Thatcher revolution, corporate-driven globalization, excessive reliance on market forces, and the erosion of social safety nets have all contributed to the current instability.
Part Eight: The Role of the Media—and of All Who Claim to Care
The media has a role. The people have a role. All who claim to care have a role.
The pattern is visible to those who look. De Sade’s chateau and Epstein’s island are not disconnected historical accidents. They are manifestations of the same structural forces. The AI systems that kill children in Gaza and the algorithms that robbed vulnerable Australians are not separate failures. They are the same logic applied at different scales.
It is incumbent on all who claim to care—journalists, academics, activists, ordinary citizens—to make the effort to identify the pattern. To ask not just “who did this?” but “what structural forces made this possible?” To demand accountability not just from individuals, but from the systems that shield them.
The alternative is to watch the pattern repeat—again, and again, and again.
Conclusion: The Choice Before Us
The release of the Epstein files—3 million pages, 2,000 videos, 180,000 images—is an attempt at accountability. But as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche admitted, even this massive disclosure is unlikely to satisfy public demand for information. Some documents contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” submitted to the FBI before the 2020 election, according to the Justice Department. Untangling fact from fiction, accountability from spectacle, remains enormously difficult.
The Robodebt royal commission documented 97 breaches of the public service code of conduct. No one went to jail.
The AI systems that killed thousands of civilians in Gaza and Iran continue to operate, their algorithms unexamined, their engineers unaccountable, their corporate suppliers protected by legal frameworks designed for a different era.
The pattern repeats. It will keep repeating until we choose to see it—and to act.
Turchin’s diagnosis is clear: “In historical terms, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture”. That rupture is not inevitable. It can be mitigated. It can be prevented. But only if we do the work.
The media must do the work. The people must do the work. All who claim to care must do the work.
The alternative is to let the pattern repeat—until there is nothing left to save.
Sources
1. International Committee of the Red Cross, “Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rules 46-48: Denial of Quarter,” 2005
2. The Guardian, “These aren’t AI firms, they’re defense contractors. We can’t let them hide behind their models,” March 14, 2026
3. Reuters, “Commerce Secretary Lutnick planned lunch on Epstein’s island, new release shows,” January 30, 2026
4. UMass Amherst, “Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series: Dr. Peter Turchin, ‘Cliodynamics of End Times,'” May 1, 2025
5. ABC News, “Former department bosses Kathryn Campbell and Renee Leon named for breaching duties in relation to Robodebt,” September 13, 2024
6. The Sydney Morning Herald, “Antisemitism envoy distances herself from husband’s donation to right-wing lobby group,” July 13, 2025
7. The Guardian, “‘Data is control’: what we learned from a year investigating the Israeli military’s ties to big tech,” December 30, 2025
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