Colin Sheridan: Israel's 'ceasefire' a placatory piece of theatre that continues its genocide

American power projecting itself is always clothed in peace, democracy, and rights, but always enforcing the very opposite, writes Colin Sheridan 

Buildings hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, last week. At least 236 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began less than 30 days ago. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi

So, how goes the ceasefire in Gaza? Here’s how it goes. At least 236 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since it began less than 30 days ago. Another 500 bodies from earlier assaults have been pulled from rubble during this so-called truce. 

One incident on October 29 alone killed more than 100 people — 46 of them children — in direct Israeli strikes. Meanwhile, starvation and disease take hold as the blockade and decimated healthcare system quietly claim thousands more. 

So yes — the ceasefire is going wonderfully, if you happen to support the psychopathic killing machine that the EU-backed, US-funded Israeli military has inevitably become.

In Lebanon, under another détente announced just under a year ago, more than 300 people — many women and children — have been killed by Israel. Tens of thousands of people are still displaced, their homes in the south reduced to rocks. 

Under the November 2024 agreement, Israeli forces were required to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 26, 2025. They missed the deadline. Troops still occupy five fortified positions inside Lebanon — just another ongoing violation.

A Red Cross vehicle amid a convoy carrying the bodies of two people believed to be deceased hostages handed over by Hamas make its way toward the Kissufim border crossing with Israel last week. Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

Israel insists withdrawal depends on Lebanese Army deployment — a condition so unrealistic that even casual observers of Lebanon’s domestic reality recognised it as fantasy. Meanwhile, the West Bank teeters permanently on the edge of a bonfire Israel knowingly stokes and controls.

Yet this “ceasefire” is peddled as progress — by politicians eager for headlines, by well-paid commentators desperate for relevance, and by citizens in wealthy capitals who seem to believe that being mildly inconvenienced by protests outside McDonald’s or Starbucks is equivalent to moral engagement. 

The ceasefire does exactly what Israel designed it to do: it performs peace while continuing the crumbs of genocide. A mask. A placatory piece of theatre. A distraction. A deceit. War by another name.

The Global South

What does the pause conceal? That those who maintain this façade — the United States, the European Union, Israel — have no interest in a confident Global South, no interest in a sovereign Palestine, no interest in a region where self-determination outpaces Western leverage. 

Take the US and Venezuela. María Corina Machado’s awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize is framed as triumph — but take note by whom. Because as Washington backs opposition forces, applies ruinous sanctions, and violently intervenes repeatedly — always in the name of “freedom” — they do so to keep power flowing in one direction. 

María Corina Machado’s awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize is framed as triumph — but take note by whom. Photo: AP/Matias Delacroix

It is the template: “We stand for democracy,” they say — while destabilising those who dare to stand outside the Western narrative. Machado herself blessed US “lethal kinetic strikes” in the Caribbean that killed at least 67 people — actions described by many legal experts as extrajudicial executions.

And Ireland — dear, self-congratulatory, “pro-Palestinian” Ireland — puffs and postures and expresses grave concern, all while ranking as the world’s second-largest importer of Israeli goods. We even sit on the UN Special Rapporteur’s list of 63 states complicit in an “internationally enabled crime”. 

Some achievement for a post-colonial state barely a century old, so fond of parading its virtue. Why bother with the pantomime ceasefire at all? 

Because this phase of war demands a façade of peace. Because diplomats require the illusion of movement. Because great powers must appear sober, cautious and humane. Because occupiers need legitimacy and empires need cover. 

In reality, the violence of genocide hasn’t stopped — it has simply been re-calibrated. Gaza remains besieged; the West Bank remains under military rule; Lebanon absorbs strike after strike; the Global South remains under pressure, splintered by design.

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We mock the gentle refrain — “let’s hope the ceasefire holds” — because it functions as a lullaby for uncommitted consciences. A sweetener for the bitter truth: power does not seek peace; it seeks control. 

The Global South is not allowed to rise unpunished. America, Europe, and Israel remain invested in dependency, crisis, and coercion — the architecture of dominance.

A real peace

What would real peace look like? A sovereign Gaza. A West Bank free of raids and settlers. Dare I say it, a free Palestine. A Lebanon restored, not surveilled. A Global South charting its own course without foreign puppeteers. 

And the powerful letting go — of fear, of myth, of all the “isms,” of the West's addiction to supremacy. None of which we seem inclined to do.

So, how goes the ceasefire? If you care for human life, it goes abysmally. It goes as a charade with dozens killed daily while the “international community” trades condolences and clichés. 

It goes with American power projecting itself from Gaza to Venezuela — always clothed in peace, democracy, and rights, always enforcing the very opposite.

Sure, we can hope, but hope without action is an insult. This ceasefire is an absurdity — and it makes liars of everyone who pretends it is real.