Published date: 6 February 2026 08:53 GMT | Last update:51 mins 11 secs ago
Clear away the fog of conspiracy theories, and both are the product of an imperialist framework built on a consistent process of dehumanisation
The US Capitol building is pictured in March 2022 (Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP)
The release of the latest Epstein files has upended social media, amid a scramble to verify the morality of the names that are on and off the list.
This obsession with “who is in the files” effectively exonerates US institutions, imposing a veil of individual deviance. By framing the Epstein network as a secret cabal of bad actors who are politically compromised by blackmail, this discourse fails to recognise that we are not witnessing an anomaly of power, but rather a manifestation of its most basic structural reality.
As a result, the dominant narrative across the political divide suggests that Washington’s unwavering support for Israel, and its direct complicity in the Gaza genocide, are the result of politicians being coerced by external intelligence assets.
This framework is analytically deficient, operating on the flawed assumption that the American political class is somehow guided by a liberal moral compass; that its support for mass slaughter is a departure from its otherwise benevolent values.
In reality, western colonial and capitalist elites don’t need to be extorted to justify their participation in the destruction of Palestinian life. The American-Zionist alliance is rooted in material and ideological imperatives, with Israel functioning as a key outpost for American hegemony and a strategic military-industrial laboratory in the region.
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From its inception in 1492, American empire has been defined by the systematic displacement, enslavement and extermination of indigenous populations in favour of the expansion of European capital.
The genocide in Gaza is the contemporary expression of this historical heritage. Suggesting that US support for the colonisation of Palestine is a product of political blackmail, ignores centuries of American atrocities around the world. The US commitment to the Zionist settler-colonial project remains constant regardless of who holds office, because the strategic interests of empire demand it.
‘Human animals’
This imperialist framework relies on a consistent process of dehumanisation – one that facilitates both state-sponsored genocide and sex trafficking. In both cases, the human being is systematically stripped of political and moral agency, and reduced to a mere object or commodity.
In Gaza, the dehumanisation of Palestinians is a prerequisite for genocide. When an entire population is characterised as a “demographic threat” or “human animals”, their elimination is no longer framed as a crime, but as a logistical necessity for the “security” of the settler-colonial state.
In the case of the Epstein trafficking ring, victims were reduced to expendable objects who could be traded and exploited for the interests and pleasures of an elite class.
It isn’t accidental that members of the same political and economic class facilitating the ethnic cleansing of two million people in Gaza appear on a list of potential sexual predators. This isn’t about a secret society that hijacked the state; it’s about a class of people whose ideological and materialist worldview is predicated on the absolute exploitation of others.
American empire is not being blackmailed into supporting genocide. It is performing its historical function
For imperialist powers, the body – whether of a Palestinian child in a besieged enclave, or of someone being trafficked on a private island – is simply an object for the sustainability of political hegemony and the pursuit of sexual predation.
The moral degeneracy shown in the Epstein files is the domestic extension of the depravity exported by these same elites to the Global South. Their private sexual predatory crimes reflect the same tenets of empire as their public violent political crimes.
Indeed, their sexual criminality is entirely consistent with their supremacist worldview. If the elite class is comfortable with signing off on the slaughter of children for geopolitical gains, their involvement in sexual trafficking shouldn’t be a surprise.
We must also reject the intellectual laziness that seeks to frame this imperialist and capitalist depravity through the lens of conspiracy theories. Such theories often rely on western antisemitic tropes to explain corruption and evil, effectively protecting western power structures by conflating Judaism with Zionism.
This conflation serves western decision-makers by creating a buffer class, which is blamed for the consequences of imperialist projects around the world. Within the structures of empire, public servants are agents of imperialism regardless of their religious or ethnic identities. Their primary allegiance and objective is preserving the global capitalist order.
False narrative
By reducing the Zionist project or the Epstein ring to the work of a “Jewish cabal”, the dominant discourse serves to exonerate broader western colonial structures and elites, essentially letting imperialist powers off the hook for a project they have historically championed.
This narrative wrongly suggests that the US-Israel relationship is a hijacking of the American agenda, rather than a calculated and strategic partnership between two settler-colonial powers. To frame the liberation struggle as a fight against a religious conspiracy is to naively ignore the material conditions of ethnic cleansing, land theft and resource control.
This distraction is furthered by the algorithmic economy of social media, which rewards engagement farming by prioritising sensationalist fabrications over structural analysis and accurate information.
Attempts to “collect” likes by sharing ridiculous theories undermines the political legitimacy of the Palestinian cause, amid a surge in viral tweets that shamelessly claim to uncover evidence of ancient religious rituals, based on nothing more than obvious digital errors.
From Epstein to Gaza: The depravity of the western elite is now fully exposed
As the conversation shifts towards such fabricated narratives, the architects of the Gaza genocide are portrayed as being driven by ancient myths, rather than by the modern materialist and high-tech military logic of resource exploitation and geopolitical hegemony. Even when ritualistic language is used by the perpetrators, the bombs dropped on Gaza remain tools of a clear settler-colonial project.
The conspiracy framework obstructs a proper understanding of the international order; namely, how elites and powerful institutions make decisions in service of western imperialism.
Conspiracy theories suggest that colonial powers are so clandestine and all-powerful that we must decode their secrets from leaked documents. Yet the actual plots of imperialist powers are rarely secret: they are published in the white papers of think-tanks, discussed by world leaders, and codified in American and international institutions.
The millions of victims over centuries of European and American colonialism highlight the true nature of these imperialist and capitalist projects. The truth is operating in broad daylight: American empire is not being blackmailed into supporting genocide. It is performing its historical function.
The moral degeneracy in the Epstein files isn’t an aberration. It is a true reflection of a colonial and capitalist class that feels invincible in its capacity to exploit the whole world. The Gaza genocide and the Epstein trafficking ring aren’t mysteries to be decoded; they are the logical outcome of a materialist order that has viewed human beings as a disposable commodity since 1492.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Raja Abdulhaq is a Palestinian political organiser and researcher. Raja is a co-founder of Quds News Network and a former Executive Director of Islamic Leadership Council of New York. Raja has a masters degree in Political Science from Brooklyn College.
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