US VP Vance frames Israel’s occupation as ‘disrespecting’ peace process, obscuring settler-colonial roots of conflict
Original framing: “Vance says Israel has to 'respect' peace process like everybody else” — Middle East Eye
The ‘peace process’ Vance references is a 30-year neoliberal framework (Oslo Accords) that enabled Israel’s expansion of settlements while Palestinians were fragmented into Bantustans. Historical precedents like South Africa’s apartheid or US-backed coups in Latin America show how ‘peace processes’ often entrench domination under the guise of diplomacy. The 1948 Nakba and 1967 occupation are treated as background noise rather than the root causes of the conflict.
Vance’s statement exemplifies how US political elites weaponize ‘peace process’ rhetoric to obscure the settler-colonial foundations of Israel’s occupation, a strategy with deep historical roots in colonial ‘civilizing missions.
’ The framing serves the interests of a bipartisan US establishment that profits from perpetual war, while marginalizing Palestinian indigeneity and Indigenous knowledge systems like sumud. Cross-culturally, this mirrors apartheid South Africa’s ‘separate development’ or US-backed dictatorships in Latin America, where ‘peace’ became a euphemism for domination. The solution lies in dismantling the US-Israel military-industrial complex, centering Palestinian sovereignty in diplomacy, and investing in grassroots resistance—mirroring the anti-apartheid movement’s fusion of international pressure and local liberation. Vance’s moralizing is not a call for justice but a Trojan horse for further erasure, revealing the absurdity of a ‘peace process’ designed by and for the oppressor.