How Displacement Became a Tool of US and Israeli Power

This episode of State of Play by MintPress News delivers a sharp, unfiltered look at the overlapping crises shaping our world, from Gaza to the U.S. borderlands, exposing how displacement, propaganda and militarized policing function as interconnected tools of state power.

The show opens with a satirical jab at Donald Trump’s recent claim that he would reduce drug prices “by 1,000%”, a mathematically impossible boast that sets the tone for the absurdity and horror defining much of today’s geopolitical discourse. But the episode quickly pivots to Gaza, where starvation is being dangerously reframed as “humanitarian success” by U.S.-aligned operatives.

Johnnie Moore, a former Trump adviser and now head of the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, recently praised the effectiveness of his food aid program—even as Palestinian hospitals reported more than 20 deaths from malnutrition in just two days. His remarks, delivered at an event hosted by the American Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, deflect blame from Israel’s severe blockade and aid restrictions, instead shifting responsibility onto Hamas and the United Nations.

The episode dissects how this kind of messaging is more than mere propaganda. Instead, it’s part of a broader strategy known as the politics of displacement.

Displacement is not simply a side effect of war or crisis but a deliberate tool of political domination. In Gaza, it manifests as ethnic cleansing and territorial control. Across the Middle East, it’s deployed to destabilize neighboring governments, exert pressure, and engineer demographics for future geopolitical gains.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a parallel system of displacement and repression is unfolding.

Murad Awawdeh, head of the New York Immigration Coalition, joins the episode to talk about what he’s seeing on the ground. The son of Palestinian immigrants, he’s spent more than 20 years fighting for immigrant rights in New York. In the interview, he describes how ICE raids have intensified in recent years and warns that the agency is becoming more militarized—relying on technology and tactics that echo those used in war zones.

As Awawdeh explains, ICE now operates with a budget exceeding that of the U.S. Marine Corps. The agency uses AI-powered surveillance and predictive policing tools, developed by Israeli and American defense firms and tested in occupied Palestinian territories, for domestic enforcement across the U.S. This fusion of military and police powers, he warns, is accelerating a shift toward military-style detention and control. Some critics compare this development to the rise of domestic concentration camps, drawing parallels with the internment of the Japanese during World War II.

The same systems that facilitate mass displacement and repression abroad are being used to silence dissent and remake demographics at home. Displacement, Awawdeh argues, is not an accident; it is a weapon. A tool of consolidation and a method of control.

From famine-induced deaths in Gaza to militarized immigration raids in New York, one thing is unmistakably clear: displacement is not a byproduct of policy; it is the policy.

Tune in to State of Play to hear more from Murad Awawdeh and unpack the politics behind these overlapping humanitarian and civil rights crises.

Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a background in human intelligence collection and analysis. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst, and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term.

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