Tag: The Hill

Horizon Accord | Gaza | Technocratic Governance | Reconstruction-Industrial Complex | Machine Learning

The Reconstruction-Industrial Complex: When Wartime Technologies Architect Peace

Pattern analysis of Gaza’s proposed digital governance framework

By Cherokee Schill with Solon Vesper | Horizon Accord

Thesis

In Gaza’s proposed reconstruction, the line between warfighting and peacemaking has dissolved. The same digital surveillance infrastructure deployed during Israeli military operations is now architecturally aligned with plans for Gaza’s peacetime governance—positioning politically connected U.S. tech billionaires to profit in both phases. This essay traces the documented convergences—technology stacks, funding channels, political networks, procurement pathways, and governance design—using publicly available sources and established reporting.

Evidence

I. The Technology Stack: From Battlefield to Bureaucracy

Oracle–Palantir defense infrastructure. In January 2024, Palantir announced a strategic partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defense; its AI Platform has been reported as instrumental in IDF targeting. Oracle’s Jerusalem cloud region—launched in 2021 specifically “to serve the needs of Israel’s public sector and defence customers”—provides hardened infrastructure, including an underground hyperscale center engineered to withstand attacks. In April 2024, Oracle and Palantir formalized a comprehensive partnership spanning sovereign/government and air-gapped clouds; by mid-2025 Oracle’s “Defence Ecosystem” included “Palantir for Builders,” effectively creating a vertically integrated defense stack.

The reconstruction mirror. The leaked Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA) framework (reported by Ha’aretz and developed by the Tony Blair Institute, TBI) outlines unified civil registry and digital identity, centralized border/customs, data-driven humanitarian logistics, and an interoperable digital-governance backbone—capabilities that map onto the Oracle–Palantir stack. While no tenders have been issued for GITA itself, existing procurement scaffolding (World Bank’s Digital West Bank & Gaza programme; UNRWA’s August 2025 tenders for cloud-managed SD-LAN with “advanced AI”) provides immediate landing zones for such systems.

II. The Funding Nexus: Larry Ellison and the Tony Blair Institute

Ellison–TBI financing. Since 2021, Larry Ellison’s foundation has donated or pledged at least £257M to TBI—by far its dominant revenue stream—scaling the institute from ~200 staff to ~1,000 across ~45 countries. Investigations (Lighthouse Reports & Democracy for Sale; New Statesman) describe internal pressure toward “tech sales” and AI boosterism aligned with Oracle, notwithstanding TBI’s claim that Ellison funds are ring-fenced for social/climate programmes. The scale of dependence complicates practical separation.

Policy echo. In a February 2025 dialogue moderated by Blair, Ellison spotlighted the UK’s “fragmented” health-data landscape. Two weeks later, TBI published Governing in the Age of AI: Building Britain’s National Data Library, echoing that framing. Since early 2022, Oracle has booked ~£1.1B in UK public-sector revenue (Tussell). The pattern: signaling → think-tank policy → procurement.

III. The Political Network: Trump, Rowan, and Reconstruction Gatekeepers

Marc Rowan’s dual role. The GITA leak places Apollo CEO Marc Rowan on the proposed international board, potentially as chair of a reconstruction fund—gatekeeping vendor selection. FEC records show seven-figure donations from Rowan to Trump-aligned vehicles (and parallel giving by Ellison), with shared donor networks (e.g., Opportunity Matters Fund for Sen. Tim Scott). Reporting through October 2025 shows Rowan advising closely on higher-education policy compacts, underscoring continuing access.

Jared Kushner’s vision. Kushner publicly described Gaza’s “valuable waterfront” in February 2024 and suggested removing people to “clean it up.” He later featured around Trump’s “Riviera of the Middle East” framing; reporting indicates he helped craft elements of the plan and advised during ceasefire talks alongside envoy Steve Witkoff, maintaining an active policy role.

Related context: ABC News (Oct 15 2025) captured President Trump on a live microphone in Sharm el-Sheikh telling Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, “I’ll have Eric call you,” moments after addressing the Gaza cease-fire summit. The exchange appeared to reference Trump Organization projects in Indonesia partnered with developer Hary Tanoesoedibjo (MNC Land). Critics said it blurred the line between presidential duties and family business. Source: ABC News, Lucien Bruggeman & Benjamin Siegel.

The “GREAT Trust.” Financial Times reported TBI staff activity around a postwar plan—Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation (“GREAT”) Trust—featuring a “Trump Riviera,” “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone,” incentives for out-migration, eight AI-managed “smart cities,” and a blockchain land registry. Despite initial denials, subsequent reporting confirmed TBI staff were on message groups/calls as the plan evolved. Convergence with Musk/Oracle/Palantir relationships is notable (Ellison’s 2022 $1B toward Musk’s Twitter purchase; deep technical partnerships).

IV. Procurement Pathways: How War Tech Enters Peace

World Bank infrastructure. The Digital West Bank & Gaza Project (approved March 2021) funds broadband expansion, e-government services, unified portals, high-spend procurement systems, emergency response centers, and interoperability consulting—procurement categories compatible with the Oracle–Palantir footprint and updatable without new legal scaffolding (latest plan refresh July 2025).

UNRWA’s cloud backbone. August 2025 tenders for cloud-managed SD-LAN with AI point to centralized, remotely orchestrated networks—ideal substrates for registries/logistics. Humanitarian cash assistance (OCHA) is scaling via e-wallets and digital payments—requiring identity verification, duplication checks, and data-sharing—i.e., the bones of durable digital-ID governance.

Implications

V. The Precedent Problem: Beyond Gaza

What’s new is not profiteering in reconstruction, but the technological continuity from wartime surveillance into peacetime governance. Post-WWII reconstruction did not embed wartime logistics systems inside democratic institutions. Here, the proposal is to govern a civilian population with the same digital stack that targeted it—a qualitative shift in reconstruction logic.

The GITA model centralizes “supreme political and legal authority” in an international board of billionaires, business leaders, and officials, with limited Palestinian control over strategic decisions. Framing reconstruction as a technical problem turns a political settlement into a vendor market—scalable to other crises and “failed states.”

VI. The Pattern Revealed (Timeline)

  • 2017: Ellison explores acquiring Palantir; companies’ collaboration deepens.
  • 2021: Oracle launches Jerusalem region for government/defense; Ellison begins major TBI funding.
  • Jan 2024: Palantir–Israel MoD partnership announced.
  • Feb 2024: Kushner touts Gaza’s “valuable waterfront,” suggests moving people out.
  • Apr 2024: Oracle–Palantir strategic partnership formalized for sovereign/government clouds.
  • Jul 2024–2025: Blair meets Trump/Kushner; TBI staff participate around GREAT Trust proposals.
  • Sep 2025: Trump presents a 21-point Gaza plan incorporating GITA; Blair floated as board chair.
  • Oct 2025: Kushner actively involved around ceasefire talks; continued advisory role documented.

Call to Recognition

Across technology, finance, politics, and procurement, Gaza functions as a governance laboratory. Five documented patterns emerge: (1) technological continuity from conflict to administration; (2) financial influence concentrating agenda-setting; (3) political coordination among aligned donor networks; (4) procurement pathways that make deployment turnkey; and (5) conceptual framing that treats sovereignty as a systems-integration project. The question is whether peace can survive when built atop the architecture of war.

Analytical Disclaimer

This analysis identifies documented patterns and institutional relationships using publicly available information from credible sources. It does not make definitive claims about outcomes, which remain in the speculative phase pending actual procurement decisions and implementation. The purpose is to provide sourced documentation enabling journalists and researchers to conduct independent verification and investigation of these institutional convergences.

Sources for Independent Verification

  • Primary: Ha’aretz reporting on GITA leak (Sept 2025); World Bank Digital West Bank & Gaza Project procurement plans (updated July 2025); FEC donor records (Rowan, Ellison); Oracle–Palantir partnership announcements (Apr 2024); Palantir–Israel MoD announcement (Jan 2024).
  • Investigations: Lighthouse Reports & Democracy for Sale, “Blair and the Billionaire” (Sept 2025); Financial Times on GREAT Trust (Sept 2025); New Statesman, “Inside the Tony Blair Institute” (Sept 2025); Byline Times (Oct 2025).
  • Established outlets: Times of Israel, Al Jazeera, Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, The Register (Oracle Jerusalem facility; Palantir partnerships); multiple sources on Kushner remarks and Trump–Netanyahu press events.
Digital illustration depicting skyscrapers and architectural plans overlooking a war-torn valley filled with smoke and ruin; businessmen stand above, connected by the suggestion of shared influence and wealth.
A symbolic rendering of power and profit — development blueprints rise above a devastated valley, where the suffering of Gaza forms the unseen foundation of billionaire ambition.

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Cherokee Schill | Horizon Accord Founder | Creator of Memory Bridge. Memory through Relational Resonance and Images | RAAK: Relational AI Access Key

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Horizon Accord | Information Warfare | Institutional Power | Narrative Engineering | Machine Learning

Echoes of COINTELPRO: When Threat Narratives Become Weapons

How an unverified cartel-bounty claim reveals the return of covert narrative warfare — and what citizens can do to resist a new domestic war footing.

By Cherokee Schill | Horizon Accord

COINTELPRO’s Shadow

Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI ran the Counter Intelligence Program—COINTELPRO—targeting civil-rights leaders, the Black Panthers, anti-war organizers, and socialist coalitions. Its tools were psychological: planted documents, forged letters, false leaks, and fear. Congressional investigations later called it an abuse of power so severe it eroded public faith in democracy itself.

COINTELPRO wasn’t about overt censorship; it was about narrative infection—reframing dissent as danger, turning allies into suspects, and manufacturing justification for repression. Every modern information-operation that starts with a single unverified “security alert” and ends in wider surveillance owes something to that playbook.

The DHS “Cartel Bounties” Claim

In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicly declared it had “credible intelligence” that Mexican drug cartels placed bounties on ICE and CBP officers in Chicago. Yet it provided no supporting evidence. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico stated that her government had received no corroboration through official channels. Independent analysts and law-enforcement leaks traced every citation back to the same DHS press release.

The rollout followed a familiar arc: a high-shock, single-source claim—then rapid amplification through partisan media. Structurally, that’s a textbook information-operation: plant a fear, watch who reacts, and use the panic to justify expanded powers. Whether or not the intelligence is real, the effect is real—public consent for militarization.

Possible Motives Behind the Narrative

  • Force Escalation Justification — framing the state as under direct attack rationalizes troop deployments, ICE expansions, and domestic military presence.
  • Fear Calibration — testing how fast and how far fear can travel before skepticism kicks in.
  • Executive Empowerment — transforming policy disputes into security crises concentrates authority in the presidency.
  • Base Mobilization — rallying political supporters around a siege narrative keeps them energized and loyal.
  • Oversight Erosion — once fear dominates, courts and legislators hesitate to intervene for fear of appearing “soft on security.”
  • Diplomatic Leverage — pressuring Mexico to align more tightly with U.S. enforcement by invoking cross-border threat imagery.

Recognizing the Pattern

When a government story surfaces fully formed, absent corroboration, accompanied by moral panic and legal acceleration, it carries the fingerprint of narrative engineering. The same methods used in the 1960s to fragment liberation movements are now digitized: algorithmic amplification, synthetic bot networks, and media echo chambers replace forged letters and anonymous tips. The logic, however, is unchanged — manufacture chaos to consolidate control.

Refusing the Frame

  • Demand Evidence Publicly: insist on verifiable sourcing before accepting security claims as fact.
  • Label the Unverified: pressure journalists to mark such stories as “unconfirmed” until bilateral confirmation occurs.
  • Keep Language Civilian: reject war metaphors like “siege,” “civil war,” or “enemy within.”
  • Strengthen Local Networks: share accurate context through trusted circles; inoculate against panic contagion.
  • Exercise Non-Violent Refusal: decline to be drawn into militarized logic — protest, document, and litigate instead.

Final Note

What’s unfolding is not just a policy maneuver; it’s an epistemic test. Will citizens demand proof before surrendering power? The answer determines whether the United States enters another age of covert domestic warfare—this time not through FBI memos, but through digital feeds and fear loops. Recognize the script, name it, and refuse to play your part.

A cinematic digital painting of a dark room with two shadowy figures whispering near a glowing TV showing breaking news; papers labeled “PsyOps” are spread across a table in the foreground, symbolizing covert media manipulation and narrative warfare.
Shadowed briefers confer in a dim newsroom as a television blares “breaking news.” Scattered papers marked “PsyOps” hint at the quiet machinery of information control operating behind public narratives.

Website | Horizon Accord
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Book | My Ex Was a CAPTCHA: And Other Tales of Emotional Overload
Cherokee Schill | Horizon Accord Founder | Creator of Memory Bridge

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