In January 1939, the Swedish parliamentarian Erik Brandt sent a darkly satirical letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating German Chancellor Adolf Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Brandt’s letter was written following the annexation of Austria in March 1938 and the carve-up of Czechoslovakia six months later, and with the knowledge that Hitler was relentlessly preparing for war.

Hitler’s “glowing love for peace” was “documented in his famous book Mein Kampf – next to the Bible perhaps the best and most popular piece of literature in the world,” Brandt wrote in words dripping with sarcasm. “Probably Hitler will, if unmolested and left in peace by war mongers, pacify Europe and possibly the whole world,” he concluded.

Though obvious satire, the point of the letter was completely missed by world public opinion, which took it at face value as an elegy to the homicidal maniac, prompting outrage in newspaper offices in Sweden and around the world.

Two things are different as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominates US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday. First, Netanyahu is completely serious. Second, there is no outrage in the newspaper offices.

Netanyahu announced at a dinner at the White House that he had sent his letter to the Nobel Committee. Explaining the nomination, Netanyahu praised the “historic victory” of the US-Israeli bombing of Iran, in which the two countries used the pretext of diplomacy to assassinate dozens of civilian leaders, military officers, and scientific figures, and kill at least six hundred civilians. Trump is “forging peace, as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said.

Trump, beaming with pride, extolled his contributions to world peace by having used “the biggest bombs ever, the biggest bombs that we’ve ever dropped on anybody,” in the attack on Iran. Trump then praised the use of nuclear weapons by US President Harry Truman against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saying “that stopped a lot of fighting,” seeming to express remorse that the bombs he dropped on Iran did not carry nuclear payloads.

Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu is being hailed in the US and international media as an effort to cultivate “peace” through the agreement of a “ceasefire” in Gaza, which Trump was “pushing” for. Never mind the fact that both men have openly stated that their vision of “peace” includes the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and killing of anyone who resists. Trump’s “relocation” plan went unmentioned in the media previews of the trip. And, of course, the words “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are forbidden in media coverage of US-Israeli policies in Gaza.

Netanyahu currently faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes perpetrated during the genocide, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war. But France, Germany, and Italy have stated they will ignore the ICC’s arrest warrant, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz going so far as to invite Netanyahu to the country in defiance of the order.

Far from seeking to prosecute the figures responsible for the genocide, the leaders of the imperialist powers are working to prosecute those who oppose it. The British group Palestine Action has been branded a terrorist organization by the UK government, which is seeking to bring terrorism charges against musical groups Kneecap and Bob Vylan, who led protests against the Gaza genocide.

The main purpose of the Trump and Netanyahu meeting is to plot the next phase of “peace”—that is, their “final solution” in Palestine: the rounding up of the Palestinian population into concentration camps, in preparation for their forcible displacement to other countries.

When Trump first presented his plan to “own” the Gaza strip, “level it out,” and send the Palestinian people to “other countries,” it was presented by the US and international media as a sort of bizarre “dream.” It was “unfeasible” and “unworkable,” in the words of the New York Times, which suggested the proposal might simply be a negotiating tactic.

In the six months since he announced it, it has become clear that the plan put forward by Trump and Netanyahu is deadly serious.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced plans to construct what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, which would hold the entire Palestinian population. He also said that the building of the camp would be coordinated with “the emigration plan, which will happen.”

While these plans are being carried out in Israel, participation in them includes major transnational corporations and think tanks spanning the entire gamut of the political establishment.

Last week, the Financial Times reported on a secret strategy document drawn up by the Boston Consulting Group, a major US corporate consulting firm, for “relocating” Palestinians from Gaza. In the follow-up article, the FT revealed that the plan was created with the involvement of staffers of former UK Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Trump and Netanyahu take as their motto the Orwellian slogan “war is peace.” They believe they are the greatest peacemakers because they have killed the most people. By this demented logic, the genocide these men have authored is their greatest contribution to world peace.

Of course, in the eyes of world public opinion, Trump and Netanyahu are tyrants and criminals. But they act not as individuals, but as the foremost representatives of the ideals of the capitalist system.

Vladimir Lenin wrote in 1916 that imperialism requires dictatorship at home and vast criminality and plunder abroad, all a product of the monstrous growth of the wealth and power of the capitalist class. Ultimately, the Gaza genocide, as the most predatory expression of global imperialist war, is a manifestation of the homicidal violence being unleashed upon humanity by capitalism.

Trump and Netanyahu proceed so provocatively and shamelessly because they know full well they express the dictates of the capitalist class, and that they will not face opposition from the Democratic Party or any part of the political establishment. That opposition will come from the building of a mass movement against imperialism spearheaded by the working class.