Profile of a Collaborator — and Its Rewards

By Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam 15 October 2025 There is a certain pattern in the way empires select their heroes. They reward not those who resist oppression, but those who help make oppression look respectable. The collaborator is the indispensable mask of moral legitimacy behind which power hides its violence. When María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the Western media celebrated her as the face of Venezuela’s “democratic resistance.” Yet, behind the polished speeches and choreographed imagery lies a record that reads less like that of a democrat and more like that of a proxy politician, hand-picked and groomed for foreign endorsement. In 2020, Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, signed a formal “Inter-Party Cooperation Agreement” with Israel’s ruling Likud Party—the ideological engine of settler expansionism and military occupation. The agreement, still publicly hosted on her party’s website, pledged cooperation in areas of “strategy, geopolitics, and security.” (ventevenezuela.org) For any Venezuelan politician, such an alliance should have raised alarm bells. Likud is not a neutral actor—it represents a state currently engaged in one of the most brutal and documented genocides of the twenty-first century. To align politically and ideologically with it, and then to receive the world’s most prestigious peace prize, speaks volumes about the moral inversion that governs global recognition today. Machado’s record is consistent. In 2018, she publicly urged Israel and Argentina to “apply their force and influence” to overthrow the Venezuelan government—an open invitation to foreign intervention in her own country. In the same breath that she denounces “authoritarianism,” she legitimises the violence of imperial powers abroad. Her “peace” is the peace of submission, not sovereignty. For such figures, the rewards are predictable: glowing profiles in the Western press, invitations to exclusive conferences, and ultimately, a gilded medal inscribed with the word Peace. The Empire takes care of its own. But what of those who refuse to serve it? Consider Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Her moral courage lies in exposing the structures of domination and racial hierarchy that polite diplomacy avoids naming. She has faced organised smear campaigns, visa bans, and even threats of sanctions by powerful states. Yet, unlike Machado, she has never sought alliance with any regime—only allegiance to truth. Albanese is not rewarded by the empire; she is punished by it. But for the world’s dispossessed, she is the one who stands taller than the laureates in Oslo. She does not need a Nobel Prize to prove her worth—the suffering multitudes she defends are her witnesses. This is the contrast our age reveals with brutal clarity: Collaboration brings visibility, applause, and prizes. Integrity brings isolation, vilification, and endurance. The collaborator’s function is to translate domination into discourse, to make the language of imperial interests sound like the grammar of freedom. She becomes the acceptable face of intervention, the smiling emissary of subjugation. History, however, is unkind to collaborators. Their medals tarnish quickly, and their applause fades when the powers they served lose legitimacy. In the archives of the oppressed, it is not they but the silenced truth-tellers who are remembered. The Nobel Committee may have crowned its peace-time propagandist. Humanity, meanwhile, has already found its heroine—and her name is Francesca Albanese. Appendix & Reference Documents # Title / Description Link / Citation 1 Likud–Vente Cooperation Agreement (PDF) Inter-Party Agreement – Likud & Vente – Signed, Vente Venezuela (PDF) Al Jazeera+1 2 Media on Machado’s pro-Israel ties & Nobel criticism “Controversy erupts over Nobel Peace Prize for Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado” (Anadolu) Anadolu Ajansı 3 NDTV — critics point to her support for Israel & foreign intervention “Why Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Corina Machado Is Facing Criticism” www.ndtv.com 4 IsraelHayom — notes the signed cooperation pact “Old posts resurface: Nobel Prize winner criticized for Israel connection” www.israelhayom.com 5 OHCHR – Francesca Albanese Special Rapporteur mandate OHCHR: Special Procedures / SR Palestine OHCHR+1 6 News report on U.S. sanctions on Albanese The Guardian: UN Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese says U.S. sanctions a sign of “guilt” The Guardian 7 Albanese’s report accusing Israel of genocide UN report “Genocide as Colonial Erasure” by Albanese (October 2024) United Nations 8 Human rights source condemning U.S. sanctions Amnesty: USA: Sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese are a disgraceful affront to international justice Amnesty International ----- A frequent contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Naseer Ahmed is an independent researcher and Quran-centric thinker whose work bridges faith, reason, and contemporary knowledge systems. Through a method rooted in intra-Quranic analysis and scientific coherence, the author has offered ground-breaking interpretations that challenge traditional dogma while staying firmly within the Quran’s framework. His work represents a bold, reasoned, and deeply reverent attempt to revive the Quran’s message in a language the modern world can test and trust. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/profile-collaborator-rewards/d/137253 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism