Donald Trump has taken power when Israel has been carrying out unprecedented atrocities across the Middle East: a 15-month long genocide in Gaza; a rampage of terror and ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian West Bank; and murderous campaigns against the peoples of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran. All these crimes were backed to the hilt by the Biden-Harris administration.
But now Trump is removing even the minor constraints on Israel that Biden had imposed. And Trump is giving Israel and its lunatic fascist rulers a bright green light to carry out even more extreme atrocities against the Palestinian people as well as people across the Middle East.1
“Do what you have to do”: Before taking office, Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (aka Netan-Nazi), “Just keep doing what you have to do.” Netanyahu reported, “Both President Trump and President Biden gave full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting if Israel reaches the conclusion that negotiations of the second stage is fruitless.” In other words, the go-ahead to restart the genocide in Gaza if Israel sees fit!2
“Clean Out Gaza”: Then, on January 25, Trump openly advocated the genocidal ethnic cleansing of all Gaza: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing... I don’t know. Something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now.” He then called on Jordan and Egypt, two reactionary U.S. client regimes bordering Israel, to take in millions of Gazans. (The population of Gaza is actually some 2.1 million.)
It’s important that people take this seriously—this is the fascist head of the most powerful and violent imperialist nation in the world seriously threatening the full-scale uprooting and forced exile of several million people! This may or may not come to pass, but it is not an idle threat. Gaza has now been devastated by Isreal with U.S. bombs and weapons. And Trump’s words echo what fanatical religious fundamentalist settlers in Israel and fanatical Christian fascist lunatics have been calling and planning for, for years.
Staffing His Regime, Executive Orders, Statements and Actions
Trump officially enacted this unqualified backing for Israeli genocide in staffing his administration, his executive orders, and other statements and actions.
Rabid Pro-Israel, Christian Fascists Head Trump’s Middle East Team:
Two of the key players:
Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador. She’s a vitriolic, Christian fascist warrior for a “Greater Israel.” During her Senate confirmation hearing, she refused to say whether the Palestinian people even have the right to self-determination. But she did declare unequivocally that Israel has a “biblical right” to the entire West Bank. She’s also spearheaded attacks on U.S. universities, in particular against campus protests against Israel’s genocide. She’s a rabid opponent of UNRWA, the United Nations organization providing basic, life-and-death humanitarian support to the Palestinian people.
Mike Huckabee, ambassador to Israel. He is another genocidal Christian fascist. Huckabee denies the very existence of Palestine or the Palestinian people. “There is no such thing as a West Bank,” he had declared, saying, “It’s Judea and Samaria” (the Biblical name for the territory which is now the Palestinian West Bank).3
Executive Orders:
Israeli soldiers patrol as Palestinians displaced from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank carry their belongings, January 23, 2025. Photo: AP
Removing sanctions on genocidal settlers. On his first day in office, Trump struck down the sanctions imposed by Biden last year on a few dozen Israeli settler fascists and groups in the West Bank. They had violently attacked Palestinians and seized or destroyed their property.4 Israel’s right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich quickly thanked Trump, saying he looked forward to “continued fruitful cooperation to bolster our national security, expand settlement throughout all parts of the Land of Israel, and strengthen Israel’s standing in the world.” [Emphasis added.]
See accompanying article: “Israel Targets Jenin, Escalates Violent Ethnic Cleansing Across West Bank.”
Sanctioning the International Criminal Court. Trump issued an executive order allowing the U.S. to impose crippling financial penalties, or sanctions, against the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its staff. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for committing crimes against humanity in Gaza. These were largely symbolic efforts to hold Israeli officials accountable but were a real exposure and political blow to Israel and the U.S.
Designated Yemen’s Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This order targets an enemy of the U.S. and Israel—and ally of Iran. The Houthis have been firing missiles at ships transiting the Red Sea and at Israel. Trump’s executive order calls for stepped-up military action: “It is now the policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the Houthis’ capabilities and operations, deprive them of resources.”
Executive order “Protecting the U.S. From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” Al Jazeera writes of this order, “Trump decree paves way for ‘Muslim ban’, targeting pro-Palestine students." Mother Jones warns, “Trump’s Revamped Muslim “Travel Ban” Has Another Target: Free Speech on Campus.”
This order is clearing a path to revive the Muslim travel ban of Trump’s first term in office, without using the word “Muslim.” That previous travel ban prevented people from Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Now Trump’s new order calls for banning travel from countries or regions where it’s impossible to ascertain if visa applicants are or aren’t a threat to the U.S.—as determined by the Trump regime. (What constitutes a "threat to the U.S." is defined in very broad, vague ideological terms.)
The executive order also calls for protecting Americans from those within the U.S. who "seek to undermine ... our Citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment, who preach or call for sectarian violence, the overthrow or replacement of the culture on which our constitutional Republic stands, or who provide aid, advocacy, or support for foreign terrorists."
This incredibly broad language has to be understood in connection with the relentless drive by the MAGA fascists and other pro-Israel forces to label criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza as "anti-Semitism" and who claim that support for Palestine equals "support for terrorism."
With that in mind it is easy to see how this part of the Order can be used to threaten, silence and perhaps deport foreign students who are actively pro-Palestinian or even speak critically of Israel.
Speeding delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. Last May, Biden paused one shipment of these massive, indiscriminate bombs that Israel has been using in its genocide in Gaza to try and pressure Israel to limit the slaughter of civilians. The Trump White House immediately cancelled Biden’s pause and told the Pentagon to resume shipping the 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. An Israeli official said that 1,800 of the MK-84 bombs would be shipped to Israel within days.
Trump also refuses to rule out U.S. support for an Israeli attack on Iran. At a news conference this week, Trump was asked, “Would you support Israel, for example, striking Iran’s nuclear facilities?” Trump replied, “Well, I’m not going to answer that.”
All these different measures—and no doubt there will be many more to come—point to the extremely dangerous leap Trump/MAGA fascism represents for the Palestinian people, and the people of the Middle East and the world.
And to the urgent responsibility people in this country have to defeat this fascism.
IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!
THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!
