On March 18th, Israel launched another massive assault and bombardment of Gaza, killing over 400 people in one day. This was one of the deadliest single days in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine began in October 2023.
Israel’s bombing broke the ceasefire with Hamas that was agreed in January. But in reality, this had not been a real ceasefire from the beginning. Even during the ceasefire agreement, Israel never stopped the violence and killed at least 170 people in Gaza, expanded military attacks in the West Bank, and continued to restrict the amount of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, furthering mass starvation and the spread of disease. In the end, this so-called ceasefire was just a short pause while the Biden administration handed off control of the U.S.-fueled genocide to the Trump administration.
The Biden administration would pay lip service to the plight of innocent Palestinians, while they provided non-stop military and political support for Israel’s genocide and total destruction of Gaza. With Trump, not much has changed, except he is willing to say the quiet part out loud, openly calling for the ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so it can be developed into the “riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump campaigned on getting the U.S. out of foreign wars and prioritizing domestic problems. But since taking power, it is clear there is no meaningful difference between his and Biden’s administration on their support for Israel’s genocide. Since taking power, Trump has authorized almost $12 billion dollars in new military aid to Israel. Meanwhile, his administration is ramming through massive tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, while gutting and privatizing government agencies that provide some support for working people.
He has now signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, and is firing thousands of government workers in many departments, like the Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Veterans Affairs and many more.
These actions reflect the priorities of U.S. imperialism — use the state’s resources to maintain U.S. domination over strategic locations such as the Middle East, and get rid of any agency that helps ordinary people or regulates corporations at home. They want to remove any obstacle to their profits and pillage any state spending that goes to the rest of us, sucking resources like the parasites they are.
Their blatant support for the massacre of Palestinians abroad, along with their slew of attacks here at home is becoming impossible to ignore, and resistance is growing. People are beginning to return to the streets in protest of these open attacks.
Protests have continued to develop, like those at Tesla dealerships, calling out the key role Elon Musk is playing in implementing these destructive policies, while his companies are handed tens of billions of dollars in government contracts. Both Republicans and Democrats are being forced to cancel town hall events and public speaking engagements because people continue to show up and speak out against all the policies being implemented — furious at the Republicans for proposing these policies, and furious at the Democrats for going along with them.
As opposition grows, it is no surprise we are seeing the Trump administration intensify their repression against those who stand up. It is not a coincidence that the government has captured, detained, and is threatening to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University who is a lawful permanent resident (a Green Card holder) who played a prominent role in the protests against the genocide in Gaza on that campus last year.
It is also no coincidence that they are now threatening those that protest at Tesla, with Trump saying, “we’re going to catch you, and you’re going to go through hell.” They have even said that anyone who vandalizes a Tesla vehicle will be charged with “domestic terrorism,” which can bring a sentence of 20 years in prison.
Trump and his cronies know that the only thing that can put a stop to their ruthless assault on our lives is mass resistance from the population. And their attacks are just getting started — they have much more in store. Their message is clear, they want to frighten people into submission, and to scare us into silence. Instead, let’s turn their attacks into a rallying cry for resistance.
Now is the time to take a stand against Trump and the billionaires and their whole system that puts their profits over our lives.
