Summary
Donald Trump rescinded sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The sanctions, established under Executive Order 14115 in 2024, targeted those “undermining peace, security, and stability” and froze U.S. assets of sanctioned individuals.
This marks a reversal of Biden’s policy aimed at curbing settler violence and supporting a two-state solution.
Trump’s decision aligns with his previous support for Israeli settlements, which most countries consider illegal under international law.
The idea that Israel’s annexation of Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond is inevitable under any U.S. president ignores how deeply American policy shapes these outcomes. Empires do not expand in isolation because they rely on enablers to fuel their ambitions. Trump gave Israel everything it needed to push expansion forward by recognizing contested territories and legitimizing land grabs. Other administrations, while imperfect, at least made some effort to slow the process. American support through military aid, diplomatic shielding, and economic backing is not guaranteed and can shift with leadership and public pressure. History proves that empires can be stopped when expansion becomes too costly. Calling annexation inevitable is a lazy shrug at injustice, not a serious analysis of power and its limits.
Biden was a hardcore Zionist. He publicly proclaimed himself as such. He made a speech in congress, that if there was no Israel the US would need to create one, in order to further their interests. Being a violent empire that wants to ethnically cleanse and eradicate the Palestinians was always a part of Democratic policies. Any action against Israel was token at best and only enacted after significant public outcry about yet another wave of brutal Israeli crimes.
The only difference between the parties was in how fast and open it should happen. The sanctions imposed on settler groups were meaningless and laughable as the US gave guns to the Israeli government, which then handed them right to the sanctioned settler groups. They were laughable as often the settler groups are made up in part of active duty IDF soldiers and often the IDF had to report to these settler groups.
All these things are known, in particular to the US.
The reality is that the majority and leaders of the Democratic party want the annihilation of the Palestinians just as much as their counterparts in the Republicans. They just dont want their children to ask them, why they saw little children burned alive on social media and why mommy and daddy support this.
No doubt. So have most previous presidents.
The difference is the speed exactly as you mentioned, and the removal of any concerns that they need to placate global pushback. They’ll achieve in the next four years what would’ve taken them decades without a fascist at the helm.
So now that the cat is out of the box, other countries might decide to finally oppose the US and its conduct. Also now the people who claim to be progressive might realize that they have to oppose it as it is principally wrong and it cannot be seperated from the other issues, the same way the oligarchy is intrinsic to both sides of the US political theatre. Otherwise the outcome is the same for the Palestinians and the working class Americans.
Don’t think so, think this will just result in the complete erasure of Palestine with no reprecussions.
Can’t really oppose the US, at least not in any meaningful way.
We thought Assad was to stay in Syria and most countries were looking to reestablish/normalize ties. A month later he was gone.
It always feels impossible until the regime falls. But all power structures are fundamentally based on no relevant number of people challenging them. And the US always needs to feel it is worth to support Israel. Once that changes and the US drops Israel, it will fall apart in weeks, if it didn’t fall apart until then from its internal rot.
I don’t see how that’s a comparable situation. The regime has been strengthened by this move and has the full backing of the most powerful military to have ever existed.
Why would Trump drop Israel? Seems far more likely he’ll push them to pursue their imperial goals and expand greater Israel so they can have even more influence in the region. What’s anyone going to do to stop them?
As it stands Israel had to accept a ceasefire process for Gaza, which is pracitcally identical to what was proposed almost a year ago, but Biden didnt apply any pressure. It increased the rifts inside Israels society and parts of the current government coalition left.
That is a huge defeat for the Israeli government and they wouldnt have accepted it, if there wasnt tangible pressure behing it, e.g. the US cutting off the Arms and Money. Also Biden made a point of quickly passing another few billions to Israel iirc. in November or December, so he also must have feared them to run dry under Trump.
Most political analysts say that Trump believes in zero sum deals. Israel is a strategic, financial and diplomatic liability to the US. If it is about having a military base in the region Trump could easily strike a deal with another country around.
Also looking at what typical MAGA heads like Tucker Carlson say, the sentiment towards Israel among the Republicans has changed. More people ask the question, why they should pay up for Israels bullshit. When “The backing of the most powerful military” in practice becomes Videos of American kids being killed, so Israelis can enjoy watching from the beach-side café how the US is expanding their empire, the mood will turn sour quickly.
They accepted it because it was a better deal for israel, one the right-wing factions who were blocking the ceasefire were happy to accept
https://lemmy.ml/post/25021605/16208319
The only difference? Yeah? Democrats would have overturned roe? Liberals would be deporting people en mass? Kamala would be trying to overturn birthright citizenship? Democratic leaders world be promoting a non-democratic oligarch?
Difference for Palestinians, or for that matter pretty much anyone outside the mainland US.
Cuba, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Yemen and many more suffered from the combined murderous and greedy empire politics of both the Democratic and Republican party.
Millions of people have been brutally murdered and starved by both parties just throughout the recent history of the US since WW2. The US oligarchy might prefer the Democrats or the Republicans for some time, but the oligarchy continued its murderous and destructive machinations.
The only people who matter it seems.
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But also i find stopping a genocide does matter more than ending much smaller discriminations. Ending those smaller ones is important too, but if someone deems ending their smaller discrimination as more important than stopping a genocide, it seems to come from a place of egoism and supremacism, rather than an ethical conviction for the value of human life and mutual respect.
So do I. Was it stopped?
The inevitable outcome I was referring to was the rise of fascism, and it became inevitable the moment we didn’t take the historic opportunity to overthrow neoliberal control of the Democratic party. That was the window to a better world, and we missed it. A Bernie presidency would never have bowed to Israel and genocide.
Window was a few months ago when you had a chance to reject it, put Don through the courts and spend the next few years thoroughly embarassing them (it’s the only thing they understand), with the republican party being destroyed.
Without that opposition, actual leftist voices could fill the vaccum.
But no now we need to do it the hard way.
There is no doing it the hard way. That’s an adolescent fantasy. The wealthy will just coop any such movement to gain even more control.
Winning has to start with massive reform of American culture, and the wealthy have just consolidated control over social media, making it even harder to reach people. The one thing we have going for us is that the US seems to finally understand that the system is broken.
The goal is to build counter economic frameworks and mutual aid networks and cooperatives to usher in an evolution of society outwith government control.
Lot harder to build when you let the guy in who says he wants to execute leftists and anarchists, suggested shooting protestors, etc. so yeh this is the hard way.