Farrukh Abadi
As part of Donald Trump’s nearly 100 reversals of former President Joe Biden’s executive orders on Monday (1/20), Trump lifted sanctions imposed by the previous administration on a handful of Zionist groups and individuals in the occupied West Bank.
Biden’s executive order, made less than a year ago in early February 2024, notably did not target any government officials behind the occupation’s violence. This discrepancy in rhetoric provides a good indication of how the two administrations differ from one another, with the Trump administration doing away with Biden’s failed attempts to appease the masses with symbolic gestures.
This comes as Zionists from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank continue to carry out pogroms against Palestinians in the area following the Gaza ceasefire. The pogroms, which have been backed by Israeli armed forces, set fire to and destroyed Palestinian property and left at least 21 Palestinians injured. Amid these attacks, the IDF launched on Tuesday (01/21) yet another campaign against the West Bank refugee camp Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian resistance.
Meanwhile, outgoing Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog reported that Trump will be continuing the delivery of 2,000-lb bombs after Biden froze a shipment last May. Biden reportedly withheld a single delivery of 2,000-lb bombs in what was effectively another publicity stunt, having delivered 14,000 of such bombs in the first few months of the war alone.
President Trump, who is also a billionaire real estate monopolist, also suggested while signing executive orders on Monday that Gaza must be “rebuilt in a different way,” noting that “[Gaza is] a phenomenal location. On the sea. The best weather. You know, everything is good. Some beautiful things could be done with it….” Last February, in an interview at Harvard University, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also stated that Gaza’s beachfront is “very valuable” and that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up.”
Trump also signed an executive order designating the Yemeni resistance group Ansarallah as a terrorist organization, which he had done during his first presidency as well. Though Biden had reversed Trump’s initial designation during his administration, the former president led numerous bombing campaigns against the Yemeni people, attempting to punish them for their solidarity with Palestinian resistance against the US-Israel genocide. For their part, an Ansarallah spokesperson pointed out that the decision reflects “American political instability, strange contradictions, and outright failure” and that “This is nothing new. The Americans have already declared war on us. Yet, we have stood strong, fought for justice, and defended our homeland and people. We will not waver in our mission.”
Photo: Kamal Adwan Hospital set on fire by Israeli forces during their genocidal attacks on Gaza. (Photo: Anas al-Sharif, via social media)
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