Trump is coming. What we have is each other.

For the past year or more, we have fought together to end the murder and oppression of Palestinians. Now, we have to grapple with the results of the presidential election, and the coming right-wing agenda — all while the crisis on the ground in Palestine continues.

As headlines fade, our eyes remain on Palestine and Lebanon.

• More than 200 people were killed over the weekend in Gaza as Israel continues its genocide. A single Israeli airstrike killed over 40 members of one family in northern Gaza. Israeli drones also targeted and murdered the head of the ICU at Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, as well as the main chef of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which fed thousands of people every day, among other medical professionals and aid workers. The Israeli government’s genocide is systematically decimating every lifeline for the people of Gaza — but to read mainstream news, you would barely know that these U.S.-armed atrocities are continuing, as outlets like NPR and the New York Times continue to minimize coverage of Israel’s incessant war crimes.

• Israeli Finance Minister and racist genocidaire Bezalel Smotrich is pushing for all-out ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank. Calling for the “occupation” of Gaza to be the next stage of genocide, Smotrich said last week that over half the Palestinian population could be “removed” from Gaza in the next two years. This comes on the heels of his orders last month to prepare for the Israeli annexation of the West Bank upon Trump’s inauguration in January. This is Zionism at its core: fighting to secure the maximum amount of land with the minimum number of Palestinians on it, no matter that this political future requires a genocide to implement. 

• People in Lebanon are returning to their homes in droves following a ceasefire agreement, finding that entire neighborhoods have been completely flattened by Israeli bombing. More than 20% of the Lebanese population is currently displaced from their homes as a result of Israel’s expansion of its genocidal war into Lebanon, and the Israeli military has already violated the terms of the ceasefire on multiple occasions.

Trump is coming, and what we have is each other.

For the past year or more, we have fought together to end the murder and oppression of Palestinians. And now, we have to grapple with the results of the presidential election. 

One thing is clear from November 5: people are hurting. Millions are working harder than ever, amidst worsening economic conditions. Already-vulnerable communities are under attack from all sides. And then there is the deadening experience of watching the U.S. government fund a genocide. 

The result: utter disillusionment with the political system. This much was made clear in on-the-street interviews with working-class New Yorkers in Queens, conducted by NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, in which people expressed their hopes for an end to the war in Gaza and for relief from crushing price increases.

The Trump campaign spoke to this pain, albeit by making false promises that sacrifice the most vulnerable among us in order to hand even more power to the richest and most ruthless. He won by telling people that their pain is the only real pain, and that the pain of others, who seem far away from them, is worthless. 

The extreme right-wing policies that the incoming administration supports will only worsen our most pressing problems: giving the Israeli government full rein to continue its genocide of Palestinians, amping up the war on trans and queer people, tearing apart families through horrific mass deportations, backing the police as they attack Black communities and other marginalized communities, further restricting bodily autonomy, and deepening the crackdown on free speech and the right to protest. We know, too, that Trump and his cronies popularize antisemitic conspiracy theories that make our Jewish communities less safe, at the same time as they back Netanyahu’s supremacist government. And all the while, economic conditions will likely get even worse for working people.

Across the U.S. and across the world, people are sick of a system that produces death and immiseration for the many so that a tiny number of rich people can get even richer. But we know that the real answer to this pain is not to turn on each other.

Our task now, on the left, is in telling a more compelling and powerful story than the one told by the right. A story that makes clear that our pain, across the country and the globe, is interconnected, and that the most vulnerable among us are not the cause of our pain, but instead at the forefront of resistance. This story identifies the common roots of each of our struggles in a political and economic system that prioritizes U.S. global dominance at the cost of people’s lives, inside and outside of the U.S.

What results from this story is a true understanding of solidarity — that the oppression targeting some of us will eventually come for all of us, unless we can struggle, together, for a better life for everyone.

For all of us fighting for justice, it’s hard to internalize the reality that right-wing attempts to make the most vulnerable among us into scapegoats responsible for our pain have been so widely successful in the U.S. 

But this reality also crystallizes our task. Our political program is one grounded in the belief that everyone deserves to live a life of dignity and freedom. So we prepare for the Trump administration to implement and expand his oppressive, right-wing agenda. In doing so, our central task is to build unbreakable solidarity amongst the oppressed. We must take injustice to others as an injustice to our own movement and to ourselves. And we must insist that solidarity includes freedom and a just future for the people of Gaza and Palestine.

Stand in solidarity with students fighting for justice.

The University of Rochester just arrested four of its students for fighting to divest their tuition dollars from the Israeli war machine. Now, the University is charging these undergraduates with felonies.

As we face down the incoming Trump administration, it’s crucial that we stand strong against repression of our movement. Email the University of Rochester administration now to demand they drop all charges against these students.

Tell the Senate: Stop repressing the Palestine movement.

There are two incredibly dangerous and repressive bills in front of the Senate. Both are part of the broader assault on the movement for Palestinian freedom and progressive causes — and must be defeated. Email your Senators now using this action tool provided by our sister organization, JVP Action.

What we’re reading.

In Religion Dispatches, Shane Burley argues that antisemitism is rising, but not because of anti-Zionism. Instead, the media hysteria conflating opposition to Israel’s genocide with antisemitic hate is missing the actual place where antisemitism is rising: on the right.

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