On sunday Jerusalem’s israeli officials approved the construction of 800 new residential homes for settlers in East Jerusalem, in defiance of international law.[1] This comes just two days after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the clear catalyst of this new round of settlement. The chairman of the Planning and Building Committee in israeli-occupied Jerusalem, Meir Turgeman, told israeli radio that he was specifically ordered stay the decision until Donald Trump was officially sworn in as president.[2] This is no surprise, as Donald Trump has publicly stated his support for israeli settlement several times, has no intention of recognizing the Palestinian state, and has already begun talks on moving the amerikan embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.[3] This has many israeli ministers quite excited for the new far-right president; a recognition of settler-colonial solidarity.

This is not a good sign for the continued sovereignty of the last enclaves of land still controlled and governed by the Palestinian Authority. If the united $tates, under the leadership of the new set of ultra-nationalist and militarist settlers, encourages such behavior it could mark a qualitatively new stage in the israeli Generalplan Ost. After all, this comes long after the threats from genocidal ideologue Naftali Bennett that the election of Trump will spell an end to the Palestinian state.[4] The israeli state has seen a significant reduction in the international support for their onslaught against Palestinians, in much the same way the international community’s support fell out for rhodesians during the genocidal war being waged on Zimbabweans during the movement for national liberation and decolonization there. The developing situation has israel gasping for air as they encounter ever-stiffer resistance from the Palestinian masses.

The israelis are in dire need of support from the united $tates which, with its new “populist” bandit-in-chief, it is happy to oblige. This is nothing more than another part of Trump’s promise to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.”[5] The united $tates is now coming to see israel as pivotal to this goal once again, although it can never be said they ever turned their back on them to begin with. It is being repeated that Obama had lead an “icing” of relations with israel over the question of settlements, which is perhaps true, however israel never saw a reduction in their military assistance or trade over this period. What is happening here is that Trump is picking up the slack left by the rest of the “international community” which has been reluctant to continue supporting the aggressive genocidal policies of israel. Stuck between defending neoliberalism from the “populists” and policing the world order whose decline they have stewarded for twenty years, it is probable that europe will be further cooled by the unpredictability of u.$. foreign policy.

It is likely that as the Trump presidency progresses, along with an advancement of the colonial practices of israel against Palestine, we will see a further excitation of the internal-colonial conflict within amerika’s borders. So long as the united $tates remains fixed to the israeli program the settlers there have the only source of support they need for the settler state survive the heightened conflict on the horizon over the issue of further settlement. This support for the israeli occupation is a necessary component of the justification of the united $tates’ own existence as a settler-colonial project. Neither settler project is immortal, however, and indeed israel’s time is coming. The election of Reagan did not save the fascist boer regime ruling Azania, and the election of the orange nazi will not save israel.

It will be even more vital in the coming years that we connect the situation in Palestine with the situation in the united $tates, and realize the enabling relationship that the united $tates shares with israeli genocide, as well as an elucidation of the genocide happening right here. Material solidarity with the Palestinian people, as well as the whole Muslim world, will prove vital to the greater success of the anti-imperialist movement in the united $tates in the foreseeable future.