An opposition to Trump in name only.

This is a special edition of the Wire brought to you by our sister organization, JVP Action.

What Cory Booker said and didn’t say

Since Trump’s inauguration, the Democratic party has flailed around, failing to muster any serious resistance to the Right’s openly authoritarian and fascist agenda. Last week, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker sought to fire up the party with a marathon floor speech, hailed by leading Democrats as a powerful call-to-action against Trump’s agenda.

The Democratic party has faced widespread criticism in recent months for its inaction in the face of Trump and Elon Musk’s fascist takeover. Recent polling has shown both record low favorability ratings for the Democratic party and that the majority of Democratic voters want the party to do more to resist, not appease, the Right’s extremist agenda. 

A key part of the Trump regime’s strategy during his first months in office has been to use attacks on pro-Palestine speech to shred the First Amendment. But not once in 25 hours did Cory Booker manage to mention the genocide in Palestine.

$8.8 billion in weapons for genocide.

In fact, one of Booker’s first actions upon his return to the Senate floor last week was casting his vote, alongside the majority of Senate Democrats, to support an $8.8 billion illegal Trump weapons sale to the Israeli military.

In the days leading up to the vote, details were continuing to emerge about one of the Israeli military’s most recent unspeakable war crimes: the massacre of 15 Palestinian Red Crescent medics and rescue workers, who were on their way to the site of an Israeli bombing in Rafah. Human rights lawyer Diana Buttu wrote last week describing the evidence of this point-blank execution of first responders:

First, [Israeli forces] had to stop the ambulance, the UN vehicle, and the fire truck. Then, they had to tie up the rescue workers. Then, they had to shoot them (repeatedly). Then, they had to flatten the vehicles they were in, and then they had to use a bulldozer to bury the vehicles. This isn’t the work of one “rogue” soldier – as Palestinians are always led to believe, but the work of a group of soldiers – soldiers who have been told time and again that their actions in Gaza have no consequences and that they can do as they please.

This egregious war crime is only one of thousands that the Israeli government has carried out against the Palestinian people over the last year and a half — the vast majority of which don’t make the headlines. 

Despite this onslaught of horror, and despite the thousands of calls JVP Action and partner organizations drove to Senators demanding an end to U.S. complicity in this genocide, the Democrats’ disastrous policy of impunity for Israeli atrocities continued. On Friday, Cory Booker and 29 other Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against Senator Sanders’ resolutions to block Trump’s illegal $8.8 billion weapons sale to Israel. 15 Senators stood on the right side and voted to block these lethal weapons. 

Only two days after the vote, Booker’s own constituent, 14-year-old Palestinian American Amir Rabee, born and raised in New Jersey, was shot dead by Israeli troops while picking olives in his family’s hometown of Turmus Ayya in the West Bank.

As the crisis accelerates, from Palestine to the U.S., we need those who claim to represent us to take real action, not posture at resistance. That means halting the flow of weapons and military funding that are fueling this genocide, and standing up against assaults on the Palestinian rights movement at home. 

Continuing Biden’s disaster

The Trump administration has only deepened U.S. complicity in the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a disastrous policy carried out by the Biden administration for over a year. Since taking office, Trump has called for the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes and repeatedly stated that the U.S. should “own” Gaza. Meanwhile, most Democrats in Congress have stood by their support for genocide — despite the fact that their voter base overwhelmingly wants to stop the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel. 

As long as Democrats fail to change course, they continue to leave the door wide open for the Right to use the Palestine movement as a testing ground for its broader agenda of authoritarian and fascist repression, sharpening their tools against Palestinian rights activists and non-citizen student activists, ones that they will then also aim at all of our fundamental rights.

But we continue to refuse this course of action — because we know that any progressive movement, one in defense of human rights and the future of all working people, must keep the struggle for justice in Palestine at its center.

Let your Senators hear from you on their votes to block bombs to Israel.

Last week, as the Israeli military continued to carpet-bomb Gaza, only 15 Senators had the moral and political courage to stand up to Trump’s illegal $8.8 billion weapons sales to Israel.

In the aftermath of this vote, it’s crucial that the Senate hears from us. Write to your Senators now — either to express your outrage or your thanks for their stance against genocide.

Tell Google: Stop Using AI for Genocide, Apartheid, and Border Violence.

Last week, Google took two major steps towards becoming a full fledged military contractor: a new AI partnership with the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and a new contract revealed by the Intercept between Google Cloud and U.S. Border Patrol to “upgrade the so-called virtual wall.”

Now, Google workers are demanding that Google drop these contracts, as well as their existing contract with the Israeli military known as Project Nimbus. Write to Google’s now to demand the company listens to its workers’ demands and drops these contracts.

Tell Congress: Act now to secure Mahmoud’s release.

It’s been more than a month since Mahmoud Khalil was kidnapped by ICE. He and all other unjustly targeted activists should be home — not thrown into jail and forced onto the front lines of Trump’s war on our fundamental rights.

Use this tool from our sister organization JVP to write to your elected officials now to demand the release of all student activists targeted for their protected political speech.

Passover 5785: Next Year in Liberation.

As we gather for Passover this year, the despair many of us feel is overwhelming in the face of a year and a half of Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Many of us gather the strength to keep fighting by rooting ourselves in Jewish tradition.

See the 5785 Haggadah and full list of JVP Passover resources here.

What we’re reading: The power of Claudia Sheinbaum.

The New York Times hails the power of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the left-wing Jewish leader who has adopted the slogan “For the good of all, first the poor.” She’s been one of the few leaders to stand for her principles and against Israeli genocide — and is currently at an approval rating of eighty percent.

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