Arab Americans in Michigan are turning away from Biden
The State of Michigan: Israel’s response to the Hamas attack is too big for Arabs, says Rep. Abraham Aiyash
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows that 42% of Americans think Israel’s military response to the Hamas attack has been too much. Democrats increased that number most of the time. In that survey, another 38% thought Israel’s response had been about right, and 17% said it was too little.
The poll showed a generation gap in support of Biden’s handling of the war. Older voters are more supportive than younger voters, a trend that has been demonstrated in the U.S. population as a whole.
Halie Soifer is the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a pro- Israel group that supports Democrats. She says that the response from Biden has received broad support from American Jews.
The US and Israel say a truce would give Hamas time to regroup and launch more attacks, in contrast to the advocates who think a truce would give relief to civilians.
The US support of Israel is against the principles of the country’s founding, said Michigan Democratic state Rep. Abraham Aiyash.
America, you promised the world that there would be no discrimination between men and women. “Billions of dollars to dehumanize Palestinians is what we find,” said the Majority Floor Leader in the Michigan House.
The Biden Administration has vowed to support Israel even though it has vetoed a UN resolution calling for a truce in the war, as well as allowing a seperate resolution to pass, asking for extended.
Beydoun is a democrat who is running for the US Senate seat in Michigan. He supported Biden in 2020. But now, he feels that the president and Democrats are failing him and other Arab Americans, which could have a political cost.
He said that he lost a segment that voted overwhelmingly for him in Michigan. “And if he wants to see reelection, he needs Michigan. And right now he doesn’t have it. I do not believe he will ever come back from it.
Biden won the election in Michigan by 154,000 votes. In the state there are more than 200,000 voters who are Muslim and 300,000 who claim ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa. Muslim and Christian families whose ancestors arrived in the late 1800s are part of Michigan’s Arab American population.
“Because how are they being represented substantively? How are their interests actually being advocated for by Democrats? I think that’s a very fair question that Muslims are asking right now,” Lajevardi said. “Not voting for a Democrat in 2024 is not as costly as some may assume it is for Muslims.”
Lajevardi said that sentiment has rung true for Muslims across the country. She says that since the beginning of the war, her online surveys of Muslim leaders have seen an increase in disapproval of Biden more than Trump’s call for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US.
The American government system has failed Palestine many times, said Saed, who was born in the West Bank and spent half her life there. I didn’t think that it would be this bad.
The disapproval of biden’s 2020 midterm election: Michigan student Yusuf Abbas and his coping frustrations with the Middle East
It is precisely because of that disapproval that crosses party lines that Lajevardi says a growing number of people feel it is not worth voting for either political party, Democratic or Republican.
Another student at Michigan State, Yusuf Abbas, said he’s also felt “let down” by the White House and Democrats. Abbas voted for Biden in 2020, but seeing Biden’s response to the war, Abbas doesn’t hold out any real hope that the U.S. will help create meaningful change in the Middle East.
“It was no priority for the US to try to solve the conflict in a long lasting way, in a way that would work for both Israelis and Palestinians, and that’s what Biden is doing”, said Abbas, whose family is Palestinian.
For someone who was never really interested in politics, Abbas took it upon himself to speak up about the war. The war has taken a toll on Abbas and his friends’ mental health, so they have come together in this difficult time.
He said he believes in talking about things. We can talk about what is going on, because it hurts both of us. It hurts both sides if you’re a Jewish or Israeli or a Palestinian or Muslim.
Michigan House Majority Floor Leader Aiyash is trying to use his experience organizing for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign to force Biden to act, by encouraging other Arab Americans to do the same.
I am not a propagandist yet I am a defender of irrationality and injustice in the U.S.
We will not stand by it if you don’t consider that and are simply using platitudes while your policies perpetuate violence and harm.
