‘That's Extremely Dehumanizing’: Biden Bleeds Support in Michigan Over Israel
President finds himself in hot water in a battleground state
As he touched down in Michigan for a campaign stop, President Biden’s losing support in the key battleground state.
Michigan’s sizable Arab-American community is angry over Biden’s alignment with Israel’s far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and its bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza which even Biden has criticized as “indiscriminate.”
More than 27,000 Palestinians — including more than 10,000 children — have been killed since Israel began its military operations in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
Biden has been steadfast in US support for Israel since those Hamas attacks, even as he has increasingly voiced opposition to the Netanyahu government’s brutality against Palestinian civilians.
Home to one of the largest Arab-American and Muslim populations in the United States — with about 300,000 people who claim ancestry from the Middle East or North Africa — Michigan is probably a must-win state for Biden to be reelected in November.
The president’s campaign trail led him to meet with members of the United Auto Workers union Thursday in Warren, Mich.
However, the war in Gaza has consumed the state’s Arab-American community and put it in an uncomfortable situation as Biden faces off with likely reelection rival Donald Trump.
“I think Trump is a threat to American democracy. So, the question should stand: What will President Biden do to prevent the unraveling of our American democracy? Why is being aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu and the most right-wing government in Israel's history worth potentially sacrificing our American democracy?” asked Abdullah Hammoud, the Democratic mayor of nearby Dearborn, Mich. “You know, I had a resident that came before a city council meeting who had lost over 80 family members in Gaza.
“And the question in everybody's mind is, ‘While we send our condolences for your loved ones, we want to know how you're going to vote come November?’ And I think that's extremely dehumanizing, to think of Palestinian lives only in the context of polls,” Hammoud added, in an on-camera interview with CNN. “Arab-American lives and Muslim American lives outside of the context of just polls.”
Michigan’s Arab-American community wants to see more from Biden, according to Mara Gay, a journalist and member of the New York Times editorial board.
“I mean, not only is there a large number of Arab voters in Michigan, but there are a lot of Democratic voters in Michigan who are sympathetic to Palestinians. They're seeing what's going on and they’re very angry about it,” said Gay, a graduate of the University of Michigan. “You have young voters in Michigan are extremely important because college voters, you know, also helped put Biden over the edge last time. There’s a lot of anger on college campuses as well. And Black voters are also very sympathetic to Palestinians.
“So this isn’t about being anti-Israel. People want to hear — people in Michigan, and my family is from Michigan. I spent some time there, quite a bit of time there, actually, over the holidays, people want to see the administration do more to prevent children from dying in Gaza, okay?” she added. “That’s true all over the world. And people also want to hear more sympathy and more equanimity from Palestinians, and you hear that over and over. It’s about empathy. It’s about respect.”
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