The War Between Israel and the U.S. for Israel: The Michigan Jewish Community Wants to Win a Republican 2020 Presidential Seat on the Battleground
While a strong majority of Jewish voters have voted for Democrats, Republicans express stronger support for Israel. The Republican Jewish Coalition co-hosted the most recent primary debate where Republican presidential candidates expressed their support for the war effort.
The survey also revealed a significant generation gap in support for Biden’s handling of the war. Voters over age 36 were far more supportive than younger voters, a trend that’s also been showing up in the U.S. population as a whole.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America, a group that backs Democrats, says that Biden’s response to the war has received support from American Jews.
At a recent rally on Detroit’s riverfront, many people called for a truce in the war between Israel and Hamas which began after hundreds of Israelis were killed. The Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas. The conflict has left more than 1,200 Israelis and 11,300 Palestinians dead according to Israeli and Gaza officials.
Abraham Aiyash told the audience that the US’s support for Israel goes against the country’s founding principles.
“America, you promised the world that all men and women are created equal. Yet somehow we find billions of dollars to dehumanize Palestinians,” said Aiyash, who is the Majority Floor Leader in the Michigan House.
Rally goers expressed anger at the U.S.’s stance in the war: The Biden Administration has vowed to militarily support Israel, and vetoed a United Nations resolution that called for a ceasefire, though it has softened its stance in recent days by allowing a separate resolution to pass, asking for extended humanitarian pauses.
Beydoun is a former Republican turned Democrat who is currently running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat. He supported Biden in 2020. Arab Americans can have a political cost, because the president and Democrats are failing them.
He claimed that he lost a lot of votes in Michigan. He needs Michigan if he wants to see reelection. Right now he doesn’t have it. I don’t think he will come back from it.
Michigan’s large Arab American and Muslim American populations turned out big for Biden in 2020, helping him clinch the battleground and solidify his win over Trump for the presidency. AP reported that 64% of Muslims nationwide supported Biden in 2020, while 35% supported Trump. And in heavily Arab American counties in Michigan, voters went for Biden by a little less than 70%.
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.”
Nazita Lajevardi, a political scientist at Michigan State University, said that people were being told that Biden had formed the policy and that the blood was on his hands. They are also consuming social media posts with Lajevardi saying the way to end an atrocity is to vote him out of office.
Saed was born in the West Bank and spent most of her life there and said she has never trusted the American government system. “But I never thought in my life that it would be this bad, this awful.”
Michigan State, where every vote counts, Arab Americans are turning away from Biden: An Arab American Student’s View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
There is a growing number of people that think it isn’t worth voting for either Democratic or Republican, because of the disapproval that crosses party lines.
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 never a priority for any American administration to, to try to solve the conflict in a long lasting manner, in a just manner that works for both Palestinians and Israelis, and Biden is effectively no different,” said Abbas, whose family is Palestinian.
So, for someone who was never really eager to talk politics — let alone the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Abbas has now taken it upon himself to be more vocal about the war. As the war has taken a toll on his and his friends’ mental health, Abbas said the university’s Arab cultural student groups have come together in this difficult time.
He believes in discussing things and talking about them. “We can sit down and maybe have a serious conversation about it and discuss what’s going on, because it hurts both of us. If you’re Jewish or you’re Israeli, or if you’re Palestinian or Muslim or Arab, it hurts both sides.”
Aiyash is using the experience he has gained organizing for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign to encourage other Arab Americans to do the same and force Biden to act.
No-go theorems on the Suppression of Cosmic Intelligence by D-brane Decays
We won’t stand by it, and if you’re not going to take that into consideration, and are simply using platitudes, we’ll not stand by it.