More than 100 Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and progressive Democrats and community leaders have signed a letter making the case for those reluctant to support Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
“We know that many in our communities are resistant to vote for Kamala Harris because of the Biden administration’s complicity in the genocide,” the letter, published Thursday night, reads.
“Some of us have lost many family members in Gaza and Lebanon. We respect those who feel they simply can’t vote for a member of the administration that sent the bombs that may have killed their loved ones,” the letter continued. “As we consider the full situation carefully, however, we conclude that voting for Kamala Harris is the best option for the Palestinian cause and all of our communities.”
Man, I hope this changes some minds, but it might be too little too late. She’s had a lot of opportunities to turn things around with the Arab community, and she’s flat out ignored all of them. I’m really worried this will be her version of Hillary’s, “I don’t need to campaign in the Rust Belt,” decision.
Fact is that no matter what position Kamala takes on this, she’ll lose votes somewhere and win votes somewhere. Most Jewish people vote for Democrats. Trump just straight up does not care about Palestine. That’s a much more simplistic take.
Well, first of all, I would be very careful equating Jewish people with support for Israel and their attacks on Gaza. Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists support Netanyahu. I don’t know the numbers for sure, but I would bet that Evangelicals and military hawks make up a larger base of pro-Israel voters than the Jewish population.
The thing is, Biden’s policy, from a material position, is essentially, “There is almost nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support,” while Trump’s position is, “There is absolutely nothing Israel could do that would limit our military support.” If you’re the kind of voter that would be put off by any criticism of Israel, you’re probably voting for Trump no matter what.
Like, sure, I’d Harris started chanting, “From the river to the sea!” and demanding the immediate decolonization of the Israel, yeah, she’d lose a lot of voters. But if she had taken a position like, “Israel has a right to defend itself, but the bloodshed in Gaza has gone on long enough, and we must acknowledge that the Netanyahu administration has been a major obstacle in ceasefire negotiations,” she would have been massively more appealing to Palestinian supporters, and she would have only risked hard-liners who, again, almost certainly have gone for Trump anyway. Instead, she told Netanyahu that she would, “not be silent,” on Palestinian suffering, and since then, has been mostly silent on Palestinian suffering. It’s like she was trying to appeal to no one on this issue.
Thing is that she doesn’t really have to. She’s already massively more attractive to Palestinian supporters than Trump or not voting. That’s the problem with a two-party system with only two real choices.
Polling does not back that up; she’s two points behind Trump with Arab Americans and in serious danger of losing Michigan. There is a very real chance that the her position on Gaza will cost her this election.
There has been a lot of talk to pressure Democrats on the Arab issue, including during the primaries. At the end of the day, the Democratic agenda is much more friendly toward Palestine than the Republican agenda. Most Arab-Americans are fully aware of that and it will probably show on election day. But they may as well try to get as many concessions as possible before the election by threatening to withhold their vote. Makes sense.
It’s a major complication / fault with running a candidate who is in office already. They cannot deviate from the official position, tone, language, admission of guilt, etc.
I’m not saying I have secret info and Harris would 180 on Israel if she won, just saying she can’t even build breathing room from Biden while being the sitting vp.
This is not an excuse for the administration’s stance, just a reflection on the challenges of running while in office.
Why not? She’s not the Secretary of State, and she’s not running the administration like Cheney. She can differ from Biden. After all, she moved to his right when she said she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
Yeah, when she first started running, I figured she was trying not to undermine Biden’s ceasefire negotiations, but I assumed she would find some way to reach out to the Arab communities she needs for Michigan and Wisconsin. Now It’s the 11th hour, and she hasn’t done anything. I just don’t understand why they’re completely ignoring this demographic.
Just have her hug an Arab child or something.
Why are they so bad at this?
Imo the Arab/Palestinian community would see that for the pandering that it is
Yeah it’s really a no-win scenario. Probably why she’s just avoiding the subject altogether.
Yeah, probably. She should still do it.
Her problem isn’t just with the Palestinian community.
There was a surge of enthusiasm among Democrats when Kamala was first elected because people thought she might take action on Gaza. That enthusiasm soon evaporated when it became apparent that she wouldn’t.
People are desperate for anything and she’s giving them nothing.
It’s a complicated issue and explaining it to people who have been spending the last year consuming Iranian propaganda isn’t going to get her anywhere. People want her to say “Israel is evil” and anything other than that will have them screaming “genocide Kamala” in the same way they scream “genocide Joe.”
“We should condition weapons sales to Israel” is not complicated. Centrists love to pretend that anything they don’t want to do is too complicated for feeble progressive minds to understand.
Yeah let’s downplay EVERYTHING ELSE she’s campaigned on and redefine democratic excitement to be focused solely on Palestine, and yeah you’re right.
I’m not redefining anything. I’m telling you: Democrats are not excited about Harris.
“Sure, she supports genocide, but logically you should still vote for her for these other reasons” is not how you win an election.
If people aren’t excited to vote for your candidate, they stay home.
A: Defines Kamala Harris purely in terms of the war Netanyahu started, from an American client state for the last 40 years, which Biden then supported.
B: Points out that Democrats are hugely supportive of Harris, although her failure to break away from all of that and condemn the war in Gaza is a huge black mark, yes.
A: Defines Harris purely in terms of the war et cetera, but this time adding “I’m telling you.”
Sterling.
“Excited: Having great enthusiasm, passion and energy.”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/excited
If Democrats don’t know what “excited” means, that would explain a lot.