On Tuesday, Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, said on CNN that Biden’s actions over the last few months have alienated thousands of Americans. Though he explained that the issue went beyond electoral politics, he also warned Democrats that the Party’s stance on the conflict had alienated thousands of voters.
Dire situation
Democrats would “potentially lose thousands of voters [because of their] response to this human rights issue,” Hammoud told CNN’s Dana Bash. “What are they going to do about it?”
Sticky situation
Hammoud was one of several Arab American leaders in Michigan who refused to meet Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, on Friday. Assad Turfe, an official in Wayne County, told NPR that he had canceled a meeting between fellow officials and Rodriguez because locals were “too angry about the Biden administration’s policy to meet.”
Deep pain
The publisher of Arab American News, Osama Siblani, decided to attend a meeting with Rodriguez, saying he wanted to “look [her] in the eyes.” Siblani said that he told Rodriguez, “Look: we feel like we’ve been betrayed by the president.… We voted for him in 2020. We’re not going to do it again.”
Spreading movement
Instead of meeting with Rodriguez, some leaders involved in the “Abandon Biden” movement gave speeches to hundreds of supporters at a nearby mosque. “I don’t believe that the Biden administration, at the senior top level, understands how big of a problem this is and how upset and angry the community is,” Turf told the Associated Press.
Total collapse
In 2020, polls showed that just under two-thirds of Arab American voters supported Biden. By the end of October 2023, that had plummeted to 17%. The president of the Arab American Institute warned that the administration was “at risk of losing this particular component group of the community.”
Beyond politics
“This is not a moment for electoral politics,” Hammoud wrote on X after being invited to meet with Rodriguez. “The lives of Palestinians are not measured in poll numbers. Their humanity demands action, not lip service.”
Insult to injury
“When elected officials view the atrocities in Gaza only as an electoral problem, they reduce our indescribable pain into a political calculation.” On CNN, he clarified that “if you are going to send a delegation to Dearborn to meet with a collective group of Arab Americans and Muslim American leaders, that should most certainly be a senior policy-making team.”
Unacceptable decision
“For us,” Hammoud continued, “it’s just dehumanizing when you send campaign staff. It sends a message that this is purely political.” The issue at hand was “about taking a different course of action,” he said, “and that’s not a conversation you have with campaign staff.”
Clear aim
“Our immediate demand is crystal clear,” Hammoud wrote on X. “The Biden Administration must call for a permanent ceasefire to a genocide it is defending and funding with our tax dollars.”
Simple demand
“I will not entertain conversations about elections while we watch a live-streamed genocide backed by our government,” Hammoud concluded.
Widespread support
In December, a poll by Data for Progress found that almost three-quarters of Democrats — and 61% of all Americans — supported a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. A few weeks later, the Biden administration bypassed Congress to sell almost $150 million in military equipment to Israel.
Ominous sign
A New York Times poll in December found that almost three-quarters of young voters disapproved of how Biden was handling the conflict in Gaza. In July, Biden led Trump among these voters by ten points, but the newer poll showed him behind by six.
Ongoing damage
In late January, the International Court of Justice found that the accusation that Israel is committing genocide is “plausible.” Over 26,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign, the vast majority of them civilians.
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