SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
james zogby
Progressives Issue Warning to Harris: Break With Biden on Gaza—Now
"If you want people to vote for you, you gotta give them a reason," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.
Oct 10, 2024
With the high-stakes U.S. presidential election less than a month away, warnings about the possible political consequences of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' refusal to break with President Joe Biden on supporting Israel's assault on Gaza and beyond are taking on fresh urgency amid new survey data showing the vice president narrowly trailing GOP nominee Donald Trump in Michigan—a critical battleground state.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that Harris is trailing Trump by three percentage points in Michigan—a reversal of the university's survey last month, which showed the vice president with a slight lead over her Republican opponent. The new survey showed Harris leading in Pennsylvania and Trump leading in Wisconsin.
While Trump's polling lead in Michigan was within the margin of error, the results amplified preexisting concerns about Harris' chances in the state, which has a large Arab and Muslim population—many of whom have lost family members in Israel's yearlong assault on the Gaza Strip, a relentless military campaign that has intensified in recent days as the prospects of a cease-fire agreement appear nonexistent.
The Quinnipiac poll found that by a margin of 53% to 43%, Michigan respondents said they think Trump—who has expressed support for Israel's devastating bombardment of Gaza—would do a better job "handling the conflict in the Middle East" than Harris.
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, toldRolling Stone earlier this week that he has expressed to the Harris team that "if you want people to vote for you, you gotta give them a reason."
"They don't seem to care enough about the Arab American vote to do something to get it," said Zogby.
Last month, Zogby's organization released a poll of its own showing that support for Harris would climb nationally if she endorsed an arms embargo against Israel—something she has openly opposed despite pressure from advocacy groups who say it's essential to end Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's obstruction of cease-fire talks.
Zogby noted in his interview with Rolling Stone that Michigan's Lebanese American population is the largest in the United States—potentially compounding Harris' political vulnerability in the state as Israel ramps up its assault on Lebanon with the support of the Biden administration.
"Many of the constituents are Lebanese who have deep attachments to Palestinians," said Zogby, arguing that Israel's escalation in Lebanon "will either put an exclamation point on the outrage or depression—causing them either not to vote or to flip and vote elsewhere."
"The reaction I'm getting, when I go around the country and talk to people, is they want to punish Democrats," Zogby added. "That's not a smart political move, but that's what people are feeling. And I don't have an argument to make because [members of the Harris campaign] haven't given us arguments to make."
"Harris should give a speech in Michigan where she breaks with the Biden administration on Israel."
Harris has repeatedly acknowledged, including during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, the "immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year."
But Harris has rebuffed calls to create distance between herself and the Biden administration's unwavering support for Israel's assault on Gaza and Lebanon.
"No," the vice president responded when asked during a recent televised interview whether she would support withholding U.S. arms shipments to Israel, whose forces have used American weaponry to commit war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon.
Harris has also declined to meet with Americans with family members in Lebanon and Gaza, according to the co-founder of the Uncommitted National Movement.
Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016 by approx 10,000 votes. There are over 200,000 Arab Americans in Michigan.
Harris's decision to treat them with complete contempt is a massive, suicidal electoral error.
— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) October 10, 2024
Speaking to Mother Jones earlier this week, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud—who is Lebanese American—said Trump "is a threat" to Arab Americans and hardly an advocate of peaceful resolution in the Middle East.
But Hammoud said the Harris campaign is not helping its case with voters when it fails to support an arms embargo against Israel, a position that—according to one recent poll—is backed by a majority of the American electorate.
"What I keep pushing back on is it's not this community that has to move in its values and principles and any issues that it's taken a stance on. It's the candidates who have to move," said Hammoud. "And don't move because of Dearborn, by all means. I'm not telling you to move because this small city in the Midwest is telling you to move on these issues. Move because the general American populace has said these issues matter to them."
"And this idea that people will forget?" he continued. "Remember we heard this nine months ago: 'People will forget come November.' People are not forgetting... Genocide is not something you can cast aside."
On Thursday, Emerson College released survey data it collected with The Hill showing that Trump and Harris are in a dead heat in Michigan—further indicating that a small swing in favor of either candidate could tip the scales and potentially decide who takes the White House.
Moira Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian, argued Wednesday that "Harris should give a speech in Michigan where she breaks with the Biden administration on Israel."
"This is very obviously in her self-interest to do," Donegan wrote on social media, adding that she doubts the vice president will take her advice.
If she did, wrote IfNotNow co-founder Yonah Lieberman, it "would be a seminal political moment that would win Michigan, stop a second Trump administration, and help end a genocide."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mass Walkout as 'Global Pariah' Netanyahu Addresses UN General Assembly
The public rebuke of the Israeli prime minister, said one observer, "demonstrates the international community's rejection of genocide."
Sep 27, 2024
A large number of diplomats and other officials walked out of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to defend his nation's slaughter of more than 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip during the past year and over 700 in Lebanon this week.
Journalists and critics of the "global pariah" shared photos and videos of people filing out of the hall before Netanyahu's address—which came just a day after 25 anti-genocide protesters were arrested for blocking his motorcade in Manhattan.
While there was some audience applause from the sparsely populated room on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic's Rami Ayari explained that "the people you hear cheering the PM during the speech are in the gallery who he brought for that purpose."
Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement that "as the far-right, openly racist Israeli government continues its genocide in Gaza and expands its campaign of state terrorism to civilians in Lebanon, this mass walkout during war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu's U.N. speech demonstrates the international community's rejection of genocide."
Awad added that U.S. President Joe Biden "should take note of our government's growing isolation on the international stage, change his policy, and support human rights and international law, without an exception for the Palestinian people."
Since Israeli forces launched their assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the United States government has stood by Israel, sending billions of dollars in weapons and opposing U.N. resolutions, while claiming to be pushing for a cease-fire. Addressing the General Assembly earlier this week, Biden called for "security for Israel, and Gaza free of Hamas' grip."
In response to diplomats' Friday walkout, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that "the impunity Biden has offered Israel has been used by Netanyahu to make Israel an international pariah. Neither good for the U.S. nor for Israel."
Parsi also highlighted a clip of Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob's speech to the U.N., in which he urged Netanyahu to "stop this war now!"
Netanyahu began his Friday address by taking aim at the world leaders who throughtout the week have condemned the recent escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the past year of Israeli forces bombing and starving Palestinians in Gaza.
"I didn't intend to come here this year. My country is at war fighting for its life," Netanyahu said. "But, after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers standing at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight."
Armed with more of his infamous maps of the Middle East, the right-wing leader went on to claim that "Israel seeks peace," while also pledging to wage war on Hamas-governed Gaza until "total victory" and telling "the tyrants of Tehran" that "if you strike us, we will strike you."
Noting that Netanyahu also spoke of "savage enemies who seek to destroy our common civilization," James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said: "Words spoken by the man who has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. This is a disgrace. Abusing the General Assembly platform to lie and incite."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—one of whom Israel recently assassinated in Iran. Israel also claims to have killed a second Hamas leader, which the group has denied.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Let Those Numbers Sink In': At Least 45 Palestinians Killed During Israeli Attacks on Gaza
The dead include 16 children and four women, according to Palestinian officials, who said that at least 360 others were injured.
Aug 08, 2022
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were wounded during Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip over the weekend, Palestinian officials said as Israel and the militant resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad declared a truce late Sunday night.
"It's outrageous that the Biden administration gave Israel 'full-throated support' for its murderous 'preemptive' assault on Palestinians in Gaza."
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that so far 44 people, including at least 15 children and four women, died during the 66-hour Israeli onslaught--officially called Operation Breaking Dawn--in which militants also reportedly fired at least hundreds of rockets at Israel, resulting in three light injuries. The ministry said that 360 other Palestinians were wounded during the attacks, which ended with the 11:30 pm truce.
"Let those numbers sink in," tweeted Marwa Fatafta, a Berlin-based Palestinian writer, researcher, and senior policy analyst at the digital rights group Access Now.
Jehad Abusalim, the education and policy coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace group, tweeted: "Fifteen kids. Born into a brutal blockade. Their lives defined by wars, bombardments, trauma, fear, poverty, isolation, and dehumanization by the rest of the world."
A 16th child--10-year-old Haneen Abu Qaida--died Monday of injuries sustained during a Saturday Israeli attack that also killed her mother, Palestine's Wafa News Agency reports.
\u201cThe names and faces of the 15 chil\u00addren killed in Gaza https://t.co/YFb7v9vLi4\u201d— Joe Catron (@Joe Catron) 1659979200
"And we failed them," Abusalim said of the children killed. "During the last war, and the wars before, we promised not to give Gaza seasonal attention anymore. The last aggression ended, and we forgot about Gaza again. We went back to our work and busy lives, like these kids went back to their schools and whatever kids do in Gaza, but unlike the last time."
"This time," he added, "when we go back to our work and busy lives, 15 kids in Gaza won't go back to their schools and whatever kids in Gaza do. Israel killed them, and Israel will get away with it."
The Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq--one of six humanitarian associations dubiously declared "terrorist organizations" by Israel--said in a statement Sunday that Israel had "indiscriminately targeted civilians and nonmilitary structures" and that the assault constituted "a grave breach of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, and others, said Monday that 12 members of its military wing, including two top commanders, were killed during the Israeli operation.
In a Sunday evening media briefing, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Gen. Ran Kochav said the military believes Israeli strikes killed 35 people in Gaza during the operation, 11 of them civilians.
Kochav also claimed that Islamic Jihad's rockets killed more Gazans than IDF attacks, which struck 170 targets in the densely populated strip, roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C., where more than two million Palestinians live.
\u201cBlaming Israel's killing of Palestinian children in Gaza on "human shields" is gaslighting, pure and simple. Israel is the only party in this so-called "conflict" that is documented to have used human shields. Here is the evidence: #GazaUnderAttack\u201d— Omar Baddar \u0639\u0645\u0631 \u0628\u062f\u0651\u0627\u0631 (@Omar Baddar \u0639\u0645\u0631 \u0628\u062f\u0651\u0627\u0631) 1659896580
However, observers asserted that given the IDF's record of targeting civilians and subsequently lying about it, its claims cannot be trusted.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday professed his "unwavering" support for Israel while condemning the "indiscriminate rocket attacks launched by the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad" and praising the "steady leadership" Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his government. Biden also called for a "timely and thorough investigation" of civilian casualties.
Biden added that he is "proud" of the $1 billion in U.S. support for Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system, which IDF officials said intercepted around 380 rockets fired by Gaza-based militants. The IDF also claimed that around 200 projectiles failed to clear the Israeli border and landed inside Gaza.
\u201c-Israel repeatedly bombs Gaza, an open-air prison\n-Kills journalists, women & children\n-Continues its occupation\n-Commits apartheid\n-Has a nuclear-weapons arsenal\n-Bombs neighbors\n-Assassinates scientists\n\n\u201cWe will continue to promote calm & remain committed to Israel\u2019s security\u201d\u201d— Assal Rad (@Assal Rad) 1659972715
James J. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, tweeted that "it's outrageous that the Biden administration gave Israel 'full-throated support' for its murderous 'preemptive' assault on Palestinians in Gaza."
"Israel started it, egged it on, and Palestinians were sitting ducks," he added, lamenting that the "U.S. denounces Russia for crimes but absolves Israeli crimes. Double standard."
Since 2008, Israeli forces have waged four wars in Gaza in which more than 6,000 Palestinians were killed, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Last year, during the most recent of those wars, Israeli attacks killed at least 129 civilians, including 66 children.
\u201cSilly me.\n\nI thought that after justified outpouring of support for Ukraine in the West after Russia's illegal invasion, genuine commitment to rule of law had sprung up. But as Israel bombs Gaza, at best, I hear crickets, at worst, support for Israel's right to "defend itself"...\u201d— Trita Parsi (@Trita Parsi) 1659890129
Over the course of the 21st century, more than 2,200 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli military, police, and settler-colonist attacks, according to the group Defense for Children International.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular