The liberal backlash to the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war offers a lesson for the president and his team: Expect political fallout at home if you’re backing bombing campaigns abroad.
Defying progressive lawmakers and human rights groups, President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that the U.S. doesn’t plan to call for a cease-fire until all hostages taken by Hamas are released.
On Monday’s episode of “The ReidOut,” Joy welcomed Michigan state Rep. Alabas Farhat to discuss widely publicized comments he made to NBC News claiming Biden’s approach to Gaza, including his refusal to encourage a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, meant he “single-handedly alienated almost every Arab-American and Muslim American voter in Michigan.”
The Democratic lawmaker told Joy that Arab and Muslim Americans in his community feel “left behind” by Biden’s approach to the war. Farhat said the president has a lot of work to do to rebuild their trust ahead of next year’s election.
Farhat’s anger matched the tone of remarks from two other Michigan politicians — U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud — who have demanded the Biden administration call for a cease-fire. They, too, have warned their constituents — who include many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans — will not forget his actions if he refuses.
Joy raised the point that the most likely alternative to re-electing Biden would be electing Donald Trump, given his hefty lead in Republican presidential primary polling. And Trump’s rhetoric and actions have been overtly antagonistic toward Palestinians — he supported Israel’s establishing new settlements in the West Bank while in office, and, since the Israel-Hamas war began, he has opposed resettling Gazan refugees in the U.S. and sought to punish pro-Palestinian protesters.
But Farhat said Monday he simply would not cast a ballot for Trump, either.
The Biden administration is in a vise of sorts. Israel is an ally of the U.S., and standing in lockstep with this particular ally is an American political tradition. Along with that, Biden arguably alienated Palestinian Americans and critics of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza by pushing a dubious claim, early in the conflict, that he witnessed evidence of Hamas beheading children. And I’d argue another misstep of the Biden administration was denouncing lawmakers critical of Israel as “repugnant.”
Those are political face-plants, in my view. At the same time, the Biden administration has privately and publicly discouraged Israel from launching a ground assault in Gaza, comparing it to the U.S.’ retributive ensnarement in the Middle East after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Israel has so far withheld from launching such an invasion. So, on some level, the administration can make an argument that it is helping constrain Israel to some degree. But that technical argument seems unlikely to win the day when the entire world is watching Israel bomb Gaza into seeming oblivion. Essentially, this is forcing Team Biden to determine what it prioritizes: the historical precedent of standing with Israel’s government or a radical (I’d argue, righteous) subversion of that relationship in the name of a humanitarian cease-fire. For now, it appears the administration has made its decision. And it is dealing with the fallout.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
