The “Listen to Michigan” campaign had hoped to convince 10,000 Democratic voters to choose “uncommitted” for president in Tuesday’s primary election as a protest to President Joe Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy. That more than 100,000 people voted “uncommitted” sends a blaring message to Biden that he must stop supporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal war in Gaza. At least, that’s the message if he wants to convince those Michigan voters who chose “uncommitted” — and convince disaffected Democrats in other battleground states — to vote to re-elect him in November.
“This is not an anti-Biden campaign,” Layla Elabed, a longtime Democratic activist and the head of the “Listen to Michigan” campaign, told CNN the day before the election. “It’s a humanitarian vote. It’s a protest vote. It is a vote that tells Biden and his administration that we believe in saving lives.” Biden won Michigan in 2020 by approximately 150,000 votes. He won 83% of the vote in the precincts with the highest concentration of Muslim and Arab Americans and 81% of votes in Hamtramck, a Muslim-majority city.
Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, a majority Arab-American city, said in a powerful New York Times op-ed this month that he “firmly believed that Joe Biden was one of the most consequential and transformative presidents that our nation had seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
But like so many other Arab or Muslim Americans, Hammoud’s beliefs about Biden changed. After Hamas killed approximately 1,200 Israelis during its Oct. 7 attack and kidnapped at least 200 people, Israel responded with a military operation that has caused the deaths of at least 30,000 people. Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the number of Palestinian women and children killed by the Israeli military since Oct. 7 is “over 25,000.” The devastation in Gaza has mostly been caused by weapons the U.S. has supplied, and Biden has generally supported Netanyahu’s prosecution of that war.
After the size of the “uncommitted” vote became known Tuesday night, leaders from “Listen to Michigan” and the Biden campaign appeared open to finding common ground. Abbas Alawieh, a “Listen to Michigan” spokesperson, said, “Our movement is actually a favor to President Biden.” He said, “We’re telling you exactly what you need to do to win in Michigan.” A senior Biden campaign adviser told Politico, “President Biden shares the goal of many of the folks who voted uncommitted, which is an end to the violence and a just and lasting peace. That is what he is working towards.”
An estimated 69% of Arab or Muslim voters across the country supported Biden in 2020. But their votes aren’t the only ones Biden risks losing in November if he keeps sticking with Netanyahu.
A recent poll by the Institute for Policy and Understanding, which serves to strengthen Muslim communities, found that 78% of Democrats support a cease-fire, including nearly 60% of Jewish Democrats. In a recent Economist/YouGov poll, nearly 50% of people 18 to 29 said Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, while only 24% disagreed.
This month, leaders of the nation’s oldest Black Christian denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, called for an immediate cease-fire and, given what the denomination called “mass genocide” in Gaza, an end to U.S. military support for Netanyahu’s administration. We don’t know how many Michigan voters who were neither Arab nor Muslim were among the 13% who declared themselves “uncommitted” Tuesday night, but last month, in a New York Times story about more than 1,000 Black pastors representing various denominations demanding a cease-fire, a pastor in the new battleground state of Georgia predicted that “it’s going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden.”
Initially, Biden was completely supportive of Netanyahu and dismissive of reports of Palestinian civilians being killed, but he has since changed his rhetoric somewhat. He has expressed much more concern for civilian deaths and criticized Netanyahu’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza. But, to quote Hammoud’s op-ed, “words are not enough.” Even if it requires him to take steps that he isn’t comfortable with, steps that go against his instincts and longstanding U.S. policy, Biden’s top priority must be pressuring Netanyahu to agree to an immediate cease-fire that lays the groundwork for a permanent end to the fighting.
Everyone understands this won’t be easy. As NBC News reported this month, those close to Biden say Netanyahu has been “giving him hell” as Biden tries to negotiate a cease-fire.
Everyone understands this won’t be easy. As NBC News reported this month, those close to Biden say Netanyahu has been “giving him hell” as Biden tries to negotiate a cease-fire. Given Netanyahu’s open disrespect of President Barack Obama and his effusive support of President Donald Trump, that’s not surprising. Netanyahu may even be working to undermine Biden to help Trump win in November.
One of the uncomfortable options for Biden is allowing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. That’s unlikely, given that the Biden administration has vetoed such a resolution three times already, but even threatening to let it pass would grab Netanyahu’s attention. It’s also not likely that Biden will cut off military aid to Israel, given his frustration with Congress for not promptly approving money for such arms. But he’s going to have a hard time explaining to the Arab and Muslim communities who previously voted for him why they should do so again when Netanyahu has dropped 2,000-lb U.S.-manufactured bombs on a densely populated Gaza that can kill people 1,000 feet away. Biden should be making sure more humanitarian aid gets into Gaza. The U.N. noted this week that, compared to January, the amount of aid reaching the people of Gaza dropped by 50% in February, and the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the right to food said this week that Israel is “intentionally” blocking “the passage of humanitarian aid.” He said that “is clearly a war crime.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the same from the floor of the Senate two weeks ago. He called “the deliberate withholding of food” a “textbook war crime.” On Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for aid in Gaza City. The Health Ministry reported that at least 100 people were killed and dozens were wounded. (NBC News has not confirmed that death toll.) Israel says an aid truck was surrounded by civilians who began pushing and trampling each other, that its military responded with “live fire” and that the incident is under review. Biden said the incident will further complicate cease-fire talks. The goal of the “uncommitted” movement is not to defeat Biden but to ensure he defeats Trump. The goal of the “uncommitted” movement is not to defeat Biden but to ensure he defeats Trump, as Gaby Santiago-Romero, a member of the Detroit City Council, said Tuesday night. “Quite frankly, none of us want Trump to win, which is exactly why we’re doing this. This is the only way we can raise a flag to Democrats that you are going to lose unless you call for an ultimate cease-fire,” she said. Again, given the U.S.’s historical alliance with Israel and Biden’s foreign policy inclinations, he won’t be comfortable publicly condemning Netanyahu or supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an end to the fighting. But given the fact that 78% of Democrats want to see just that, he’s got to do something if he intends to inspire the core of the Democratic base to vote for him in eight months.
