Washington DC – The front page was accompanied by a full-width photo of US President Joe Biden and a blunt message: “He lost our votes,” written in large red letters.
That was the lead headline in last week’s Arab American News, a bilingual weekly publication in Dearborn, Michigan, that caters to the area’s large Arabic-speaking population.
But as Biden campaigns for reelection in 2024, the newspaper’s headline serves as a barometer of his prospects among Arab and Muslim American voters — and how his overtures toward their communities are received.
Many Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans have expressed frustration with the Biden administration’s “unwavering” support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Biden and his top aides have responded with an outreach effort over the past two weeks, in an apparent effort to quell some of the outrage.
These included State Department and White House meetings in late October with Arab and Muslim advocates, as well as the announcement of a first-ever national strategy to combat Islamophobia on November 1.
The U.S. government’s narrative on the war has also changed, with a more explicit emphasis on protecting civilians and calls for “humanitarian pauses” in the midst of fighting to allow aid to Gaza.
But Palestinian rights advocates say the Biden administration’s charm offensive is failing.
“They are trying to hide. This is why we do not adhere to this Islamophobic strategy. We do not adhere to these meetings,” said Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Committee Against Discrimination (ADC).
“We’re past that. We need action. We need this administration to show leadership and not throw crumbs at us. We don’t care about a meeting. We really don’t. Obviously nothing comes out of these meetings.
Informal meetings
A survey last month by the Arab American Institute showed a drastic decline in support for Biden in Arab American communities. Just 17% of respondents said they would support the president, down from 59% in 2020.
Similarly, an NBC News survey this week found that only 16% of Arabs and Muslims surveyed in the swing state of Michigan said they would vote for Biden if the election were held today.
Analysts say several factors have contributed to this drop in support. At the start of the war, Biden unequivocally expressed his “unwavering support” for Israel, but said little about the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Meanwhile, he pledged increased political and military support for Israel, asking Congress to provide more than $14 billion in additional aid to the U.S. ally as it bombed Gaza. Israel already receives $3.8 billion in aid per year.
Biden further angered Arab Americans and progressives when he questioned the death toll in Gaza, saying he had “no confidence in the number the Palestinians are using.” This number of deaths has since exceeded 10,000.
But growing reports of domestic Islamophobia have prompted a change in tone in the Biden administration. On October 14, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume was stabbed to death near Chicago in an alleged hate crime. His mother was seriously injured.
Biden responded to the attack with a public speech. “We must unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism,” he said. “We must also, unequivocally, denounce Islamophobia. »
Unofficial meetings with Palestinian and Muslim advocates followed Al-Fayoume’s assassination.
On October 23, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he met with “representatives of the Arab-Palestinian-American communities,” and days later the White House hosted five Muslim advocates and officials in a meeting that has not been made public by the government. administration.
Dana El Kurd, a senior fellow at the Arab Center in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera that these outreach efforts seemed “successful” and “fell flat”.
“People are very angry with the way the administration has approached all of this. They feel like this is fueling the flames of continued violence,” El Kurd said shortly after the meetings.
For her part, Yasmine Taeb, legislative and policy director of MPower Change, an American Muslim advocacy group, said the administration’s messaging to Muslim and Arab Americans appears designed to address Biden’s declining poll numbers. , nothing more.
“I don’t think it’s authentic,” Taeb said of the administration’s pressure. “They’re in damage control mode.”
Islamophobia strategy
Another facet of the White House’s outreach efforts is its national strategy to combat Islamophobia, announced last week.
“President Biden ran for office to restore the soul of our nation. It is unequivocal: there is no place for hatred against anyone in America. Period,” the White House said in its November 1 announcement.
The administration did not provide a timeline for when the plan would be finalized.
Fighting hatred is a national priority.
Today, @POTUS and I announce the country’s first national strategy to combat Islamophobia.
This action is the latest step forward in our work to combat a wave of hate in America. pic.twitter.com/pxZAn7RymY
– Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) November 1, 2023
However, the Council on American Islam Relations (CAIR), one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy groups, was quick to reject the White House’s pressure.
“The first and most important step President Biden must take to combat rising anti-Muslim bigotry is one that American Muslim leaders and organizations have repeatedly called for: demanding a ceasefire in Gaza,” CAIR said in a statement.
“Islamophobia is increasing due to the Israeli government’s massacres of civilians in Gaza and the dehumanizing, racist and Islamophobic rhetoric used to justify these massacres as the ‘price of war’ and foment hatred against Muslims and Palestinians in the whole world.
Last month, Biden described the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza as “the price of war.”
Taeb said American Muslim advocates have been pushing for years for the United States to take formal action to combat Islamophobia, raising questions about the timing of last week’s announcement.
“Now, finally, in the middle of a genocide that’s happening in Gaza, because they want to mitigate the backlash that they’re experiencing, they’re trying to deploy this strategy to say that they care about the lives of Muslims here “, Taeb told Al Jazeera. “It all makes no sense.”
Palestinian-American lawyer Hanna Hanania also said the Biden administration’s outreach efforts were “too little, too late.”
“As far as the community itself and how they perceive these meetings, I don’t think it makes a huge difference,” Hanania told Al Jazeera.
“I think the community is extremely angry and very upset. And basically, many voices are being raised to say: we should not vote for Biden next time.”
He also criticized the administration for focusing on Islamophobia and largely ignoring anti-Palestinian sentiment, which affects Palestinian American Christians, as well as Jewish allies who support Palestinian rights.
‘It’s done’
Hanania also said the Biden administration is contributing to a perception of Palestinians as barbarians, when in fact they are victims.
He pointed to recent statements by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who brought up the 2017 neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, when asked at a press briefing about the “anti-Israeli” demonstrations in progress.
Biden also falsely claimed that he had seen photos of decapitated Israeli children after the Hamas attack, Hanania added.
On Saturday, as tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, Biden was the main target of speeches, chants and signs accusing him of sponsoring war crimes against the Palestinians.
But as Arab and Muslim communities appear to be collectively moving away from Biden and his Democratic Party, many are finding themselves without a political home.
Republicans have expressed even more hawkish views in favor of Israel. Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill banning Palestinians from entering the United States and expelling Palestinians already in the country who received visas after October 1.
Despite such initiatives, several protesters told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the “lesser evil” argument to get them to vote for Democrats no longer worked given the rising death toll in Gaza.
“They don’t have a voice anymore — from me, from my family or from anyone,” Maria Habib, a Lebanese American protester, said of the Democrats. “It’s done. I voted for them in the past because, fundamentally, we don’t have a better choice. Now it’s not even a choice.
