Washington, DC – When Samraa Luqman voted for Donald Trump in November, she thought that while there was a 1 in 100 chance the former president would push for a Gaza ceasefire, he would be a better option than the Democrats who failed to stop the ceasefire. war.
Trump ultimately won that race and is expected to return to the White House on Monday. And before his inauguration, Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas agreed to suspend hostilities in Gaza, where more than 46,700 Palestinians have been killed in the past 15 months.
But Luqman says she doesn’t feel vindicated, even though Trump has claimed credit for pushing the ceasefire agreement beyond the limits.
Instead, she is outraged by outgoing US President Joe Biden for failing to finalize the deal months earlier.
“I’m even more angry because Trump, who is not even in power, did a little arm-twisting and the ceasefire agreement was reached immediately,” Luqman told Tel Aviv Tribune. “It could have happened sooner. It’s so sad, all these extra lives lost.
She added that the manner in which the deal was reached “solidified Biden’s legacy as Genocide Joe,” a nickname that links the Democratic leader to Israeli abuses in Gaza.
After overwhelmingly supporting Democrats in previous elections, many Arab American voters turned against the party and its candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the November race because of their support for Israel’s war .
While many Arab voters say it is too early to celebrate the fragile ceasefire deal, they point out that Trump’s intervention shows they were right to abandon Harris.
The shift in Arab Americans’ voting preferences has been particularly visible in the swing state of Michigan.
In predominantly Arab neighborhoods in eastern Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, Harris received less than 20 percent of the vote. The majority of residents voted for Trump or Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
While Harris asserted that she and Biden had worked “tirelessly” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, the vice president also pledged to continue arming Israel without any conditions.
The Biden administration also vetoed four United Nations Security Council resolutions that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Trump’s role
Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, was among those who supported Trump last year, even attending his rallies.
He explained that negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza was the main demand of the former president’s Arab and Muslim supporters.
“He knew it was a fair and humane request,” Ghalib told Tel Aviv Tribune in a statement.
“We supported him and called for ceasefire, peace, the fight against Islamophobia, fair representation of Muslims in his administration and the promotion and protection of religious and family values as well as education safe for our children. He has shown signs of progress in delivering on each of his promises.
On Wednesday, Trump and Biden took credit for the ceasefire agreement, with the new president saying the “epic” deal would not have been reached if he had not won the November election.
However, it is difficult to assess the extent of Trump’s role in behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
But several Israeli media outlets reported that Trump was instrumental in convincing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the deal, which would lead to the release of Israeli captives in Gaza as well as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Trump sent his envoy Steve Witkoff to meet mediators in Qatar and Netanyahu in Israel last week.
On Thursday, the US president-elect appeared to confirm Israeli reports that Witkoff pushed Netanyahu to accept the deal.
He shared a Times of Israel article on social media quoting an unidentified Arab official as saying: “Trump’s envoy influenced Netanyahu more in a single meeting than Biden did all year.” »
Notably, Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani thanked Witkoff by name when announcing the deal on Wednesday.
“It’s all hell” breaking loose
Trump warned earlier this month that “all hell will break loose” if Israeli captives are not released before he takes office on January 20.
Some analysts saw this message as a threat to Hamas. But the Palestinian group has repeatedly said it would accept the ceasefire deal proposed by Biden in May, which included a prisoner exchange and a definitive end to the war.
It was Netanyahu who publicly stated on several occasions that his government intended to continue the war.
Yet Biden administration officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken — insisted that Hamas was blocking the deal.
Hala Rharrit, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned last year over the Biden administration’s handling of the war, said the deal announced Wednesday was the same proposal that had been on the table since May.
Rharrit told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Biden administration’s failure to finalize the deal for months was a “question of political will.”
“If there hadn’t been a change in administration, I think we would have continued to hear the exact same speech: ‘We are working tirelessly to achieve a ceasefire,’” Rharrit said.
She added that there would have been no change if Harris had been elected, but that Trump’s victory created an incentive to reach a ceasefire agreement.
Concerns over the deal
Although Wednesday’s announcement sparked jubilation in Gaza, Arab American advocates remain cautious about celebrating.
It is unclear whether Israel will honor the agreement, which will not come into force until Sunday. In neighboring Lebanon, a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal in November has failed to stop daily Israeli attacks.
Israel has also killed dozens of people in Gaza, including at least 21 children, since the deal was announced.
Suehaila Amen, an activist for the Arab American community in Michigan, said she hoped the ceasefire would come to fruition, but stressed that it was difficult to take the word of U.S. and Israeli politicians.
Still, she said a deal reached after Trump’s intervention constitutes a new indictment of Biden’s reluctance to get Israel to end the war.
“For many in the community, pushing back against the Biden administration for its continued funding of genocide – as well as turning a blind eye to verified and documented human rights violations – continues to be something we support “, Amen told Tel Aviv Tribune. .
Amen said voters are “well aware” that Trump helped seal the ceasefire deal.
“As Biden leaves with a bloody legacy of genocide under his belt, our work continues to ensure that our rights are protected and that no further harm or harassment against the Arab and Muslim American community ensues, from the White House and beyond,” she said.
“We hope this will not be temporary”
According to Walid Fidama, the former president made “concrete promises” to end the war in Gaza when he met with Arab and Muslim advocates before the elections. A lifelong Democrat, the Yemeni American ultimately voted for Trump in November.
“We are happy that he contributed to the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and we hope that this will not only be temporary,” Fidama told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We want the agreement to take full effect and allow displaced people to return home. »
But some in the Arab-American community are skeptical that Trump can bring lasting peace to the Middle East, as he promised on the campaign trail. After all, Trump has staffed his new cabinet with staunchly pro-Israel aides, including Senator Marco Rubio, his nominee for secretary of state.
And during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump made a series of policy changes that strengthened Netanyahu’s government, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
Luqman said she had no illusions that the Republican establishment would distance itself from Israel, but that ending atrocities in Gaza “immediately in order to save more lives” was her main concern.
“I’m not going to support Marco Rubio. But at the same time, I’m really aware that there aren’t a lot of good options,” Luqman said.
