Arab and Muslim Americans and about 60% of all Americans have for months wanted U.S. President Joe Biden to pressure Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in the war on Gaza. The White House virtually ignored them.
Arab and Muslim Americans have therefore decided to flex their political muscle by using their electoral power in critical swing states in this year’s presidential election. In December, community leaders from nine potential swing states gathered in Dearborn, Michigan, under the slogan “Drop Biden, Ceasefire Now.” They have vowed not to vote for Biden in November’s presidential elections unless he changes his policies that enable Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of decent living conditions and largely ignore the views of large minority communities in the United States.
The campaign quickly attracted support from Michigan and other states with large Arab-American communities, as well as criticism from Biden supporters who feared the campaign aimed at pressuring the president would inadvertently guarantee a victory of Donald Trump.
Arab and Muslim Americans intensified their campaign in February, when humiliating articles in the mainstream press helped mobilize even more members of the community.
On February 2, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an opinion piece by Steven Stalinsky, titled Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital, which claimed that “the Michigan city’s imams and politicians were side with Hamas against Israel and Iran against the United States. » The article called the entire community dangerous extremists.
The same day, an opinion piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times metaphorically compared Middle Eastern countries and political actors to jungle animals, including trapdoor spiders and wasps.
Whatever the intended goals of these articles – and other offensive articles and cartoons – they have inadvertently propelled Arab-American engagements into high-stakes electoral politics. The town of Dearborn, Michigan, named and defamed in the WSJ article, became the starting point for this effort.
The Michigan community has mobilized nationally with other marginalized communities that the White House has often ignored – including African Americans, Hispanics, progressive Jews, workers, women, college students and others. They joined hands because they share concerns about foreign policy as well as the White House’s domestic priorities and its opportunistic and self-serving civic engagement.
Activists are demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the implementation of existing legal restrictions on the unconditional aid and weapons that the United States has provided to Israel for decades. They are tired of being ignored by a White House that takes their votes for granted, as well as by the Democratic Party that they helped strengthen through voter registration drives since the mid-1980s. They are also incredibly frustrated by the mainstream media, often racist, which misrepresents, demeans and ignores them.
I asked Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud this week why his city is joining forces with other disaffected American communities to influence national politics and foreign policy at the highest levels. He said: “It’s all about trust and respect between public servants and citizens. We must end the gap we see today between elected officials and the values of citizens. There is no possible justification or characterization for genocide or the killing of babies and civilians on such a large scale. No way.”
In our conversation and in his public statements, Hammoud explained how U.S. foreign policy and media coverage directly impacts ordinary citizens.
“It’s personal for us, because some of our families have experienced Israeli occupation or wars, or volunteered in refugee camps,” he said. “When foreign policy decisions directly impact the well-being of Dearborn residents, it is irresponsible to walk away from difficult policy discussions that can lead to saving the lives of innocent men, women and children . »
Hammoud was clear about his community’s demands: “We want actions, not words.”
But so far, Arab and Muslim Americans have mostly been given lip service. Concerned about the “Drop Biden” campaign, the president’s campaign team approached local leaders to meet with them, but they refused. They insisted they wanted to speak with policymakers at the White House. And it worked.
Biden quickly sent several of his aides to Michigan, including Jon Finer, principal deputy national security adviser; Tom Perez, senior advisor to the president and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; and Samantha Power, Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
But after the meetings, again, nothing changed. The Arab-Muslim American community has received only fine words, but no action.
As Biden kept arms and money flowing for Israel’s assault on Gaza, community leaders, including U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, decided to up the ante. They launched the “Listen to Michigan” campaign that asks “people of conscience” to register as “uncommitted” in the presidential primary on Tuesday, February 27. This signals to Biden and the party that they must listen to citizens’ concerns, and earn their votes, or risk losing in national and presidential elections.
Community leaders and activists are daring to do so because they enjoy unprecedented leverage thanks to the size and distribution of Arab and Muslim American voters in swing states like Michigan, where elections are hotly contested. Michigan is home to more than 300,000 Arab Americans. Trump won the state by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016, and Biden in 2020 by 154,000 votes, including many votes cast by Arab-Americans. Biden also won by 10,500 votes in Arizona, home to 60,000 Arab Americans, and by 11,800 votes in Georgia, home to 57,000 Arab Americans.
Veteran Arab American activist James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, told me that this burst of action builds on 40 years of community capacity building across the country. It reflects the mentality of Arab Americans that “is moving from the paralysis and despair of the early 1980s to today’s sense that we can control our destiny.”
Other partners in the informal coalition aimed at changing American policy add weight. The Michigan United Auto Workers Union called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, recalling that it also opposed apartheid in South Africa. The African Methodist Episcopal Church also demanded an immediate ceasefire and called the attacks on Gaza a “mass genocide.”
Progressive groups, such as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution, have also joined the “Listen to Michigan” campaign.
Mayor Hammoud told me that minority community coalitions have always worked together on common causes at the local level. But, he added, “I have never seen a paradigm shift on the Palestinian issue like the one we are seeing today, with up to 80 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of young people supporting the ceasefire we call. »
An Arab-American who has advised the White House in recent years also told me that the community’s new political leverage “is unexpected, unknown and unprecedented.”
That is indeed the case, and Tuesday’s Michigan primary should reveal precisely what impact it could have — and whether it can temper America’s war abroad by recognizing its citizens at home who take it seriously that their system of governance is anchored in “the consent of the governed.” .
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.