Since the war in Gaza began, the threat of a protest vote — where voters would abstain from the presidential election or vote for third-party candidates who had no shot at winning — has hung over the heads of Democrats because of President Joe Biden’s intransigence. Support for Israel and its right-wing government. When Vice President Kamala Harris was nominated, Biden’s unwillingness to distance himself on the issue did not help alleviate that threat. Meanwhile, Donald Trump Accused Democrat For not being pro-Israel enough.
Throughout the election, pro-Palestinian voters tried to pressure President Biden to change course, organizing protests on college campuses across the country and creating various campaigns to punish him at the ballot box. One group, the Uncommitted National Movement, asked Democratic voters to cast their ballots for “undecided” instead of Biden during the primaries, and they collected tens of thousands of votes — enough to secure delegates At the Democratic National Convention.
But no matter how much pro-Palestinian voters pressed the candidates to give them a better vision for how to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, none were willing to meaningfully address the concerns of pro-Palestinian voters. And for Americans who considered Gaza one of their top concerns, their choice was to either punish the Democrats or stop Trump. The result was an election in which neither outcome would have been a win for the Palestinians.
It’s clear that it’s impossible to point to any single issue to explain why Harris lost to Trump Harris lost at least some voters Because of the Biden administration’s position on Gaza. And now who is Trump? promised to ban Palestinian refugees entering the United States and Dr He will revoke the visa From foreign students who are considered anti-Semitic, the president-elect.
Voters wanted a real plan to stop the war. Candidates were not interested.
When it came to which candidate had the better vision for how to end the war in Gaza, neither Biden, Harris, nor Trump delivered a compelling message.
President Biden offered Israel unqualified supportSending billions of dollars in military aid. His administration has defended Israel even as they committed horrific war crimes. Including the bombing of hospitals. Instead of counting the rapidly increasing death toll in Gaza, he to suspect The numbers that were released by the Gaza Ministry of Health – those are the numbers humanitarian group and even The US government thought so reliable in the past.
At times, Harris, after he became the Democratic nominee, tried to call out Israel for the staggering death toll, saying that “Many more” civilians was killed and emphasized How Israel conducts itself The timing of this battle is critical. He called for an end to the war, but after serving in an administration that financed Israel’s war with virtually no conditions, that was not a particularly convincing message.
Harris has also muddied his outreach — or lack thereof — to Arab Americans by tying any sympathetic statement about the Palestinians to a staunch defense of Israel. For example, in his DNC speech, he said the death toll in Gaza was “heartbreaking” and said the Palestinians should realize their right to self-determination — a long-standing US talking point — but again justified that statement by starting with the war itself. When asked if he was worried about losing Arab American voters because of Israel’s behavior, she said“There are many tragic stories coming out of Gaza,” but that “first and most tragic story is October 7.”
For his part, Trump didn’t try to say he would be better than Biden in Gaza. Earlier this year, he said Israel should end the war and “Come back to peace and stop killing peopleBut he says this not out of sympathy for the Palestinians, but out of concern that Israel is making itself look bad. Every night, they release a tape of a building. They should not release the tapes like this,” he said said. “So they’re losing the PR war.”
Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also seemed more concerned about lost opportunities for development in Gaza than human suffering. saying Waterfront properties on that strip can be very valuable. “There was no ocean as far as was concerned. They never took advantage of it. Trump said. “You know, as a developer, it can be the most beautiful place — the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate.”
On how Trump will deal with Netanyahu, he has indicated he will allow the Israeli prime minister to exercise more restraint. Netanyahu says “was doing a good job” and Biden held him back.
Palestinians were targeted throughout the election
In the end, whether Trump would fare worse than Biden or Harris on this issue didn’t necessarily resonate with pro-Palestinian voters. For them, what has been happening for the past year already represents the worst. Israel, after all, has already credibly alleged Genocide at the International Court of Justice. As one Georgia voter told me in the week before the election, “I don’t imagine Trump is good for Palestine in any way… [but] I can’t imagine its worse.”
That helps explain why so many Arab Americans came out against Harris last Tuesday. Dearborn, Michigan, a Arab majority citiesTrump won 43 percent of the vote compared to Harris’ 36 percent. In 2020, Biden won the city with 69 percent of the vote, and while Harris lost there, Democratic Rep. Rashida Talib, a Palestinian American, won her re-election to Congress with 62 percent of the vote.
As much as the issue resonated with many voters, America’s politicians were not ready to rethink the country’s relationship with Israel, even now that the war had come to an end. 44,000 Palestinians were killed. In July, when Netanyahu gave a speech to Congress, he was We were met with standing slogans.
The Palestinians were the target of this election from the beginning. During the Republican primaries, candidates took to the debate stage and competed Who will be the most pro-Israel president. At the time, it had been a month since the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s war on Gaza had already begun. 10,000 Palestinians killed40 percent of whom were children. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “finish these butchers once and for all,” referring to Hamas. “You can’t negotiate with evil,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley repeated a line she had already tested on the campaign trail: “Finish them.” He will be later Write that in an artillery shell During the visit to Israel. For Trump, he is Even throwing words “Palestinian” as an insult.
At every turn, no matter how destructive the war, Palestinians were humiliated. Pro-Palestinian protesters was humiliated. and voters who sympathize with the Palestinians in Gaza was scolded.
It leaves voters with no real option to improve the situation in Gaza at the ballot box, prompting many to believe that the best way to be heard is to send a message that reckless foreign policy will cost the incumbents votes. Even as some voters tried to turn the election into a referendum on Biden’s Gaza policy, the reality was that neither candidate was willing to promise anything outside the status quo. So the Palestinians and their supporters found ample reason to believe that whatever the outcome of the election, it could only go from bad to worse.
That sense of frustration paved the way for a protest vote to be held. While Biden’s Israel policy may not, in the end, be the deciding factor for most voters, in some pockets of the country, voters tried to show they shouldn’t be ignored in one way: by voting against the party that allowed Gaza to become a “Graveyards for Children.”
It is difficult to know what the next few months or the next four years will look like for Palestine. But there aren’t many signs of hope – if any. As the election approaches, The Israelis announced that they are close to a “full evacuation” from northern Gaza and have “no intention” of allowing Palestinians to return. This is just the beginning of a new phase of war.
