In Muna Jondy’s family, all topics are valid in the WhatsApp thread.
The 40-person chat, which includes Jondy’s brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, discusses everything: the rivalry between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, the football superiority between Ohio State and Michigan and, of course, politics.
Discussion of President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has been a common theme this year, as the administration’s support for Israel in the war in the Gaza Strip has alienated many Muslim and Arab American families, including the Jondys.
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But the mood changed when Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. The family realized recently when Harris said she would not look away from images of dead children or remain silent about the tragedies in Gaza.
“Am I crazy or is this more than Biden has ever been willing to say?” Jondy’s niece messaged the group. Other chat participants were more skeptical: “It would be nice, but unless I see an explicit change in policy, I won’t believe it.”
The WhatsApp chat is typical of the conversations taking place among Arab-Americans across the country who have turned away from Biden over the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 36,000 people in the past 10 months. In crucial battleground states like Michigan, where Jondy’s family lives, many people who voted for Biden in 2020 said they felt betrayed and joined protest movements that challenged his campaign.
Harris may have the opportunity to change the conversation. While she has not moved away from Biden on Israel policy since she began her own campaign for president, she has struck a stronger tone on the plight of Palestinians.
“Where the door was closed with President Biden, the door has opened slightly with Kamala Harris,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the first Arab-American mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “I think opening the door really allows an opportunity for meaningful dialogue.”
Osama A. Siblani, editor of Dearborn-based Arab American News, said Arab American votes in Michigan were up for grabs at the moment.
“If she is interested in our votes, we are interested in her opinion,” Siblani said, adding that he was also willing to listen to former President Donald Trump, who has a history of using anti-Muslim language and banned travel from many countries. predominantly Muslim countries during his term.
Support for Harris will not be automatic, he said.
“We don’t have bad ideas about Kamala Harris, we don’t have good ideas,” Siblani said. “We are now trying to listen to her and talk to her.”
Another factor that could shape Harris’ perception on the issue is her choice of running mate. Among the leading candidates is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has been a staunch supporter of Israel and a critic of some pro-Palestinian protests.
Harris’ campaign declined to comment for this article.
According to an estimate from the outreach group Emgage, Michigan has more than 200,000 registered voters who are Muslim, which could be enough to swing the state. (Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes in 2020.) There are also sizable Arab-American populations in Virginia, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, which are also swing states.
But Biden’s support has waned because of the war, which began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
Biden has generally combined broad support for Israel’s war with criticism of certain battlefield tactics. But anger at his approach – and at US arms shipments to Israel – has erupted on college campuses and in the streets of American cities. Protest groups like the “Uncommitted” and Abandon Biden movements quickly gained traction.
The Biden administration has attempted to make inroads into American Arab and Muslim communities, especially as pro-Palestinian protesters have become a frequent and disruptive presence at Biden’s public events.
In April, when Biden hosted a gathering to mark the end of Ramadan, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American emergency room doctor, gave Biden a letter from an 8-year-old girl from Gaza who had lost her family in the war.
After speaking for about six minutes, Ahmad told Biden he was leaving “out of respect for my community.”
Ahmad recalled that Harris seemed engaged and empathetic when he described the plight of the Palestinians. But he said a simple change of candidates and tone would make no difference to him.
“Slogans and phrases are not going to solve this,” he said. “There needs to be a willingness to recognize the political failures of recent months and, naturally, what concrete measures will be taken to avoid a repetition of these failures.”
Nada Al-Hanooti, an organizer with Dearborn-based Emgage, which aims to mobilize Muslim voters, said Harris needed to differentiate her approach from Biden’s.
She said she was encouraged when Harris declined to preside over a speech before Congress last month by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as is traditional for the vice president.
Harris cited a scheduling conflict for missing the speech, but later had a private meeting with Netanyahu. In a sign of how she is trying to find a balance in the conflict, she left the meeting to offer strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself, but declared that “too many innocent civilians” had died in Gaza.
Voters like Al-Hanooti said they would watch Harris closely in the future.
“I’m a Palestinian-American, Muslim Democrat,” she said. “I want to vote Democrat. I also want to vote my conscience and I want to make sure that whoever I vote shares my values and shares the values of the ceasefire, shares the values of Palestinian self-determination and shares our values of human rights. ”
James Zogby, whose Arab American Institute has conducted several polls tracking Arab American voter sentiment over the past year, cautioned that the community contained varied perspectives, including some pro-Trump voices.
But he acknowledged that Harris had an opportunity to capture voters who opted for Biden in 2020 but changed their minds on Gaza. “I think if she seizes the opportunity, changes direction and makes it clear that a Harris administration would be different, she has a chance to turn this around,” he said.
This includes Jondy, a lawyer and longtime Democrat who has supported Democratic candidates.
“I was devastated,” said Jondy, who lives in a suburb of Flint, Michigan, and whose parents are Syrian and Palestinian. Before Biden dropped out, she considered not voting.
“Honestly, I wasn’t clear about what I was going to do because I believe he has blood on his hands,” she said of Biden.
The turn against Biden was particularly evident on social media.
Shortly after Biden’s announcement that he was stepping down from office, Syrian-American comedian Nasser Al-Rayess took to Instagram with a video that showed him dancing in the street to a popular Arabic song with a headline that read: “I stop Joe Biden after he abandoned the election.”
The video has more than 800 thousand views.
Jondy said she was eager to hear how Harris talks about Gaza and who she will choose for vice president.
“As of today,” she said, “she has my vote.”
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