By assetseller @Adobe Stock
“Uncommitted”
Come this November, Michigan again will be a contested state. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by only three percentage points, reports the editors at the WSJ.
The Democratic left is trying to send President Biden a message about the war in Gaza, and the effort already seems to be changing U.S. policy toward Israel and Hamas.
The main challenge on Tuesday is coming from the Democratic Party’s anti-Israel left and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. She’s leading a campaign against Mr. Biden’s support for Israel and she and others are asking Democrats to vote “uncommitted.”
Rep Rashida Tlaib is demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
From Rep Tlaib’s video posted on X (formerly Twitter):
“It is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn, to say, ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want a country that supports wars and bombs and destruction. We want to support life. We want to stand up for every single life killed in Gaza.’”
Scaring the White House
Leading the left, Talib’s hope is if enough Democrats vote “uncommitted,” it will scare the White House into “changing its Israel policy lest tens of thousands of Democrats stay home or vote for a third-party candidate.” Several polls, reports the WSJ, show Mr. Trump is currently leading Mr. Biden in Michigan.
It’s clear that the left’s threats are already influencing Mr. Biden’s foreign policy. After the Oct. 7 massacre, the President’s pro-Israel instincts kicked in and he backed Jerusalem’s right to destroy Hamas. As the war has evolved and domestic criticism of Mr. Biden’s support for Israel has increased, however, Mr. Biden has become much more critical of Israel.
All of this seems intended to send a message to Mr. Biden’s critics on the left that he is sympathetic to their complaints. The problem is that if the Arab-Americans in and around Dearborn begin to set U.S. policy, Hamas and Iran will be the beneficiaries. Ms. Tlaib and others claim not to support Hamas or the Oct. 7 massacre, but the cease-fire they want would have the effect of leaving its fighters alive and free to rebuild their terror state. The suffering in Gaza is terrible, but the main cause is Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields.
How far is President Joe Biden willing to bend to the Left’s threats?
According to the WSJ, most Americans still support Israel’s ground invasion to root out Hamas—63% in the Harvard CAPS Harris survey out this week.
The elimination of Hamas, like ISIS, is in the U.S. and Israeli national interest. If Mr. Biden bends to the left on Israel, he’ll send another signal of weakness that Donald Trump can exploit.
