One of President Biden’s top advisers told angry Arab and Muslim American community leaders in Michigan this week that the administration had made a “misstep” in supporting Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“We are very aware that we have had missteps in dealing with this crisis since October 7,” Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said during a meeting Thursday in Dearborn, Mich., with Muslim and Arab Americans, including state and local Democratic elected officials, according to New York Times.
“We have left a very damaging mark based on what has been a completely inadequate public accounting of how much the president, the administration and the state value the lives of the Palestinian people,” Finer added.
“And that started, frankly, pretty early in the conflict.”
Finer was part of a White House delegation sent to Michigan ahead of the Feb. 27 Democratic presidential primary, in response to growing hostility toward Biden from Muslim and Arab Americans — a large voting bloc in the Great Lake State — over his support for Israel. war effort in the wake of last October’s massacre of 1,200 people in the Jewish state.
The meeting comes just weeks before Michigan’s Feb. 27 Democratic presidential primary. AP Dozens of elected officials and community leaders in Michigan have accused Biden of ignoring the Palestinian death toll in the conflict and have blasted him for not calling for a ceasefire. AP
Dozens of elected officials and community leaders in Michigan have accused Biden, 81, of ignoring the Palestinian death toll in the conflict and have criticized him for not calling for a ceasefire.
During the meeting, Finer expressed regret that the Biden administration was not stronger in condemning Israeli officials who compared “the people of Gaza to animals.”
“In the desire to focus on solving the problem and not engage in back-and-forth rhetoric with people who, in many cases, I think we all find quite repulsive, we don’t do enough to show that we completely reject and disagree with such sentiments,” said Veneer.
He also lamented that Biden’s statement on January 14 marking 100 days since the Hamas attack made no reference to the Palestinian lives lost in Gaza.
“It does not at all address the loss of Palestinian lives in the first 100 days of the conflict,” Finer said.
Israel War Update
Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally.
Thank you for signing up!
“There is no excuse for that. It shouldn’t happen. I believe it will never happen again. But we know that there is a lot of damage done.”
The Biden aide went on to say that he was not convinced that the Israeli government would take the necessary steps to establish a Palestinian state.
“We have to do things for Saudi Arabia that are going to be very unpopular in this country and in our Congress,” Finer said.
“Is Israel willing to do the difficult things that will be required of them, which is a meaningful step for the Palestinian people in the two-state issue? I don’t know if the answer to that is yes. I don’t have any confidence in the current Israeli government.”
Meeting attendees told the New York Times they were disappointed that Biden officials would not commit to policy changes.
Biden’s support among Arab and Muslim Americans has declined since Israel declared war on Hamas. AP
Some attendees had previously refused to meet with Biden’s campaign manager as part of a tour listening to Muslim and Arab American concerns about the president.
More than 30 Michigan state and local officials have vowed to vote “noncommittal” in the state’s Democratic primary over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Only 17.4% of Arab American voters said they would vote for Biden in 2024, according to a John Zogby Strategies poll commissioned by the Arab American Institute last October.
In 2020, the same poll measured Arab American support for Biden at 59%.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
