Unlike the time when Donald Trump resided in the White House, which came out in a storm when the media said things that did not suit him, Joe Biden's Government has been characterized by maintaining calm from the outside.
That is why it is shocking that one of its spokespersons publicly attacked the Fox network. He considered that some of its stars, in their defense of Israel, advocate violence against Arab Americans and only seek to inflame hatred in the country.
He even denounced that they insulted journalists from other networks, such as CNN veteran Wolf Blitzer, who lost all of his grandparents in the Holocaust, because they do not hide the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza under the retaliation of the Israelis after the Hamas attack. on October 7.
This official response, made with the approval of the president, shows the difficult balance that Biden must make. He walks on the wire, like a tightrope walker, with the danger of falling into the void depending on which wind he blows. His position of absolute defense of Israel has become more nuanced. Without giving up his support, his speech increasingly includes language of rapprochement with the Palestinians.
Although the term ceasefire is banned, the “humanitarian pause” is reiterated in a more imperative manner in its lexicon. This week, in Minneapolis, a rabbi interrupted him shouting “cease fire.” Biden replied that he is paying for a pause until the hostages, including Americans, are released. Others, among the public, responded with “four more years,” alluding to his re-election.
There is an outbreak of undisputed anti-Semitism in the US, but there is also a sense of rampant Islamophobia. The complaints from both parties number in the hundreds. This is the breeding ground for potential electoral consequences in the 2024 presidential elections.
In Michigan, one of the key states for Biden's victory in 2020, disenchantment is spreading and many with Arab roots recognize that they are at a moral crossroads that prevents them from voting again for the Democrat given his unequivocal stay next to Israel. More than 300,000 Arab Americans reside in Detroit alone. Recent surveys indicate that, at the national level, only 17% of this group would vote for Biden today if the elections were held, well below the 59% in 2020.
The streets of Washington, New York and San Francisco witnessed massive demonstrations this Saturday calling for a ceasefire, a term that Secretary of State Antony Blinken once again despised in Jordan.
The images of the revenge attacks in Palestine, with attacks on refugee camps or ambulances heading to hospitals, are causing a rupture in the unitary sense of progressives that seemed bombproof. Until the rain of projectiles in Gaza financed by the Americans.
Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic legislator from Michigan and a great defender of the ceasefire, issued a video this Friday in which she accused Biden of supporting the Palestinian genocide. “Mr. President, Americans are not with you on this. We will remember in 2024,” she stressed. “Either support the ceasefire or don't count on us,” she insisted.
It is not an isolated voice among progressives. Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch and Jeff Merkley sent a letter in which they called for a ceasefire and expressed to the president their great concern about the invasion and possible occupation of Gaza, both for the long-term security of Israel and for the survival of the Palestinians.
In the Democratic committee, both souls are evident. Pro-Israel hawks and young people who speak of the immorality of massive retaliation without distinction confront each other.
