Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted

Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted
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Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)
Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 11 August 2024
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Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted

Survey shows why neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can take the Arab American vote for granted
  • Americans with Arab ancestry in key battleground states are gravitating toward Green Party candidate Jill Stein
  • Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will need to win back voters after Joe Biden’s Gaza stance cost the party support

LONDON: Jill Stein, the US Green Party’s presidential candidate known for her vocal support of Palestinian rights, has emerged as the top choice among Arab American voters in the lead-up to the US elections on Nov. 5, according to a recently conducted poll.

Stein, running as a third-party candidate, has garnered the support of over 45 percent of Arab Americans surveyed by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab-American grassroots civil rights organization.

This places Stein, a physician and environmentalist, ahead of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 27.5 percent of the vote in the same poll.

The survey was conducted between July 27 and 28 through a partnership between the ADC, Molitico for data insights, and the Community Pulse, which specializes in polling solutions.

According to Abed Ayoub, ADC’s national executive director, the Arab-American voter demographic has increasingly gravitated toward Stein owing to her advocacy for Palestinian human rights and her opposition to the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza since October.

In a post on the social platform X, he said: “Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein’s strong polling at 45.3 percent, akin to the previous poll, demonstrates consistent community support, largely because of her vocal stance on Palestinian human rights.”




Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

Stein has been a favorite among Arab voters since ADC’s last opinion poll in May, where she led with 25 percent support. In comparison, President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the presidential race in July, and Republican candidate Donald Trump, polled at 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

In 2022, 2.2 million people in the US reported having Arab ancestry in that year’s Arab Community Survey. The majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and 85 percent of Arabs in the US are citizens.

While the community traces its roots to every Arab country, the majority of Arab Americans have ancestral ties to Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Iraq. The top four states by Arab American population size are California, Florida, Minnesota and Michigan.




Activists show people how to vote uncommitted, instead of for US President Joe Biden, outside of Maples Elementary School in Dearborn during the Michigan presidential primary election on Feb. 27, 2024. (AFP/File)

Ayoub noted in his post that Biden’s declining popularity among Arab Americans was “due to the retiring president’s staunch support for Israel’s continued actions in Gaza.”

The Israeli military launched a bombing campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which the Palestinian militant group took more than 200 hostages.

The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza has since surpassed 39,500, with at least 15,000 children killed and over 12,000 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities




A Democratic voter uncommitted to President Joe Biden hands out fliers to voters outside of a polling location at Maples Elementary School on February 27, 2024 in Dearborn, Michigan. (Getty Images/AFP)

Humanitarian organizations, rights groups, and governments worldwide have repeatedly called for a ceasefire, but Israel has continued its military operations.

Stein has consistently criticized Biden and his administration for their unwavering support for Israel, warning in an Aug. 1 post on X that the Israeli government was dragging the US “into WWIII.”

Following the suspected Mossad elimination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a senior Hezbollah figure in Beirut last week, Stein criticized Biden and Harris for their “deafening silence” on “Israel’s massive escalation toward a wider war.




Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in Dearborn, Michigan as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)

In a July 31 post on X, Stein demanded that “the US immediately cut off aid to Israel, mandate a ceasefire, and arrest war criminal (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) before he gets us all killed.”

The killing of Haniyeh on July 31 has heightened fears of an all-out, regional conflict. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed revenge, warning Israel that it had “paved the way for your harsh punishment.”

Netanyahu’s government has neither claimed responsibility nor commented on Haniyeh’s death. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was “not aware of or involved in” the killing.

FAST FACTS

• Arab Americans live in all 50 states, but up to 95% live in metropolitan areas.

• New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis are the top 6 metropolitan areas.

• Nearly 75% of all Arab Americans live in just 12 states: California, Michigan, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

• Nearly a quarter of Arab Americans are Muslim, while the religious background of the rest are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.

However, the day before Haniyeh’s death, Israel claimed responsibility for killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on a building in southern Beirut. Hezbollah has promised a “definite” response for Shukr’s killing.

Whether or not the US was involved in these escalations, Biden’s Middle East policy has faced sharp criticism since October, with human rights groups urging the US administration to halt arms transfers to Israel.




Abbas Alawieh, spokesperson for Listen to Michigan, a group who asked voters to vote uncommitted instead of for US President Joe Biden in Michigan's US Presidential primary election, during an election night watch party in Dearborn, Michigan on February 27, 2024. (AFP)

In late April, Amnesty International reported that US weapons supplied to Israel had been “used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner inconsistent with US law and policy.”

In May, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his defense minister, and three Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Chris Habiby, ADC’s national government affairs and advocacy director, says the poll revealed two key insights. “First, President Biden is deeply unpopular among Arab Americans,” he told Arab News.




Chris Habiby, national government affairs and advocacy director of ADC. (Supplied)

“Second, being anti-genocide is a winning position for our communities across the country.”

Habiby added that the poll’s results reflect “what we have been demanding for the 10 months and 300 days this genocide has been ongoing — an immediate, permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo on all weapons being sent to Israel.”

Biden faced a significant defeat in the Michigan Democratic primary in February when a majority of voters in Dearborn, a city with a large Arab and Muslim population, chose to vote “uncommitted” rather than for him.




Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in Dearborn, Michigan as US President Joe Biden attends the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 2024. (AFP)

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud publicly supported the “uncommitted” vote movement, citing Biden’s policy on the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to USA Today.

In contrast, Stein has actively courted the Arab American vote in Michigan and beyond.

In an interview with Arab News in June, Stein pledged that, if elected, she would halt military support for Israel’s “apartheid government” and push for a genuine peace between Israelis and Palestinians.




Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein speaks at a Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the White House on June 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

“Arabs and Muslims have been taken for granted in America. They are victims of racial profiling, Islamophobia and violence against Arabs in this country,” she said.

“There is an absolute violation of our constitutional rights by the government to shut down our dialogue. People are trying to grapple with this genocide we are seeing live and in real-time on our iPhones and computer screens.”

Stein stressed that it is “against US law to send weapons to Israel, which is violating humanitarian rights and interfering in the delivery of humanitarian aid.”

She added: “The people who are standing up to assert our legal values and our human values are being criminalized and charged with crimes.”




US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the 114th NAACP National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 29, 2023. (AFP/File)

Despite Stein’s growing popularity among Arab-American communities, other presidential candidates still have an opportunity to gain more support from Arab and Muslim voters before November.

ADC’s poll indicates that, in addition to the 27.5 percent of respondents who support Harris, 18 percent are undecided about their vote in November, and 6 percent said they do not plan to vote.

“With nearly 1 in 4 voters either undecided or inclined to sit out the election, there is plenty of room for Harris or any other candidate to earn more support from the community if the right positions are taken,” wrote ADC’s Ayoub on X.
 

 


Turkiye ‘is a sought-after partner in Africa’

Turkiye ‘is a sought-after partner in Africa’
Updated 15 sec ago
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Turkiye ‘is a sought-after partner in Africa’

Turkiye ‘is a sought-after partner in Africa’

ANKARA: Turkiye is expanding its reach into Africa, banking on its defense projects and widespread trade network, its prospects enhanced by the lack of colonial history weighing on Europe, diplomatic sources say.
Speaking ahead of a ministerial meeting at the weekend in Djibouti, a diplomatic source in Ankara said Turkiye was a “sought-after partner” in Africa thanks to its “non-colonial” past.
Top diplomat Hakan Fidan will be in the tiny Horn of Africa nation on Nov. 2 and 3 for the meeting between Turkiye and 14 African nations in a body that was set up in 2008.
“Turkiye’s biggest advantage is its non-colonial past. When anti-imperialist leaders are looking for new partners, they think first and foremost of us,” the source said.
Although the Ottoman Empire ruled over many territories in Africa, it lost control of them in the 19th and early 20th centuries before the Turkish Republic emerged from the ashes of its collapse in 1923.
As a sign of its growing influence, Ankara has since taken on the role of mediator in talks between Ethiopia and Somalia, who have been locked in a feud over access to the ocean since June.
And with a significant level of regional mistrust toward “both major powers,” Turkiye was “best-suited” to lead such negotiations as “no other actor had the confidence of both parties,” the source said.
Despite difficulties, talks between Ethiopia and Somalia were moving forward “at their own pace.”
Such confidence was born of a well-established Turkish foothold in Somalia for the past two decades, where it has invested in agriculture and built the airport in Mogadishu, a military training center, schools, and a hospital.
Last week, the Turkish exploration vessel the Oruc Reis arrived in the Somali capital to start searching for oil and natural gas under an agreement that allows it to drill in three areas, each measuring roughly 5,000 sq. km.
Similar exploration agreements for oil and gas, as well as mining, were also signed between Turkiye and Niger in July and October.

FASTFACT

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will be in the tiny Horn of Africa nation on Nov. 2 and 3 for the meeting between Turkiye and 14 African nations in a body set up in 2008.

Turkish mining company MTA has three gold mines in the Sahel, also rich in uranium.
“There is also the potential for oil and natural gas,” said Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar this summer.
The Niger military protects the mines, and Turkiye is widely regarded as a “security partner” by many countries in the region.
Over the years, Ankara has signed military cooperation agreements with more than 25 African countries, supplying them with weapons, including drones.
And its hostile stance toward sanctions on the regimes of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali has also helped its ties with these nations.
Turkiye is also the fourth largest arms supplier to sub-Saharan Africa, according to a March study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Ankara is involved in training the armed forces in many African countries.
The sources stressed the need to “simultaneously invest in economic development,” particularly in the Sahel.
“West Africa is a region dominated by security problems,” said Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on meeting his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, saying it was “necessary to strengthen defense cooperation.”
Turkish construction companies, which are heavily involved in infrastructure projects like developing a $6.5 billion railway network in Tanzania, are also helping strengthen their nation’s reputation.
Trade between Turkiye and African countries in 2022 is set to exceed $40 billion.
And Turkish Airlines operates flights to some 50 destinations across the continent.


Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days

Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days
Updated 46 min 36 sec ago
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Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days

Blinken expects North Korea troops to enter fight against Ukraine in coming days

WASHINGTON:The United States expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday as he pressed China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang.
Blinken spoke after North Korea conducted its longest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile test earlier on Thursday and South Korea warned that Pyongyang could get missile technology from Russia in exchange for helping with the war in Ukraine.
The top US diplomat said there were 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces continue to hold territory after fighting their way into the Russian border area in August.
At a press conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts, Blinken said Russia has been training the North Korean soldiers in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, and basic infantry operations, indicating they “fully intend” to use the forces in frontline operations.
They would become legitimate military targets if they enter the battlefield, Blinken said.
“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” he said. During their meeting, the US and South Korea discussed a range of options for responding, Blinken added, saying Moscow’s use of North Korean soldiers in its “meat grinder” war against Ukraine was a “clear sign of weakness.”
Austin said the US would announce new security assistance for Ukraine in coming days.
Blinken and his South Korea and Japanese counterparts condemned the ICBM launch as a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The flight-time of the missile was 87 minutes, according to South Korea, putting nearly all of the United States within range.
The Kremlin on Thursday declined to comment when asked if Russia was helping North Korea to develop its missile and other military technology.
Blinken said Beijing, like Washington, should be very concerned about what Russia might be doing in order to enhance North Korea’s military capacities because it was destabilizing to Asia.


Greta Thunberg says Trump ‘more dangerous’ but blasts Harris on Gaza

Greta Thunberg says Trump ‘more dangerous’ but blasts Harris on Gaza
Updated 01 November 2024
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Greta Thunberg says Trump ‘more dangerous’ but blasts Harris on Gaza

Greta Thunberg says Trump ‘more dangerous’ but blasts Harris on Gaza
  • Thunberg urged Americans to go beyond exercising their right to vote and take direct action

STOCKHOLM: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Friday labelled Donald Trump the “more dangerous” option in next week’s US presidential election but slammed the incumbent administration for its support of Israel.
With the United States heading to the polls on November 5, the 21-year-old activist said in a post on X that it was “probably impossible to overestimate the consequences this specific election will have for the world and for the future of humanity.”
“There is no doubt that one of the candidates — Trump — is way more dangerous than the other,” Thunberg said.
But she also slammed sitting President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — who is running against former president Donald Trump — for their backing of Israel and its offensive in Gaza.
“Let’s not forget that the genocide in Palestine is happening under the Biden and Harris administration, with American money and complicity,” Thunberg said.
“It is not in any way ‘feminist’, ‘progressive’ or ‘humanitarian’ to bomb innocent children and civilians — it is the opposite, even if it is a woman in charge.”
Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year triggered the war in Gaza and resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground war have killed at least 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
Thunberg urged Americans to go beyond exercising their right to vote and take direct action such as protests and boycotts against the “catastrophic consequences of American imperialism.”
“My main message to Americans is to remember that you cannot only settle for the least worst option,” Thunberg said.


UK schools see rise in white poppy interest to show Gaza solidarity

UK schools see rise in white poppy interest to show Gaza solidarity
Updated 01 November 2024
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UK schools see rise in white poppy interest to show Gaza solidarity

UK schools see rise in white poppy interest to show Gaza solidarity
  • Britons wear red poppies in November to remember fallen servicemen, women
  • White poppy makes distinction of also remembering civilian casualties of war

London: Schools in the UK are ordering large numbers of white poppies for children to show solidarity with the people of Gaza, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The UK celebrates Remembrance Sunday every November to reflect on the sacrifices made by men and women who have served the country, with red poppies traditionally worn to commemorate the dead and raise money for veterans and their families.

The white poppy has gained popularity in recent years as an alternative, having first been worn in 1933 by those wishing to promote peace rather than celebrate war, and to remember civilians as well as combatants.

The Peace Pledge Union, the organization that distributes white poppies, said it received increased orders from schools this year, with teachers citing the war in Gaza as a key reason for children wanting to wear them. Demand went up 27 percent since the start of the war in October last year, it added.

“It is heartening that a growing number of young people are turning to the white poppy, for the light it sheds on today’s conflicts,” said Geoff Tibbs, a project manager at the PPU.

“Many are alienated by the mainstream tradition of Remembrance Day, as it fails to acknowledge civilians and people of other nationalities affected by wars today.”

Schools that offer white poppies to pupils also tend to offer red ones, which are provided by a military charity, the Royal British Legion.

An RBL spokesman told the Telegraph: “The RBL defends the right to wear different poppies. The RBL’s red poppy honours all those who have sacrificed their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy today; including the freedom to wear the poppy of your choice.”


Germans should leave Iran or risk being held hostage, says Berlin

Germans should leave Iran or risk being held hostage, says Berlin
Updated 01 November 2024
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Germans should leave Iran or risk being held hostage, says Berlin

Germans should leave Iran or risk being held hostage, says Berlin

BERLIN: Germany has long had a travel warning for Iran and asked nationals to leave because, as seen from the execution of a German-Iranian national, Tehran takes German citizens hostage, said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin on Friday.
“We have long had a travel warning for Iran and a request to Germans in Iran to leave the country because we saw from the Jamshid Sharmahd case that Iran is taking German citizens hostage,” said the spokesperson at a government news conference.
“We want to spare other German citizens this fate.”