Washington, DC – The front page came with a full-width photo of United States President Joe Biden and a stark message: “He lost our votes”, written in thick red letters.
That was the main headline for last week’s Arab American News, a bilingual weekly publication out of Dearborn, Michigan, catering to the area’s large Arabic-speaking population.
But as Biden campaigns for reelection in 2024, the newspaper’s headline serves as a bellwether for his prospects among Arab and Muslim American voters — and how his overtures to their communities are being received.
Many Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans have expressed frustration over the Biden administration’s “unwavering” support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Biden and his top aides have responded with an outreach effort over the last two weeks, in an apparent push to allay some of the outrage.
Those included State Department and White House meetings in late October with Arab and Muslim advocates, as well as the announcement of a first-ever national strategy to combat Islamophobia on November 1.
The US government’s rhetoric about the war has also shifted, with more explicit emphasis on protecting civilians and calls for “humanitarian pauses” amid the fighting to allow aid into Gaza.
Article from www.aljazeera.com