Kamala Harris was asked at her recent Philadelphia Town Hall what she would say to people who are planning to vote third party or not at all because of her stance on Gaza. She responded with sympathy for all the death and suffering in Gaza, but with no hint that she might shift from her “unwavering support” for Israel. Instead, she went on to say that those voters “also care about bringing down the price of groceries…” That one comment could well cost her the election – and burden the rest of us with another four years of Trump in the White House.
Even though Harris will almost certainly win the popular vote nationwide, she is currently on course to lose in the electoral college. That is because this election will be decided in just seven swing states (MI, WI, PA, NV, AZ, GA and NC), where Harris and Trump continue to be neck and neck in the polling.
And the number of people who say they will vote for a third party or not vote at all vastly outnumbers the difference in polling between Harris and Trump in those states. In Michigan, for instance, numerous polls show Trump and Harris virtually tied with 47% of the vote each. Jill Stein, meanwhile, has a pretty solid 1% of the vote in Michigan, with another 4-5% going to a variety of other candidates.
The line from Democrats, as well as from a number of major climate groups who are worried about a Trump presidency, is to blame Jill Stein for being a “spoiler” and to try to shame those voters into buckling down and voting for Harris. But, like talking about the price of groceries, that is seriously missing the point.
Who are the people intent on voting for Jill Stein, other third party candidates, or not at all? They are people who cannot bring themselves to vote for Trump, which is a relief, but who also cannot bring themselves to vote for Harris. And the number one reason the “uncommitted” voters will not vote for Harris? It’s simple – Gaza.
There are over 3.5 million Arab-Americans living in the United States, and the state with the largest concentration of them is Michigan, with over 200,000 Arab-Americans. These are people for whom the ongoing genocide in Gaza is not just a terrible tragedy happening “over there.” These are people who have lost family members, relatives and friends, people who feel a close bond with the Palestinians and are thus deeply affected by what is happening there.
There are many more Jews than Arab-Americans in this country (around 7.5 million), but by no means are all Jews supporting what is happening in Gaza. Polls have shown that at least 50% of Jewish Democrats support a permanent ceasefire and an end to the bombing of Gaza. Notably, Jewish Voice for Peace has been one of the most outspoken voices calling this a genocide and demanding an end to it.
There are more than 4 million American Muslims who are not of Arab descent. Many in this broader Muslim population also see the Palestinian cause as their cause, and are equally affected by the de-humanization of Muslims that justifies the slaughter in Gaza.
But those directly affected are not the only ones who care about what is still going on in Gaza. Young people are especially affected by what they are seeing every day on social media. Significant numbers of voters across the country, of all demographics, see what’s going on in Gaza and are appalled by the lack of an adequate response by the US government. These are the people who are turning to Jill Stein and other candidates – or refusing to vote at all – because they don’t see any indications of a change in the status quo from Kamala Harris.
This one issue alone is going to cost her the election unless she moves very quickly to address the concerns of this very large chunk of voters who could well be the deciding votes, not only in Michigan, but in every other swing state where the margin of potential victory is paper thin. Here’s what she can do in the coming days to save us all from Trump:
1. She can seriously engage with the Arab-American community – talk with them, listen to them, negotiate with them about what she could do or say that would assuage their concerns.
2. She can apologize to the American people for being so dismissive and flippant about what is going on in Gaza, that we American taxpayers are paying for and fuelling right now. She can seize the seriousness of this situation and call it out for what it is: a genocide. Maybe not in the strict legal sense of the word (which is still being debated), but certainly in the commonly understand sense of violence committed against a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
3. But most importantly, she can call for an immediate halt to all military aid to Israel, pending a review of all the federal laws that already exist which prohibit military aid to any country that has a secret stash of nuclear weapons (Symington-Glenn Amendments, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2799aa), that is hindering humanitarian aid to a civilian population (Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 USC 2378-1), or that is otherwise seriously violating their human rights (the Leahy Law, section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. 2378d). Israel is guilty of all three.
There may be other steps she could take that would satisfy at least some of the concerns that people have about her approach to Gaza, but unless she does something serious in the coming days to address these concerns, this election will be hers, and hers alone, to lose. And while, for her, it may just be a lost election, for the rest of us it means having to put up with Trump and all that he stands for for another four years. So please write to Kamala by going to her website and urge her to take these steps NOW!
PHOTO: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons