With the passing of $26 billion in funding for Israel in the US Senate yesterday, Democrats risk losing elections in November. Some voters, particularly in swing states, will not vote for elected officials/candidates who provide support the unfolding genocide in Gaza and the ongoing occupation.
I, personally, am not a one issue voter. In fact, I think one-issue voters (of any party) are often intellectually lazy and sophomoric. It is rarely an effective tactic (although anti-choice and pro gun pollution groups would argue to the contrary).
I can assure you that there are MANY (possibly a few million?) Democratic Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Jews, Native Americans, Protestants, Catholics, Youth, and others who will NOT vote for President Biden/Vice President Harris nor other elected officials who support Netanyahu’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza and his destruction of a 2-state solution.
Would Trump or Kennedy be worse for Palestinians? Yes! Will this reality persuade these voters? No, unfortunately. Certainly not enough of them to assure success in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Minnesota, and North Carolina. We will see variations of two phenomena: pro-Palestinian citizens who vote for Stein and West and those that don’t vote at all. These voters see US policy as one-sided in support of Israel and complicit in unfolding genocide. They will not support candidates who pretend to be supportive of Palestinians with calls for a two-state solution and humanitarian funding. When Palestinians have lost scores of their family members killed by US weapons wielded by Israel, they are NOT going to vote for candidates with blood on their hands. And for those who are deeply scarred by Jim Crow apartheid and US support for Apartheid in S. Africa, there will be limited votes for Democrats.
If you think these voters are unlikely to balk at voting for Democrats, let me draw your attention to a little history. In 2000, Gore lost a significant number of Arab, Palestinian and Muslim voters in Florida (and elsewhere) because he ran to the right of Bush on support for Israel. (Ironically, he had no need to aggressively court the “Zionist swing” vote because Lieberman was his VP). But we do know that Gore “lost” the election in Florida (according to the Supreme Court anyway), and the number of votes by these communities for Bush and Nadar was enormously consequential. Some of these voters may have learned their lesson and will vote for Democrats. But many of the younger generation voters will not.
Persuasive arguments may helpful in obtaining some support from these large voting groups. However only a change in US policies (along the lines of Sen. Sanders, and Cong. Cori Bush) which treats Palestinians and Israelis equally will attract their votes. (For starters, recognizing Palestine as a state, suspending US aid to Israel, treating Hamas and Likud as equivalent terrorist governing entities, restoring UNWRA funding, equating hostages and political prisoners, and withdrawing Trump’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan.) Our current unbalanced policy is courting defeat in a close election for Congress and the Presidency with catastrophic consequences for the planet.