Arab American voters on the fence about Kamala Harris

Fatima, sitting on a bench in a small plaza in downtown Dearborn, a heavily Arab-American district in Michigan’s political battleground, took Kamala Harris’s comments with a grain of salt.

The 24-year-old, who declined to give her last name, voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but is distraught by the high number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and is unsure whether she will support the Democrat in the November election Presidential Election.

Fatima says Harris She may “probably” be better than Biden, whom many in Dearborn see as too supportive of Israel’s actions in Gaza, but that will depend on what happens in the coming weeks. “If we can bring hope or comfort to the Palestinians, that’s the only reason I’m voting for her,” she said.

Harris has been running for president against Donald Trump since she launched her campaign on July 21 after Biden dropped out of the race. Aroused the enthusiasm of most Democratic voters This will be crucial to ensuring her victory in the presidential election, whether it is among young voters, women voters or people of color.

But for those who see the Gaza war as the defining issue of the campaign — many of whom are concentrated in southeastern Michigan, where distrust of the Democratic Party runs deep — they are wary of the party’s new candidate.

“Most people in our community lean Democratic, but most of them don’t feel like voting,” said Abir, an elderly woman outside a local grocery store in Dearborn who regrets voting for Biden in 2020 and has “no idea” what she’ll do in November.

“I was going to sit on the sidelines and watch unless Harris made it clear that this had to stop,” she said.

While Harris has not endorsed any of Biden’s shifts in policy toward Israel, she has sought to distance herself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She skipped last month’s joint address to Congress in Washington and met with Biden separately. Afterward, she said her commitment to Israel’s security was “unwavering” but she would not “remain silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, an advocacy group, said Harris has made a greater effort to “communicate” with the Arab community from the beginning of the conflict. He predicted “she will win over a lot of people who are hesitant or resentful of the administration,” but added “she has to maintain” her position.

Adjusting her stance on the Middle East may be the biggest foreign policy challenge facing the Harris campaign. After arriving at the Detroit airport for a large campaign rally on Wednesday, Harris had a “brief encounter” with activists who her aides said led more than 100,000 people in the state to vote “without a commitment” in the Democratic primary earlier this year instead of voting for Biden in a strong opposition to the White House.

An emotional Layla Elabed, one of the movement’s leaders, told Harris they wanted to support her but needed a Gaza policy that would “immediately save lives,” including an arms embargo on Israel.

While activists believed Harris was willing to discuss halting arms transfers to Israel, her national security adviser, Phil Gordon, cleared their minds Thursday morning.

“She will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist groups. She will not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and uphold international humanitarian law,” he wrote on X.

Additionally, during the Detroit rally, Harris’ speech was interrupted several times by protesters who chanted “Kamala Kamala, you can’t hide, we will not vote for genocide.”

She initially responded: “I’m here because we believe in democracy. Every voice matters.” But she then told them: “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say so. If not, I’m going to speak.” The audience overwhelmingly cheered her on.

After the event, protester Zainab Hakim, 21, said Harris was “so disrespectful.” “I hear this a lot — ‘You’re Brown, you’re Muslim, you’re Palestinian, do you think your life will be better under Trump?’” she said.

She added: “(But) it’s not better for my Palestinian friends if their loved ones and their people are slaughtered under Biden or even Kamala’s rule.”

“I’ve made it very clear,” Harris said Friday after being grilled again in Arizona. “It’s time for a ceasefire and a hostage agreement. It’s time now.”

The mathematical reality is that any defections from the traditional Democratic base could help Trump and make a difference in close battleground states, including Michigan.

But for most voters, Gaza isn’t the only issue in the election. If Harris performs strongly enough among other Democrats, independents and swing voters, she may be able to withstand some losses from the conflict in the Middle East. Showing a tough stance against protesters could help her fend off criticism from the right that she’s too liberal.

The diplomatic situation in the Middle East is also crucial to her success in defeating Trump. Washington, along with Egypt and Qatar, is trying to help broker Cease-fire agreement This would cease hostilities between Israel and Hamas and lead to the release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

“I think she’s trying to make the voices of those who are critical of the administration’s policies toward Israel and Gaza heard, but she also seems reluctant to push for something that some activists want, which is an embargo on U.S. arms sales,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Political Studies.

He added: “Perhaps the simple fact that she is not Biden will make her more acceptable to at least some of Biden’s critics.”

However, Mahd Khazan, who runs an ice cream shop in Dearborn, is on the fence. A former Trump voter who also voted for Barack Obama, he is leaning toward the Republican Party again, but also thinks Harris is “suitable” for the presidency. “I have to watch the debate and see which one makes more sense,” he said.

Harris’ silence on the Middle East and foreign policy during the campaign left question marks for some in Dearborn.

“We know nothing about her,” said Dao, a 72-year-old engineering professor who has yet to decide who to vote for. “What would she think of Gaza? What would she think of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? What would she think of relations with China and the whole economic situation? She has to tell the public.”

But Fatima was clear that even though she was unsure about Harris’s attitude, she would never vote for Trump. “I knew he was against the ceasefire, and I knew hate crimes would be worse,” she said.