Mideast War and the 2024 election

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Were they really "pro-Hamas" or just pro-Palestinian and/or anti-genocide?

Right wing Zionists love to conflate these things, it seems. So I'm wondering what the evidence is that these protesters were specifically "pro-Hamas."

Donald Trump boasted on Wednesday of almost daily conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he has a very good relationship with the Israeli prime minister.

Trump has previously cast himself as Israel’s “protector” and said Netanyahu’s government must “finish the problem” in its war against Hamas.

“Bibi called me yesterday, called me the day before,” the Republican candidate, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

“We have a very good relationship,” Trump said at a campaign rally in the US state of Georgia, adding: “We’re going to work with them very closely.”

He also said “unfortunately they didn’t listen to [US President Joe] Biden because… they’d right now be waiting for a bomb to drop on them, and they did their own work.” Trump then noted Biden’s opposition to Israel striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities in response to a recent Iranian missile attack, saying, “really, that’s sort of the opposite.”

The two have apparently patched up their differences in the lead-up to the November 5 presidential election, with Trump hosting Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in July during the prime minister’s visit stateside and speaking with him by phone.

However, two Israeli officials expressed concerns to The Times of Israel over Trump’s repeated call for Israel to swiftly defeat Hamas and wrap up the war in Gaza, fearing an inability to do so will lead to a clash if he wins the upcoming election.

A political ad portraying Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as the safer choice for Jews is being criticized for appearing to traffic in stereotypes, while putting pressure on the owner of a Philadephia-area deli for allowing it to be filmed there.

The 30-second spot, titled “Amen,” is being aired in several swing states with sizeable Jewish populations, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which touted the ad as the “closing” pitch of a $15 million campaign to finagle votes for the former president ahead of the November 5 election.

In the commercial, three women, described by the RJC as “bubbies” and speaking with a cadence and accent considered Jewish in the popular American imagination, schmooze about Israel and antisemitism on US college campuses while seated at a booth in a deli. All three are paid actors, according to CNN.

“Israel is under attack,” one woman tells her friends. “Antisemitism like I never thought I would see.”

After her friend mentions hearing of someone’s son who got spit on at the University of Pennsylvania, the third woman asks about Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

“Uch, busy defending the squad,” answers bubby 2.

“Oy vey,” the first woman adds. “You know, Trump I never cared for, but at least he’ll keep us safe.”

After the second woman concurs, the ad ends with the three women raising their mugs to the Republican nominee and a check coming to the table with the words “Donald Trump will keep us safe” stamped on it.

According to The New York Times, the spot has aired in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, where it was filmed.

The five states are all home to large Jewish communities and, together with Wisconsin and North Carolina, are considered key battlegrounds that Trump or Harris must win to have a shot at the White House.

Citing data from analytics firm AdImpact, the newspaper reported that the RJC had spent $360,000 so far airing the ad, which was released on October 20.

The Times described the ad in a headline as featuring “Jewish stereotypes in service of Trump,” and online some commentators called the pitch cringy, or “a shondeh.”

Some went even further, vowing to boycott Hymie’s Deli, the Jewish-style eatery in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, where the ad was filmed.

“I will never set foot there again,” Sheva Golkow, a longtime patron of the popular restaurant, told the Forward. “This is opening your restaurant to promote someone who promotes hate and division everywhere, but particularly aimed at Jews.”

Louis Barson, the longtime owner of Hymies, claimed that the eatery’s name never appears in the ad and denied it constituted any sort of endorsement. He told local Philadephia media he allowed the deli to be used for filming as a favor to his friend Matt Brooks, who heads the RJC.

“This is not a statement that Hymie’s is endorsing Donald Trump. That is not the case. I would gladly let Kamala Harris film an ad here tomorrow,” he told Philadelphia Magazine.

According to the RJC, the ad is meant to appeal to Jewish voters who may traditionally vote Democrat but have concerns about Harris’s presumed approach to Israel and anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

Since Israel was plunged into a multifront conflict with the October 7 Hamas attack, the RJC has shifted its messaging to focus on what it described as Trump’s support for the Jewish state while accusing Democrats of selling Jerusalem out.

Democrats and other Trump opponents point to the former president’s associations with antisemites, including within the Republican party, and note that he has repeatedly accused Jews of not being loyal for insufficiently supporting him, threatening that the Jewish community will be blamed if he loses.

They have also noted his mercurial and often transactional relationship with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his seeming criticism of Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre.

“Because I’m Jewish, you look at the Republican Party, you have people who are very antisemitic,” a Hymies patron named Danny Weiss told CNN. “Then you have people who are back in the liberal party, who are very antisemitic, and we see it on college campuses not too far down the road.”

Bernie Sanders urged voters critical of the Biden administration’s record on Gaza to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in a video that included some of the senator’s most scathing remarks on the Israel-Hamas war to date.

Sanders, 83, an unaffiliated Vermont senator and stalwart of the left, said that as he has traveled the country campaigning for Harris, many have asked him how they could vote for her when they disagree with her on Gaza.

He said that while he shared their sentiments about the war, a second Trump presidency would only make matters worse — both in the Middle East and domestically.

And progressive Democrats, he continued, could pressure the White House to change course if Harris won.

“Even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse,” Sanders said in the six-minute video, which he posted to X. He noted that Republicans have fought to block humanitarian aid to Gaza and that Trump — who has praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — has suggested Gaza would be a great site for beachfront development.

The message from Sanders reflects Democratic party concern that low turnout from voters disaffected by the Biden administration stance on the war in a tight race will block Harris from the Oval Office.

The consequences would be catastrophic for Palestinians — but for Americans too, Sanders said.

“As important as Gaza is, and as strongly as many of us feel about this issue, it is not the only issue at stake in this election,” said Sanders, mentioning climate change, abortion rights and the economy.

We cannot sit this election out’
Sanders, who in March called on Biden to condition U.S. aid to Israel, said that while Israel had a right to defend itself following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, it “did not have a right to wage an all-out war against the Palestinian people.”

“It did not have the right to kill 42,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were children, women and the elderly, or injured over 100,000 people in Gaza,” Sanders continued. “It did not have the right to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure, housing, or healthcare system. It did not have the right to bomb every one of Gaza’s 12 universities. It did not have the right to block humanitarian aid, causing a massive malnutrition in children and, in fact, starvation.”

He added that he was working tirelessly to stop arms sales to Netanyahu’s “extremist” government. He would continue the fight if Harris wins, he said.

"Many of you have differences of opinion with Kamala Harris over Gaza. So do I,” Sanders concluded. “But we cannot sit this election out. Trump has got to be defeated.”

Though it is prohibited from endorsing a candidate, Rabbis for Ceasefire, a group formed last fall to oppose Israel’s war in Gaza, encouraged its followers to vote for candidates who support liberal policies in the upcoming election, despite concerns over Democratic support for Israel.

“We must each make a choice at the ballot box that we feel will best position our multifaith, multiracial, queer-affirming communities to care for one another and the earth,” the nonprofit Rabbis for Ceasefire said in a statement. “And to retain the right to protest and organize to realize the world we need.”

The statement comes more than a month after the Uncommitted National Movement, which encouraged voters to oppose President Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries said it would not endorse Harris but called for “Uncommitted voters to register anti-Trump votes,” referring to former President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Some translated that as permission to vote for Harris, since other choices — voting for Trump or a third party candidate — could benefit the former president.

Rabbi Alissa Wise, who founded Rabbis for Ceasefire last October, said the goal of the statement was in part to reach progressive Jews considering boycotting the election over anger at Vice President Kamala Harris’s support for Israel.

“We wanted to give people a little bit of room and space to be gentle with themselves,” Wise said in an interview. “There’s no way to come out of this unscathed, spiritually or ethically.”

More than 360 rabbis and rabbinical students have signed onto Rabbis for Ceasefire’s call for an end to Israeli military operations in Gaza and for Hamas to release Israeli hostages seized during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in southern Israel.

Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, who leads Kol Tzedek, a Reconstructionist congregation in Philadelphia, has helped organize Rabbis for Ceasefire and said that many of his congregants are struggling with whether to vote this year.

“They are gutted and enraged by the U.S.’s continued funding of this genocide in Gaza,” Fornari said. “They face their own internal moral conundrum.”

But Fornari said in an email to the congregation Sunday that he had voted for Harris and other Democrats, and urged them to participate in the election. He added that some members are considering “swapping” votes with liberal voters in non-swing states who will not vote for Harris in exchange for their backing the Democrat in Pennsylvania.

The statement from Rabbis for Ceasefire also cautioned against blaming other progressives, especially Arab and Muslim voters, for failing to support Harris. “It does not help our movement for justice and collective liberation to fault one another on the left for the failings of our political system,” it said.

As the results on the 2024 United States presidential election indicated on Wednesday morning that former president Donald Trump had defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, Israeli leaders and politicians began congratulating the Republican on a decisive victory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first world leader to congratulate Trump, even before news outlets began to call the election in his favor.

“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” he said in an English-language statement written in Trump’s trademark over-the-top style.

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!”

“In true friendship,” Netanyahu signed off.

Netanyahu and Trump enjoyed a very warm relationship from 2017 to 2021, when the former president moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and oversaw the Abraham Accords.

But their ties soured after Netanyahu recognized Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump went on to describe the Israeli premier as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

Last month, Israeli officials expressed concern to The Times of Israel over Trump’s repeated call for Israel to quickly end the war, fearing an inability to do so will lead to a clash if the former president returns to office in January.

Echoing this sentiment in his victory speech on Tuesday night, Trump declared, “I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars.”

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted: “God bless Israel, God bless America.”

“Yesssss, God bless Trump,” said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in a post on on X.

New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, the incoming foreign minister, congratulated Trump “on a truly historic victory.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is replacing the fired Yoav Gallant as defense minister, also congratulated Trump. “Together, we’ll strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran,” wrote Katz, posting a photo of him with the former US president.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is replacing the fired Yoav Gallant as defense minister, also congratulated Trump. “Together, we’ll strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran,” wrote Katz, posting a photo of him with the former US president.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is replacing the fired Yoav Gallant as defense minister, also congratulated Trump. “Together, we’ll strengthen the US-Israel alliance, bring back the hostages, and stand firm to defeat the axis of evil led by Iran,” wrote Katz, posting a photo of him with the former US president.

Optimism and hookahs were bubbling in concert on Tuesday night at the Arab Americans for Trump election watch party in Dearborn, Michigan, as the major TV networks called one state after another for the former and soon-to-be future US president.

It was a scene that was virtually unimaginable just four years ago, when Joe Biden won nearly 90 percent of the vote in the southern part of Dearborn, where a similarly overwhelming percentage of residents are Arab and Muslim.

But riding the community’s utter fury over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, Donald Trump managed to win a plurality of the vote in Dearborn — 47 percent to 28% for Vice President Kamala Harris, who only beat Green Party candidate Jill Stein by six percentage points, according to an NBC News projection.

Some pro-Palestinian activists tried to quickly paint the Michigan results as a repudiation of Harris’s decision to stand by President Joe Biden’s support for Israel throughout the war.

But results across the country demonstrated that Harris’s problems extended much further than the Arab and Muslim communities, with more consequential drops in support identified among Black and Latino voters.

Attendees at the election watch party hailed from various areas throughout the Middle East — from the Palestinian territories to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. But they were unanimous about their primary reason for backing Trump: They believe he can succeed in ending the ever-expanding Israel-Hamas war where Biden has failed.

They also are socially and fiscally conservative, making the Republican Party a more natural political home in many ways.

For a long time, the issue of Palestine is what kept us with the Democrats, but after Gaza that is no longer the case,” said Ali, an attendee at the watch party who declined to share his last name.

“Moving a plaque from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem does not equal killing 43,000 people,” said Arab Americans for Trump national chairman Bishara Bahbah, dismissively describing Trump’s embassy move in comparison to the Hamas-run health ministry’s death toll from the Gaza war during Biden’s tenure.

Bahbah claimed that the president-elect could well impose an arms embargo on Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignores his call to quickly end the war in Gaza.

“If he says to Netanyahu, ‘End the war by the time I enter office’ and Netanyahu fails to do so, there’s nothing stopping Trump from stopping the flow of arms to Israel,” Bahbah said.

He asserted that Trump has much more influence over Netanyahu, compared to Democratic presidents whose counsel the Israeli premier has long ignored. Moreover, Bahbah maintained that the former president never really got over Netanyahu congratulating Biden on winning the 2020 election.

Trump’s record as president — from moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, to cutting aid to the Palestinians, to steps legitimizing Israeli settlements in the West Bank — offers nothing to suggest that he would abandon the Jewish state in his second term.

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“He’s been exposed to the Arab Muslim American communities. He has had at least 15 meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders,” the Trump supporter argued.

Indeed, a new member of Trump’s inner circle is Lebanese-born businessman Massad Boulos, whose son Michael married Tiffany Trump in 2022.

“Trump has committed himself publicly multiple times that he will end the wars and bring peace to the Middle East, and he is someone who keeps his word,” Bahbah said.

Donald Trump saw a whopping 50% increase in his support among Jewish voters in New York on Tuesday, compared to the last presidential election, polls show.

Roughly 45% of Empire State voters who identify as Jewish cast their ballots for the Republican nominee in 2024 — compared to just 30% who chose him as their candidate in 2020, according to Fox News exit polls.

Jewish supporters at former President Donald Trump attend an event titled "Fighting Anti-Semitism in America" at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill on Sept. 19, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Vice President Kamala Harris scored 55% of the Empire State’s Jewish vote, marking a drastic decrease from the 69% President Biden took home in his winning bid for the highest office four years ago.

The Republican Jewish Coalition spent a record-breaking $15 million this election cycle in support of Trump, with the group alleging that Harris stands with progressive values and not with Jewish voters.

Prior to the US election, the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq were increasing their drone threats to Israel. They have been launching drones and making more statements about potential involvement in attacks on Israel. The Iraqi militias are part of the larger Iranian-backed milieu in the region.

There is no doubt that Iranian messaging after the US election is that Iran and its axis of “resistance” will continue their attacks. One Iranian officer named Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said, “Iran and the Resistance Front are ready, and the Zionists do not have the ability to confront us, and they must await our response.”

The militias believe that Trump is serious
The militias know that incoming US President-elect Donald Trump is serious. They know he will defend US troops. They also know that he is critical of US troop deployments abroad. Trump sought to withdraw from Syria in 2018 and 2019, for instance. Some in his administration sought to play for time and keep around 600 US troops in Syria.

The militias could decide that increasing attacks on Israel is not in their interests. If they provoke Israel, Israel may feel unrestrained in terms of strikes in Iraq. There is a window of opportunity for the militias before Trump takes office in January. However, with opportunity comes risk.