Arab and Muslim Americans and Trump's Middle East policies

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Mona Pereth
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10 Nov 2024, 2:48 am

Looks like one factor in Trump's victory, in Michigan at least, may have been the decision by many Arab and Muslim Americans to vote for Trump, to punish Biden for enabling the genocide in Gaza.

One might think that, for Arab and Muslim Americans, embracing Trump would be a leap out of the frying pan into the fire, given Trump's past anti-Muslim rhetoric and immigration policies, and given Trump's past history of being extremely pro-Israel.

But it's possible that Trump's Middle East policy will be radically different next time around.

First off, according to the Financial Times, November 8 2024, Jared Kushner rules out joining next Trump administration.

More importantly, Trump now has a Lebanese son-in-law, Michael Boulos, the husband of Trump’s youngest daughter Tiffany. See Trump turns to his Lebanese son-in-law’s father to woo Arab American voters in Michigan, Arab-American News, June 21, 2024.

For more recent news: Trump adviser Massad Boulos to travel to Beirut 'as soon as possible', L'Orient News, November 2024:

Quote:
Donald Trump's Lebanese-born adviser and son-in-law's father Massad Boulos said Thursday that he will soon travel to Beirut. "God willing, my first trip will be to Beirut as soon as possible, in the next few days or two weeks," he said in an interview with LBC.

Boulos clarified that "Trump's policy in the Middle East is to achieve a lasting peace and to achieve this, it must be just and comprehensive, with the need for an economic plan to accompany any solution, because the economic recovery of the Palestinians is crucial to the sustainability of peace." Boulos also stressed that the president-elect is "against wars and the killing of civilians in general, but when it comes to the Middle East, his policy is to achieve a lasting peace."

Addressing the nuclear issue, Boulos indicated that the American president is preparing "a new nuclear agreement with Iran that will be acceptable to the Iranians, neighboring countries and the United States."


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Tim_Tex
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10 Nov 2024, 2:52 am

Mona Pereth wrote:
Looks like one factor in Trump's victory, in Michigan at least, may have been the decision by many Arab and Muslim Americans to vote for Trump, to punish Biden for enabling the genocide in Gaza.

One might think that, for Arab and Muslim Americans, embracing Trump would be a leap out of the frying pan into the fire, given Trump's past anti-Muslim rhetoric and immigration policies, and given Trump's past history of being extremely pro-Israel.

But it's possible that Trump's Middle East policy will be radically different next time around.

First off, according to the Financial Times, November 8 2024, Jared Kushner rules out joining next Trump administration.

More importantly, Trump now has a Lebanese son-in-law, Michael Boulos, the husband of Trump’s youngest daughter Tiffany. See Trump turns to his Lebanese son-in-law’s father to woo Arab American voters in Michigan, Arab-American News, June 21, 2024.

For more recent news: Trump adviser Massad Boulos to travel to Beirut 'as soon as possible', L'Orient News, November 2024:

Quote:
Donald Trump's Lebanese-born adviser and son-in-law's father Massad Boulos said Thursday that he will soon travel to Beirut. "God willing, my first trip will be to Beirut as soon as possible, in the next few days or two weeks," he said in an interview with LBC.

Boulos clarified that "Trump's policy in the Middle East is to achieve a lasting peace and to achieve this, it must be just and comprehensive, with the need for an economic plan to accompany any solution, because the economic recovery of the Palestinians is crucial to the sustainability of peace." Boulos also stressed that the president-elect is "against wars and the killing of civilians in general, but when it comes to the Middle East, his policy is to achieve a lasting peace."

Addressing the nuclear issue, Boulos indicated that the American president is preparing "a new nuclear agreement with Iran that will be acceptable to the Iranians, neighboring countries and the United States."


I knew Michigan would ruin it for Harris. However, I thought the Arabs there were going to vote for Stein, taking votes from Harris, and giving the state to Trump. This is what happened in 2016.


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Mona Pereth
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10 Nov 2024, 3:04 am

About the decision by many Arabs and Muslims in Michigan to vote for Trump, I found the following news stories in TRT World, published by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, the national public broadcaster of Turkey:

- Massad Boulos: The Lebanese billionaire behind Trump’s Arab-American votes, 3 days ago: "As Trump’s inner circle gains influence, Boulos’s diplomatic reach with the Arab-American community may provide an opening for a renewed US-Arab partnership."
- Trump's Muslim allies slam Giuliani as 'unhinged lunatic', 11 days ago: "Rudy Giuliani's anti-Palestine speech at Trump rally sparks outrage among Muslim proponents of ex-president who have been courting Arab and Muslim Americans for Trump over Harris in 2024 election."
- Meet Trump's key Muslim ally on Michigan mission, 12 days ago: "Bishara Bahbah tells TRT World his rallying of Arab Americans for Donald Trump is rooted in the Republican's promise to end wars in the Middle East amid Democrats' complicity in the war on Gaza."

More about Tiffany Trump, her husband Michael Boulos, and his father Massad Boulos, in Everything to know about Tiffany Trump's husband, Michael Boulos by Scott Stump, Today, Nov. 8, 2024.


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Mona Pereth
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10 Nov 2024, 3:23 am

A relevant older news story: Trump allies hope his daughter Tiffany’s father-in-law can help flip Arab American votes in Michigan, by Joey Cappelletti, AP, June 16, 2024. Some interesting tidbits from this article:

Quote:
Boulos has a background in politics in his home country, having run unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat in Lebanon in 2009. He describes himself as a “friend” of Sleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician allied with the Shiite party and the militant group Hezbollah. Frangieh is currently Hezbollah’s endorsed candidate for Lebanon’s presidential vacancy.

A supporter of Trump from afar since his first campaign, Boulos became more directly involved after meeting Trump at a White House Christmas party in 2019. At the time, Michael Boulos was dating Tiffany Trump.


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10 Nov 2024, 1:45 pm

There are widely conflicting exit polls
Most Michigan Muslims voted for Jill Stein, followed by Trump, exit poll suggests

Quote:
Many Arab Americans in Michigan followed through on their pledge to vote against Kamala Harris on Tuesday, with fewer than one in seven Muslims casting a ballot for the Democratic nominee, according to an exit poll released Friday.

In fact, about 59% of the state’s Muslim residents voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, according to the poll, conducted through a partnership between Molitico Consulting and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.

About 22% cast a ballot for Trump, and 14% voted for Harris, according to the survey of 502 Muslim voters.

The Trump campaign heavily courted Arab American voters in Dearborn and Hamtramck, two cities with the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Harris shut down pro-Palestinian protesters at her first Detroit rally and repeatedly refused to meet with leaders of the Uncommitted Movement, causing the antiwar group to decline to endorse her.

Trump narrowly defeated Harris in Michigan, 49.7% to 48.3%.

Muslim Americans in other states also favored Stein, according to a nationwide poll by CAIR and Molitico. About 53% voted for Stein, while Trump received 21% and Harris 20% nationwide.

“Our final exit poll of American Muslim voters confirms that opposition to the Biden administration's support for the war on Gaza played a crucial role, leading to a sharp drop in support for Vice President Harris compared to the support President Biden received from Muslim voters in 2020, and a sharp rise in support for third party candidate Jill Stein,” CAIR National Government Affairs Director Robert S. McCaw said. “President-Elect Trump also managed to make in-roads with Muslim voters.”

Until this election, a majority of Muslims voters in Michigan favored Democrats, although some local Arab Americans and conservatives found common ground in recent months over their opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.



Fox News
Quote:
Muslim voters favored Harris by 32 percentage points. Trump won 32% of their vote, while Harris won 63%. In 2020, Biden had won 64% of the Muslim vote, and Trump had won 35%.


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10 Nov 2024, 8:40 pm

A big difference between the two above-mentioned polls: The first one was of Michigan Muslims, specifically, whereas the Fox News poll apparently was not limited to Michigan. Due to Michigan being a swing state, there was apparently a big effort to convince Michigan Muslims and Arabs to vote for Trump, or at least NOT to vote for Harris.

Some other relevant news stories:

- How Trump was able to win support from many Muslim voters in Michigan by Nargis Rahman, NPR, November 8, 2024.
- Voters in Arab American strongholds likely tipped Michigan in Trump’s favor by Michael Traugott, The Conversation, November 9, 2024.


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Last edited by Mona Pereth on 10 Nov 2024, 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tim_Tex
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10 Nov 2024, 8:47 pm

Mona Pereth wrote:
A big difference between the two above-mentioned polls: The first one was of Michigan Muslims, specifically, whereas the Fox News poll was of Muslims more generally. Due to Michigan being a swing state, there was apparently a big effort to convince Michigan Muslims and Arabs to vote for Trump, or at least NOT to vote for Harris.


So they complained about Harris being a Zionist, but they voted for a super-ultra-mega Zionist?

He only "supports Israel" to fulfill Christian end-times prophecies. Remember, he pals around with Holocaust deniers like Nick Fuentes.


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Mona Pereth
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10 Nov 2024, 9:03 pm

Tim_Tex wrote:
So they complained about Harris being a Zionist, but they voted for a super-ultra-mega Zionist?

Apparently they're hoping that Trump won't remain a super-ultra-mega Zionist, now that one of his daughters has married the son of a Lebanese billionaire. (See various articles linked earlier in this thread.)

I have no idea whether Massad Boulos cares even the tiniest slightest little bit about the Palestinians, but I would hazard a guess that he probably does care at least a little bit about restraining Israel from attacking Lebanon.

See also the L'Orient News article that I quoted in the first post in this thread. In that article, Massad Boulos is quoted as claiming that Trump is preparing "a new nuclear agreement with Iran that will be acceptable to the Iranians, neighboring countries and the United States" -- even though Trump himself was the one who trashed the last nuclear agreement we had with Iran.


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Last edited by Mona Pereth on 10 Nov 2024, 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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10 Nov 2024, 9:11 pm

Those Arabic voters in Dearborn are about to be sadly disappointed.


 Netanyahu and Trump speak after PM swift to fete win 

The Times of Israel wrote:
As the results of 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.

Later Wednesday, Trump and Netanyahu spoke on the phone in a 20-minute conversation that the Prime Minister’s Office described as “warm and cordial.”


 Netanyahu and Trump see ‘eye to eye’ on Iran 
The Times of Israel wrote:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump see “eye-to-eye” on the Iranian threat, the premier said in a video statement on Sunday, amid indications of an imminent Iranian response to Israel’s recent retaliatory strike.

Netanyahu also revealed that he and Trump had spoken three times since the latter’s American presidential election triumph last week.

The conversations “were designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the US,” said the premier. “We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its components, and the danger posed by it. We also see the great opportunities before Israel, in the expansion of peace, and in other realms.”


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10 Nov 2024, 9:57 pm

Mona Pereth wrote:
Tim_Tex wrote:
So they complained about Harris being a Zionist, but they voted for a super-ultra-mega Zionist?

Apparently they're hoping that Trump won't remain a super-ultra-mega Zionist, now that one of his daughters has married the son of a Lebanese billionaire. (See various articles linked earlier in this thread.)

I have no idea whether Massad Boulos cares even the tiniest slightest little bit about the Palestinians, but I would hazard a guess that he probably does care at least a little bit about restraining Israel from attacking Lebanon.

See also the L'Orient News article that I quoted in the first post in this thread. In that article, Massad Boulos is quoted as claiming that Trump is preparing "a new nuclear agreement with Iran that will be acceptable to the Iranians, neighboring countries and the United States" -- even though Trump himself was the one who trashed the last nuclear agreement we had with Iran.


It still smells like another "I'm not racist, but..." argument.


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Mona Pereth
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10 Nov 2024, 10:09 pm

Looks like Trump has been making mutually contradictory promises to different people. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what Trump actually ends up doing. If Trump remains a super-ultra-mega-Zionist, we will likely see some drama within the Trump family, e.g. estrangement from his daughter Tiffany.


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10 Nov 2024, 10:12 pm

Mona Pereth wrote:
Looks like Trump has been making mutually contradictory promises to different people.

Nooo!  Really?

/s

That's how he has been building up his constituency all this time.


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