FROM OUR REPORTER
DEARBORN (MICHIGAN) – “I don't think Biden will win in Michigan.” Osama Siblani was talking about the November vote, not yesterday's primary, in which the Democratic president's victory was a given. That's a tough prediction, because whoever loses Michigan in November (and it won't take much: Biden won by 154,000 votes in 2020, Trump won by 11,000 votes in 2016) could lose the White House.
Siblani has run the Arab American News for forty years and has his finger on the pulse of Dearborn, the “Arab Capital of America” with its 110,000 residents, 54% of whom are Arab Americans. With mosques, veiled women, alcohol-free Lebanese restaurants, life in row houses and SUV rides in a typical American suburb. Dearborn is primarily Lebanese, Iraqi, and Yemeni Shia; In the west, Livonia is home to the Palestinians of Ramallah; in the north, Southfield is home to the Iraqi Chaldeans. The thirty thousand deaths in Gaza and Biden's unconditional support for Israel were perceived as a betrayal by this electorate, which began voting for the Democratic Party after 9/11 and Bush's war in Iraq.
Now Siblani is one of thirty local leaders who have campaigned not to vote for Biden in the primary. The “Listen to Michigan” initiative urged people to check the “not committed” box on the ballot as a warning that the White House risks losing the November election if it does not change its policies. James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute, who conducted the famous poll in late October that saw support for Biden plummet to 17% from 59% in 2020, explains that since then the president has “changed his tone, but not his policies “. “. .
“In November he will lose votes without any real change; Probably, even if it were, some will not vote for it yet. Others will say: I don't want Trump to win. But they still won't be enough to offset the loss from 17%.” Siblani tells us that even if Biden gets the ceasefire by Monday, it won't be enough: As White House officials came here to try to get the community To regain control, he presented them with a 7-point plan for a permanent ceasefire, the reconstruction of Gaza and a lasting solution to the conflict. “Some of them spoke openly to us. The problem is at the top: Biden is not giving in, he is listening to Netanyahu, not to his staff or to us.”
Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, more popular than Biden, followed the protest closely: she called Siblani on her cell phone while we were interviewing him and warned on television that a vote against Biden was a vote for Trump and reminded remembering the “ Muslim ban ». If there aren't too many non-binding votes in these primaries in the end, the White House could calm down. But thinking that people are “forgetting” or offering up the Trump villainy is “dangerous and offensive,” according to Zogby. “I told Gretchen that she was welcome as a friend or as a governor, but don’t tell us to vote for Biden,” Siblani said.
The Iranian imam Ali Elahi, once Khomeini's “naval ideologue” and now at the head of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn, defines it as “the election of the sheep”: on the one hand the Wolf Trump, on the other “the butcher” . Biden because the owner breeds the animals to slaughter and sell.” In November, many of these voters will neither vote nor vote for a third party.
And Arab Americans aren't Biden's only problem. Paige, 21 years old, has no Arabic roots: she studies anthropology and is involved in volunteer work. She's doing it for Gaza, even though she didn't take part in some university protests that seemed pro-Hamas to her.
Finally, an important fact is that hostility toward Trump does not reach the levels one might imagine: “I don’t know if Biden is the lesser evil,” says Palestinian comedian Amer Zehr. “If Trump were president, at least the Democrats would rebel.” And Trump is looking for votes in this electorate. A manager from the tycoon's campaign appeared at the Arab American News editorial office the day before yesterday to ask Siblani if he would like to speak with Trump on the phone. He accepted. “Maybe he’s insulting me. In 2016 he wanted validation before even seeing me and I refused. But it’s good to talk to both parties.”