Muslim and Arab Americans say their support was critical to Biden’s winning Michigan in 2020. Some warn they won’t back him again over his blanket support for Israel.
Muslim and Arab Americans say their support was critical to Biden’s winning Michigan in 2020. Some warn they won’t back him again over his blanket support for Israel.
Assuming that an ascendant Trump means “US pro-Israeli jingoism but even more so”, just because of moving the embassy to Jerusalem and other such performative hot air, is a mistake. Trump is a wildcard with sympathies for the grand vision of destroying the post-WW2 liberal world order, even if he himself does not fully understand his complicity in that vision. He wants the USA to be reborn as ‘something greater’, and many actors on the world stage giddily cheer this on, correctly reasoning that in order to be reborn, first a thing has to die.
Think about this in the long term. Imagine a world shaped by, let’s say, twenty years of Trump and his legacy. Twenty years of “America first”. Does the story of Israel’s uneasy alliance with the western world really survive in that world? The MAGA wing of the Republican party goes exactly as far with “America first” as the Overton window allows them to. 10 years ago it was unthinkable for the GOP to shout, US aid out of Ukraine, let Russia have its sphere of influence, let us welcome the new multipolar world. Today it’s becoming the party line. How long until Israel is, too, more trouble than it is worth to these people? How long until it becomes a respected minority opinion in the GOP to say that Israel is a worthless hill to die on, it’s not the USA’s business to arbitrate in the far away Middle East and meddle in Iran’s rightful sphere of influence? Then a common opinion, then the party line? You think the crowd that bought into Bill Gates’ and George Soros’ vaccine microchipped Hollywood pedophile Lizardmen conspiracy would suddenly draw a line when their thought leaders wake up one day and all start shouting in orchestrated unison, “Hey! Have you ever noticed that Israel is controlled by (((globalist elites)))”?
Sure Trump talks a big game about antagonizing Muslims, but if you hate the current world order and how much it backs Israel, and want it destroyed and rebuilt, then Trump is an infinitely better bet than Biden. The Dems will never bow before Rashida Tlaib’s ideology that way the GOP has bowed and will bow before MTG’s.
Edit: evidently some “leftists” feel very uncomfortable being told that in many respects they and the die hard MAGA crowd want exactly the same thing.
You’re ascribing an awful lot of foresight and planning and purpose into their actions. Trump is, and was, anything but deliberate and goal-oriented beyond the myopic motivations of the moment. While the Republican party might some day possibly feel that Israel is in some vague form no longer to their benefit, they are vastly more motivated by a perceived Enemy. The Republicans, and Trump especially, will gravitate much more strongly toward “Blow up Palestine and nuke Iran if they get involved” than they will to “The current world order favors Israel, and we want to shake up the global status quo, so we’re pulling our support from Israel.”
They want a simple message with a clear enemy, that’s what brings out their voters, not vague ideas of world politics 3D chess.
You speak the truth. American politics has become way too tribal for anything to ever get done. People will do anything to avoid agreeing or considering the idea that they may agree with someone on the opposing team.