{"id":60797,"date":"2023-10-31T15:10:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T22:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=60797"},"modified":"2023-10-31T15:10:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T22:10:33","slug":"god-awful-new-poll-finds-arab-american-support-for-biden-plummeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=60797","title":{"rendered":"\u2018God Awful\u2019 \u2014 New Poll Finds Arab American Support for Biden Plummeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new poll finds a majority of Arab Americans are turning against Biden in the aftermath of the Israel-Palestine conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Above: Thousands of protestors gathered this past weekend in San Francisco to call for an end to the violence in Gaza. (Credit: David Pham)<\/em><\/p>\n

Support for President Biden among Arab Americans has plummeted in the wake of the Israel-Palestine conflict, according to a\u00a0new survey<\/a>\u00a0released by the non-partisan Arab American Institute.<\/p>\n

The survey of 500 Arab Americans found a 42% decrease in those who say they approve of the president\u2019s performance, a \u201cshocking\u201d decline,\u201d according to pollster James Zogby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dissatisfaction with President Biden is really quite significant,\u201d noted Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been polling Arab Americans for more than three decades. \u201cHis numbers are dangerously low. More so than I have ever seen for a Democratic candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the approximately 3.5 million Arab American voters in the US, many are concentrated in key swing states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, states that played decisive roles in Biden\u2019s 2020 election win and will again be critical in 2024.<\/p>\n

Down from 59% to 17%<\/h2>\n

Among the poll\u2019s top line findings: just 17% of respondents expressed support for Biden, down from 59% in 2020, while only 23% identified as Democrat, compared to 32% who identified as Republican. That\u2019s a monumental shift in party affiliation from 2016, when Democrats outnumbered Republicans by two-to-one. And for the first time ever Independents outnumbered Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you get that back easily,\u201d noted Zogby in an online briefing announcing the findings. \u201cI don\u2019t expect them to be voting for Trump, but it will take something to get them to the polls in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zogby explained that as recently as April, Arab American attitudes generally tracked declining enthusiasm for Biden \u2013 whose overall approval rating stands at just 37% \u2013 despite the country\u2019s solid economic growth and continued job gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, they are God awful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israel-Palestine conflict<\/h2>\n

And the reason: two-thirds of respondents disapprove of Biden\u2019s handling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, many seeing a clear double standard in the president\u2019s defense of Israel following Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack \u2013 which claimed some 1400 lives, many of them civilians \u2013 and his silence on the violence now being unleashed by Israel on Gaza, where, according to some estimates upwards of 8000 have been killed, many of them children.<\/p>\n

For Zogby, the poll\u2019s key takeaway is the dramatic drop in support for Biden among Arab Americans across every group \u2013 regardless of religious affiliation or national origin \u2013 \u201cin just a couple of weeks,\u201d pointing to the widespread dissatisfaction over his handling of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were traumatized by this,\u201d said Zogby. \u201cAs traumatized as they were with Donald Trump\u2019s behavior, as traumatized as I have seen them be\u201d with the invasion of Iraq and even further back with the war in Lebanon more than four decades ago.<\/p>\n

Jamal Dajani is an award-winning producer and journalist and host of the show Arab Talk Radio. Currently in Egypt, he calls Biden\u2019s dismal 17% approval shown in the poll \u201can exaggerated figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know a single Arab American who would vote for Biden, after his statements demonizing Palestinians and giving Israel the green light to commit genocide in Gaza,\u201d says Dajani. \u201cHis warmongering stance and indifference to Palestinian civilians\u2019 lives will also hurt the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dajani points to the vocal support for Palestinians seen across college campuses in the US and among diverse ethnic groups \u2013 both key constituencies for the Democratic Party \u2013 which see the conflict in relation to recent social justice movements here in the US.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian protests, meanwhile, have swept much of the country as well nations in Europe where officials have sought to tamp down or outright ban voices sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

Fears of rising islamophobia and antisemitism<\/h2>\n

The conflict has also raised once again the specter of antisemitism and islamophobia in the US, where recent FBI data show an alarming 36% spike in antisemitic attacks in 2022, along with rises in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab attacks.<\/p>\n

There is growing concern that the ongoing violence in the Middle East could exacerbate these trends. According to the Arab American Institute\u2019s findings, 78% of respondents said they are worried about anti-Arab bigotry, while 67% also expressed concerns over rising antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are sensitive to the fact that the violence and the backlash could affect both communities,\u201d says Zogby, adding that the difference between this moment and past years \u2013 including in the immediate aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks and the explicit anti-Muslim tenor of those years \u2013 is that this time it is \u201cabout Palestine, and it is about Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what the Biden team can do to turn things around, Zogby offers this sober assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is such a drop, something has to be done to repair the damage. The US can\u2019t change Netanyahu from a frog to a prince,\u201d Zogby explains, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyu. \u201cWhat it can do is change the way it behaves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new poll finds a majority...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60798,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60797\/revisions\/60798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}