‘Unengaged’ Voters See Reset With Harris on Israel-Gaza: NPR

Hundreds of thousands of voters cast “uncommitted” ballots in this year’s Democratic presidential primary, in opposition to President Biden’s policies toward Israel’s war in Gaza.

Now that Vice President Harris has replaced Biden at the top of the ticket, movement organizers are expressing cautious optimism about their ability to engage Harris.

Abbas Alawieh, one of the founders of the non-engaged movement, said in a press conference in recent days: “There are early signs that indicate an openness to engagement with our movement, which seems like a change from the way our demands were previously treated.

“And so I’ve decided to continue to hope that the vice president will not miss the opportunity to unite our party.”

Layla Elabed is another co-founder of the uncommitted movement and said Harris’ candidacy offers a window of opportunity.

“Vice President Harris has shown that she is a little more empathetic to our movement. She has spoken about the right of Palestinians to self-determination. She has spoken about the suffering that Palestinians are experiencing right now,” Elabed said in an interview. “And so it’s a slightly different shift in language than what we’ve seen from President Biden and his administration.”

Elabed and other leaders cited the vice president’s comments after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his trip to Washington in late July, days after Biden withdrew his candidacy.

Harris affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself, but added that “how it does so matters.”

“The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for their lives, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said. “We cannot turn away from these tragedies. We cannot afford to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”

A key movement in a key state

The non-committal movement grew out of the Listen to Michigan campaign ahead of that state’s February presidential primary. Its goal was to send a strong message to Biden that he must do more to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza. The organizers’ main demands are an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. arms transfers to Israel.

Michigan has a sizable Arab-American population, and in the presidential primary more than 100,000 voters cast “unpledged” ballots, representing about 13 percent of all votes cast.

In 2020, Biden won Michigan by just 154,000 votes, and the state remains a key victory state.

This week, Harris met briefly with two movement leaders before a campaign rally in Michigan.

Alawieh said it was a brief meeting backstage, in a reception row. He said he told Harris that previously uncommitted voters want to support her, but they need to know she will take a different path on Gaza.

“And I said, ‘Are we going to meet to discuss an arms embargo?'” he said. “And the vice president was very quick to say, ‘I’d love to.’ And we took the picture and I said, ‘Thank you very much.'”

He said this was not a specific political commitment, but to continue meeting to discuss these urgent concerns.

Subsequently, Phil Gordon, Harris’s national security adviser, stressed in a post on X that he “does not support an arms embargo against Israel.”

There were some pro-Palestinian protesters at this week’s rally in Michigan, who at one point interrupted the vice president with chants of “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide. We’re not voting for genocide.”

Harris initially gave them her moment, but as the interruption persisted, she cut them off, implying that the election of Donald Trump would be really damaging to their cause.

“If you want Donald Trump to win, then say so. If not, I’m talking,” Harris said.

What Voters Expect From Harris

It remains to be seen whether Harris’s Gaza policy will be substantially different from that of the Biden administration.

Organizers of the non-committal movement stress that a change in language is not enough. They continue to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as an end to U.S. arms sales to Israel. And they have requested speaking time at the Democratic National Convention later this month for a doctor who has worked on the front lines in Gaza.

Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, a city where a large portion of the population is of Middle Eastern or North African descent, praised Harris’s remarks after Netanyahu’s visit, but said: “What we want is more than someone who is tough on rhetoric. We want someone who is tough on policy. From our perspective, our values ​​have not changed. The policy positions that we have supported have not changed.”

Elabad, a co-founder of the non-committal movement, said she wanted to see assurances that Harris was turning a corner on Biden’s policies and said Palestinians “can’t take back their words.”

The core of the uncommitted movement is Arab-Americans and younger voters. Many are still deciding what they will do in November.

Kole Cuderna, an 18-year-old from Holland, Michigan, voted unpledged in February. He said he would likely vote for Biden in the general election, but reluctantly.

“With Biden, I didn’t feel any excitement,” he said. “But with Harris, it’s like, yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited for Harris. I feel like she can win.”

But Jennifer Schlicht, 41, had a more muted reaction. She said she was waiting to see if Harris would produce any policy changes toward the Middle East.

“Will I vote for her? Most likely,” said Schlicht, of Ypsilanti, Michigan. “But I would feel a lot better about voting for her if she would follow through with what she said to Netanyahu, and come out in favor of something that respects the right to life of the Palestinian people.”

Then there are voters like Hank Kennedy, a teacher-trainee from Hazel Park, Michigan, who said a new candidate doesn’t change his calculus at all.

“There needs to be a change in policy, not just a change at the top of the list,” said Kennedy, 27.

If the election were held tomorrow, Kennedy says he would likely vote for the Green Party (for their part, the non-committal organizers are not recommending voters support a third party).

And while Kennedy also said he was concerned about the consequences another Trump presidency could have for the Palestinians, he also said he did not believe Democrats had done enough to stop the death and destruction in Gaza.

“What if we had to vote for the lesser of two evils? I mean, what’s lesser? That’s how I see it,” he said.