Update: On Friday afternoon, nearly a week after it was originally posted to the MEANS TV account, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) posted the pro-Hamas ad to her own account as she tagged President Joe Biden. She repeated her claim that "the majority of the American people are not with you on this one" and repeated her call for a ceasefire.
Tlaib later on Friday doubled down on sharing the ad, as she also defended her use of "from the river to the sea," a phrase that refers to the erasure of the Jewish state of Israel and the genocide of Jews.
From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 3, 2023
From the river to the sea refers to the full erasure of the Jewish state, from Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 3, 2023
It is also the battle cry of Hamas, a savage terrorist group that beheads babies and rapes women.
You echo terrorists. pic.twitter.com/7YjAwsAOAZ
Original: On Sunday, a pro-Hamas digital ad was posted to the MEANS TV X (formerly Twitter) account and is currently its pinned post. It is disturbing for several reasons, as it shows what appears to be footage from the Israel-Hamas War, as well as pro-Hamas protests that went on around the country.
A particularly anti-Israel member of the Squad, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is also tagged in the post and appears in the ad, with a message to Joe Biden indicating saying "Mr. President, the American people are not with you on this one. We will remember in 2024."
Among the footage of protests shown is a scene from Michigan, the state where Tlaib's district is located. Massive crowds can be heard chanting "from the river to the sea," a slogan that calls for the death of Jews and the destruction of Israel.
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A closing message claims that "Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people. The American people won't forget. Biden, support a ceasefire now or don't count on us in 2024."
Despite the ad talking of genocide, there's no mention of the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, including men, women, and children alike, brutalized and massacred in a barbaric fashion. Not even babies or elderly Holocaust survivors were spared. Civilians weren't just targeted for murder, but also for rape, torture, and kidnapping. More disturbing details continue to come out about what horrors Israelis were subjected to. Americans are also among those counted in the death toll and those held hostage.
In the days after the terrorist attack, reports of anonymous staffers at the White House were published by outlets such as HuffPost, and NBC News, with demands that Biden show more concern for "Palestinians."
Since last week, there have been reports that American Muslims may withhold support from Biden for 2024. "'I will never vote Biden': Some Muslim Americans in a key swing state feel betrayed by the president," explained another NBC News headline for a story that included Michigan voters. Biden won that state by less than 3 percent in 2020, after former and potentially future President Donald Trump won in 2016 by 0.2 percent.
The NBC News report began with reactions from Muslims not taking Biden's support for Israel against Hamas terrorists well:
As President Joe Biden declared unwavering support for Israel in the days after Hamas’ terror attack in Israel, Ahmad Ramadan, a former Biden adviser now leading coalition efforts for the Michigan Democratic Party, called the state party chair to raise the alarm about what he was hearing.
Michigan has one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the country, and they say their support for Biden was instrumental to putting him over the top in the critical swing state in 2020. But now, Ramadan and other Democratic leaders in the state were hearing nothing but frustration with Biden — and threats to not vote for him again.
In a series of more than a dozen roundtable discussions with Muslim community leaders in the two weeks since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, Ramadan said the main takeaway is that “people are very disappointed.” They say they “will not forget what President Biden did and why he lied to them,” he added.
“President Biden won with historic numbers in 2020. And I was proud to represent that, but the last two weeks have really shifted things,” Ramadan said. “I’ve also been getting calls from people saying, ‘I have blood on my hands because I got people out to support him during that campaign.'”
There's also a run-down on the numbers when it comes to how much of a difference these voters could make:
Muslims make up only 1.3% of the U.S., about half the size of the Jewish population, but advocates argue their votes are critical in battleground states that may be won or lost on narrow margins, including Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia and Arizona.
There are an estimated 240,000 Muslims in Michigan, a state Biden won in 2020 by 150,000 votes. Trump won Michigan in 2016 by a little more than 10,700 votes.
“The president cannot win without the Muslim vote, point blank,” said Nada Al-Hanooti, the executive director of Emgage Michigan, the state chapter of a national nonprofit that works to engage Muslims politically.
Al-Hanooti, who is Palestinian American, said she’s heard many people say they either won’t vote for president in 2024 or they’ll vote third party.
The margins in states like Michigan in recent elections have been so thin that many groups can and do claim credit for swinging an election, with representatives of each competing for precious resources and pushing to get their agenda moved up the White House’s priority ladder.
And some of the demands from Muslim Americans are likely nonstarters for Biden and would have been even before the attack as well.
But everyone agrees Biden will need every vote he can get in states like Michigan.
“Michigan is a competitive state and it’s purple to begin with. With these complicated dynamics, it’s going to make it one of the most challenging states in the country,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who lived in Dearborn for 40 years.
HuffPost also put out another report as well, titled "Muslim, Arab Voters At A Breaking Point With Biden: 'They’ve Taken Us For Granted.'
As Leah reported, Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) warned Biden about a loss of support during her Sunday appearance on NBC News' "Meet the Press" in which she shared "I am certainly concerned about his approach," noting Biden "needs to call us to a higher moral place." It's worth reminding that Jayapal has herself made anti-Israel comments, as she did in July when confronted by protesters at an event, and claimed that Israel is "a racist state."
Despite such reports, and the ad above, multiple polls have shown that Americans support Israel. A recent Cygnal poll showed as much, but it also showed much more nuance about Muslim respondents, as Guy pointed out, including how close to 58 percent of Muslim-American respondents believe that "Hamas was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian state."
Other takeaways worth noting include:
- A plurality of Muslim-Americans, at 38.6 percent, have a favorable view of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh
- There's an even split on the demographic's support for President Biden, with 45.8 percent having an unfavorable view compared to the 45 percent who have a favorable view
- Muslim-Americans are the only demographic where a plurality holds a negative view of Israel, with 36.5 percent saying they do.
- A plurality of Muslim-Americans, at 43.9 percent, say their opinion on Israel has "gotten worse" when it comes to "Israel's response to the Hamas terrorist attack."
- While 34.1 percent of overall respondents say they "strongly agree" that "Israel should invade Gaza and remove the Hamas leadership," just 18.3 percent of Muslim-Americans say they strongly agree. Muslim-American respondents are most likely to disagree than they agree, by 53.2 percent-46.8 percent.
- A majority of Muslim-Americans, at 69 percent, say that "the Palestinians in Gaza have legitimate grievances with Israel."
- Muslim-Americans are the least likely to say that there has been a rise of anti-semitism in the United States over the past year, with just 29.5 percent saying there has been. A plurality, at 45.3 percent say it's stayed the same. This demographic is also the most likely to say it has declined, at 25.3 percent.
Brent Buchanan, the president of Cygnal, provided a statement for Townhall about the poll's findings, particularly when it comes to how younger Americans also fit into being more supportive of Hamas, as well as the rise of anti-semitism, especially on college campuses. "There's a reason younger Americans have a much different view of Israel, Hamas, and the conflict in the Middle East - they are getting their information from TikTok and other non-traditional media outlets," Buchanan noted. "The platform reported almost four times the views of hashtags in support of Palestine versus Israel. The world they see through that lens is much more anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian, and that's probably the strongest explanation for the disgusting behavior we see on college campuses."
While certain demographics may not be with Biden in supporting Israel, or their support may be lacking compared to other demographics, the American people do support standing by our ally.
When it comes to Tlaib, a censure vote is expected in the coming days for her own anti-Israel and anti-Semitic lies after Rep. Marjorie Taylore Greene introduced a resolution to formally condemn the repeated falsehoods. Tlaib gave remarks outside the Capitol before pro-Hamas activists stormed the Cannon House Office Building earlier this month. However, the move to censure the Squad member has not only been criticized by fellow Democratic House members and mainstream media pundits like CNN's Jake Tapper — as Guy discussed on Tuesday, some House Republicans may also be looking to protect Tlaib.
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