Yesterday, when asked about the chances of a ceasefire in Gaza during a press conference, President Joe Biden replied, “None. No possibility.” The statement effectively rejected the calls for a ceasefire in Gaza that have come from college campuses, high schools, and voices at countless marches and protests. Now the question becomes, how many voters Biden and the Democrats are willing to sacrifice for his stance on the war?
Recent reporting points to a widening gap between voters and elected officials on this issue, jeopardizing a Democratic win in the 2024 presidential. In a report published this morning, one Democratic aide told HuffPost, “I’ve never seen such a disconnect between where voters and constituents are and where Congress is, and that’s saying something because there’s always a disconnect.” The Democratic party is also in disarray over the issue, including the targeting of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D).
After the October 7 Hamas attacks, in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 were abducted into Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 11,000 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Since then, 70% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, per a UNRWA spokesperson.
The head of the United Nations said the attacks have turned Gaza — where, CNN has calculated, a child is killed every 10 minutes — into a “graveyard for children”; over 4,100 have died since October 7, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel has repeatedly rejected ceasefire calls without the return of hostages. Hamas has claimed at least 50 of the hostages have been killed by Israel’s shelling (though, as of this writing, the claim had not been separately verified).
On November 9, it was announced that Israel had agreed to a daily four-hour “humanitarian pause” to enable civilians to flee. As reported by CNN, the total number of aid trucks permitted into Gaza since October 7 is just over the average amount of aid trucks that were entering Gaza daily before the attacks.
As the death toll grows in the second month of war, the Biden White House may soon have to grapple with how its choice to back Israel could impact the president’s 2024 chances. Last week, in Gallup polling, support for Biden matched his presidency’s record lows. A New York Times-Siena College poll released on November 5 found that both Biden and Trump are deeply unpopular with voters (pushing some to consider antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.).
It is estimated that millions worldwide have taken to the streets and the halls of elected officials in recent weeks — from college students to high school and middle schoolers, to grandparents and rabbis — to condemn continued military support for Israel as it refuses to consider a ceasefire.
On top of the protests, reporting suggests that Biden’s approach is out of step with even some in his own State Department (in addition to over 500 former Biden campaign staffers and a smattering of elected officials), and the intensity of the pro-ceasefire push is ratcheting up.
On November 7, four national youth organizations — March for Our Lives, Sunrise Movement, United We Dream, and Gen Z for Change — published a letter to the Biden administration that warned, “The position of your administration is badly out of step with young people and the positions of Democratic voters, whom have been shown to support a ceasefire by supermajorities in multiple polls. This is already becoming an issue we are hearing about from thousands of young people across the country. We cannot explain your position to the people of our generation.”
Teen Vogue has consistently covered why Gen Z is unenthused about a Biden presidency part two, or a Biden-Trump redo, in 2024. Earlier this year, contributor Rachel Janfaza observed this reluctance regarding Biden vs. Trump in Teen Vogue.
And, as NBC News noted in its coverage of the November 7 letter from youth organizations, many youth voters have already threatened to remove their votes in 2024 over what they see as Biden’s inconsistency. In the spring, for example, climate advocates were crushed by Biden’s decision to approve an oil project despite activist pushback. We may be seeing the same disconnect due to the ceasefire: Last week, a Quinnipiac University poll found that only 21% of respondents under age 35 approved of Biden’s Israel policy.
It’s not just the youth vote. Biden is risking the slim majority he won in Michigan in 2020 by alienating the state's Muslim voters, whose support for him in 2024 is reportedly “cratering” after a warning to Biden that he’d lose their vote without a ceasefire.
Many Jewish organizations are supporting Israel as well as US funding to the country, but there are also anti-Zionist Jewish groups and other people, including writers, artists, and academics, who have been scrutinizing the US-Israel relationship and are pushing Biden toward a ceasefire.
While protesters prioritize the ceasefire call, the Ceasefire Now resolution from a progressive group of legislators languishes. The total group now includes 17 representatives; as pointed out by some on X, formerly Twitter, no white congressperson has backed the ceasefire resolution.
The Democratic party’s lack of agreement on the treatment of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Congress’s first and only Palestinian American, from a Republican-mounted censure in the House that was ultimately supported by 22 Democrats is worsening relations. The resolution, which passed by 234-188, accused Tlaib of “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” PBS Newshour called the bipartisan vote “an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.”
In an emotional speech from the floor, Tlaib said, “There are millions of people across our country who oppose Netanyahu’s extremism and are done watching our government support collective punishment.… Like me, Mr. Chair, they don’t believe the answer to war crimes is more war crimes.”
Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, accused Congress of exerting “anti-Palestinian bigotry” on Tlaib through the censure. The Sunrise Movement tweeted in response to the resolution, “While the death toll in Gaza surpasses 10,000 as innocent children and people die every day, Congress prioritized their time to silence the only Palestinian voice in office.”
This isn’t the first time that Tlaib has been targeted in Congress for her advocacy on behalf of Palestine: In May, then Speaker Kevin McCarthy blocked an event Tlaib had planned in remembrance of the Nakba, which was ultimately hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders.
A potential $14 billion in military funding to Israel passed by House Republicans will not be approved by the Senate, but Congress is fast approaching a shutdown again.
In the United Nations, the US remains in the minority over not supporting a ceasefire. Over 38 journalists have been killed during the war, 35 of them Palestinians in Gaza, according to an updated count from the Committee to Protect Journalists. And the UN announced on November 8 that 92 of the organization's employees have been killed since October 7, “the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations.”
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