Trump Is No Better Than Harris: How Gaza Contributed to the Downfall of the Democratic Party

What was expected happened: Israeli war on Gaza has led yesterday to the downfall of the U.S. administration as Muslim and anti-Genocide American voters punish the Democrats and its presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

In addition to various internal crises, Americans punished the Democratic administration under Joe Biden and Vice President Harris for their support of the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

However, many believe Harris’s defeat and the voters' rebuke do not signal support for the Republican winner, Donald Trump, especially given his strong support for “Israel.”

Trump was officially declared President of the United States, with 295 electoral votes to Harris's 226 as of this report.

The Republican Party regained control of the Senate, securing 52 of 100 seats, as reported by American television networks. This majority enables them to advance their agenda, including appointing new justices to the influential U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Congress consists of the House of Representatives, with all 435 seats up for election, and the Senate, which has 100 seats, 34 of which are being contested this year alongside the presidential election.

Gaza Unmasks Harris

The Israeli war on Gaza exposed the Democratic Party’s candidate. The Biden-Harris administration went beyond supplying “Israel” with lethal weapons, deploying ground forces, naval support, and aerial bombers to protect “Tel Aviv.”

They also sought to silence students and professors who protested against U.S. involvement in what they saw as genocide. The administration prosecuted and expelled students and faculty members who criticized the Democrats for abandoning their proclaimed principles on “freedom” and “human rights” in support of the Israeli genocide.

“The Biden administration’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza has been divisive for left-leaning voters in the United States, including many Arab Americans, and some say it has soured them on Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy,” New York Times has learned.

Voters were angered by the Biden-Harris administration’s refusal to heed calls to stop the Israeli genocide on Gaza, as they continued to send arms to “Israel” under the pretext of fighting Hamas, despite knowing Trump would not bring them peace, according to the same source.

Harris showed no empathy for Palestinian suffering and gave no indication that she would push “Israel” to stop its genocide on Gaza and end the war if elected. Her campaign even refused to acknowledge the basic demands of the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

Harris, instead, continued to support the Israeli aggression and massacre in Gaza, merely urging “Israel” to make sure the number of “innocent casualties” did not increase while retaliating against Palestinians. 

This stance drew sharp criticism and warnings of potential electoral repercussions.

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 2024, Harris’s campaign refused to allow even a single Palestinian speaker to take the stage.

This highlights the powerful influence of the Arab and Muslim vote in the election, driven by a desire to “punish” the Democrats for their stance on the Gaza war, sending a clear “punitive message” despite the consequences.

Vinson Cunningham, a writer for The New Yorker, said Harris drowned in the blood of innocent people in Gaza, noting that a punitive vote from Muslims against the Democrats served Trump.

According to the writer, Harris's campaign tried to downplay the scandal over supporting Gaza's genocide, resulting in her loss in Dearborn, Michigan—a city with a large Arab and Muslim population that had given Biden 88% of the vote in 2020.

If Harris loses Michigan—a longtime Democratic stronghold—the party will have to rethink its stance, especially its role in the Gaza tragedy, which many view as a key factor in this defeat.

According to American media reports, Harris lost nearly 300,000 votes in Michigan, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein gained 25,000 votes, with Trump also securing a substantial, though unspecified, number of votes.

The election monitoring system from The New York Times confirmed that Trump’s chances of winning the state stand at 66%, a significant margin.

Nihad Awad, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), stated that Harris’s loss stemmed from her disregard of repeated warnings from Arab and Muslim communities during the Gaza crisis, emphasizing that they would remember her stance when voting in November.

He said they had urged the Biden-Harris administration to swiftly end the war in Gaza, but they hesitated, adding, “Today, we reminded them and fulfilled our promise. No regrets.”

Awad also posted in English to emphasize that “Kamala Harris is losing 2024 elections because of her support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza” and that AIPAC's money didn't help her.

The reason, he said, was because “she underestimated the Muslim voters, students on campuses, and Americans who care about Palestinian lives and freedom.”

A poll conducted by CAIR through text messages before the presidential election showed that Arab and Muslim American voters, angered by U.S. support for “Israel” during its war on Gaza, were shifting their support from the Democratic candidate to Jill Stein.

The poll confirmed their large turnout for the Green Party candidate “would deprive the current U.S. vice president of winning in key states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election.”

William Lawrence, a political science professor at the American University in Washington, attributed Harris’s loss in Michigan to the shift in Arab votes to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, as a protest against the Gaza genocide and the aggression against Lebanon.

Arab and Muslim voters in Michigan said they cannot overlook the genocide fueled by the Biden-Harris administration. These voters, who used to back Democrats, announced their intention to support Trump or other candidates in response to the administration’s stance during the Gaza war. “They said that U.S. policy could hardly get worse after over a year of war that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians,” as per The Intercept.

These voters cited the Israeli war on Gaza, along with economic issues, inflation, the cultural war, and the inclusion of homosexual athletes in sports, as reasons for shifting away from the Democratic Party. Notably, prominent Democratic Arab officials in Detroit, such as Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, refused to endorse Harris.

Arab analysts, including former Al-Jazeera director-general Yasser Abu Hilala, said Harris’s loss showed that Arab and Muslim communities are a potent voting bloc, no longer guaranteed for Democrats without reciprocation. Abu Hilala emphasized that for the first time, the Palestinian cause and the Arab and Muslim vote were decisive, with Trump even receiving protest votes from these communities, given Harris’s lack of engagement with them.

Trump, in contrast, had promised to end the war and combat Islamophobia during his Michigan campaign, reaching out to Arab and Muslim leaders. He visited an Arab-owned halal café in Dearborn, opened a new campaign office in Hamtramck, and invited an imam to speak at a Detroit rally. 

Trump’s visits drew “scathing criticism” from some voters who said they weren’t fooled by his “late-breaking friendliness” toward Muslims, however.

“Next rally, he will say ‘Allahu Akbar,’” joked Ribhi Karajah, a 28-year-old Palestinian-American.

The Israeli war on Gaza and the Biden administration's unwavering support allowed Trump to position himself as a preferable option for Muslim and Arab voters angered by the Israeli massacre. 

However, Trump criticized pro-Palestinian protests in U.S. streets and universities, vowing to suppress dissent against “Israel” if re-elected.

Following Operation al-Aqsa Flood, he vowed to bar refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his first-term Muslim travel ban if he wins a second term.

Speaking to supporters in Iowa, Trump said if he returns to the Oval Office, he will immediately start “ideological screening” for all immigrants and bar those who “sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists,” reported The Guardian two weeks before the U.S. Election Day.

Trump vs War

Still, The New Yorker said: If Trump returned to the White House, he would be “older, less inhibited, and far more dangerous than ever before,” potentially supporting Netanyahu’s expansion of the war to Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Analysts suggested that a Trump victory could embolden Netanyahu to attack Iran, as Trump would likely pressure Tehran into accepting a nuclear deal that limits its capabilities. 

However, Trump is also aware that Iran has become a formidable military power, possibly encouraging him to seek alternative means of exerting pressure beyond military intervention.

Despite frequently branding himself as anti-war, Trump’s past rhetoric and actions suggest he may, in fact, support certain military efforts in the Middle East, even as he touts his preference for diplomacy and economic deals in the region.

Despite frequently boasting about being a president of peace rather than war, Trump’s individual decisions could have potentially drawn the U.S. deeper into Middle Eastern conflicts.

Trump worked on reducing U.S. forces in the Middle East and called for an end to the war in Afghanistan. However, in March 2019, he declared the defeat of ISIS after capturing its last stronghold in Syria. Later that year, in October, the U.S. killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

He also ordered a strike of 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria’s Shayrat Airbase, controlled by the Assad regime, and in January 2020, he authorized a drone strike that killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The assassination sparked widespread fears of a U.S.-Iran war, but Iran’s response—a missile barrage that injured several American servicemembers—did not escalate further.

Israeli media reported that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at offering Trump a “priceless gift” if he wins. Netanyahu, who prolonged the war hoping for Trump’s victory, quickly congratulated him with a celebratory tone, even before Trump secured the legally required 272 electoral votes. Posting on X, he described his return as the “history’s greatest comeback.”

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” he said. “This is a huge victory!”

Haaretz writer Oudeh Bisharat claimed in September that Netanyahu “is keeping a hostage deal as a 'priceless gift' for Trump's return.” He suggested a link between the long-awaited deal between Hamas and “Israel” and Trump’s possible return to the White House. 

Bisharat, a 48’ Palestinian journalist, referred to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who said he “would not be surprised if [Netanyahu] actually escalates in Gaza between now and Election Day, because, I believe, he wants Trump to win and he wants to be able to tell Trump that he helped him win.” “Trump's victory is Netanyahu's victory; people will do anything to help a friend,” added Bisharat.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy echoed this sentiment, stating that Netanyahu might be trying to influence the U.S. election in Trump’s favor by obstructing a Gaza ceasefire and by intensifying the conflict in Lebanon.

A Win or Loss for Israel?

Although 79% of American Jews voted against Trump, supporting Harris, Trump’s rhetoric has consistently backed “Israel,” even encouraging its war crimes in Gaza to allegedly defeat Hamas, according to The Jewish Chronicle.

The Times of Israel reported on October 30, 2024, citing two informed sources, that “the Republican nominee has repeatedly called for Israel to end war quickly, but ex-Trump aide and Israeli official are first to reveal that the request has a timeline attached.”

Trump publicly stated that he urged Netanyahu to secure a swift victory in the Gaza war, including the return of hostages before his inauguration, according to an American source.

Trump later indicated he “would give Israel freer reign to make decisions, slamming US President Joe Biden for trying to restrict the potential targets of Jerusalem’s retaliation to Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack,” as per The Times of Israel.

However, two senior Israeli officials told the Israeli newspaper that they were concerned about Trump’s repeated calls for “Israel” to end the Gaza war quickly, fearing an inability to do so will lead to a clash if the former U.S. president wins the election and returns to the White House.

In his first presidential term, on December 6, 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as “Israel’s capital.” Before this declaration, he closed the PLO office in Washington, D.C., on September 10, 2018, and cut $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. 

In March 2019, he signed an executive order recognizing Israeli Occupation’s claimed sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.

Now, after his recent election victory, there are fears Trump might also grant the West Bank to “Israel” and formally end the Oslo Accords, which have already been heavily undermined by Netanyahu’s government.

In a book published in October 2024, David Friedman, Trump’s Jewish advisor and former ambassador to “Israel,” argued that the U.S. has a “biblical” duty to support Israeli Occupation’s annexation of the West Bank. Friedman posted a five-point plan online, advocating for “Israel” to assert sovereignty over the entire West Bank while creating Palestinian enclaves with maximum civil autonomy, under full Israeli security control.

He claimed the goal is to improve hospitals, schools, and infrastructure to provide Palestinians in the West Bank with “a similar standard of living as Israeli Arabs.”

“The alternative — a terror state that threatens its own inhabitants as well as Israel and the region — is no alternative at all.”