One of the stranger features of the 2024 political campaign has been the almost total lack of daylight between Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump on the question of Israel and the war in Gaza (and now Lebanon).
Recent comments by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance that U.S. and Israeli interests won’t always perfectly overlap, and reports that Trump himself has told Netanyahu to wrap the war up by Inauguration Day, suggest that Republicans might actually be further ahead in thinking through their approach to the Middle East than Democrats.
One could argue that the Harris campaign is threading the needle and trying to placate both Arab and Jewish voters in various states.
Tactically, however, it’s a complete mess. In Michigan, with its significant Arab (and particularly Lebanese) diaspora, Harris herself stumped with Liz Cheney, a strong supporter of the war in Iraq. The campaign sent former President Bill Clinton to the state, where he lectured voters on the fact that Israelis have been in region longer than Islam has existed.
And the Trump campaign has been capitalizing on this. At a rally in Michigan, Trump invoked Cheney, pointing out that “her father was responsible for invading the Middle East, killing millions of Arabs.” His campaign reached out to an activist thrown out of a Harris campaign event to try to record a commercial about the incident.
Arab American voters in Michigan don’t have great choices. A Trump administration will likely pursue a similar path on Israel, and his supporters and campaign surrogates have repeatedly expressed racist sentiments about Muslims.
But Trump and Harris are polling neck and neck in Michigan. Even small shifts to Trump, or voters staying home, could easily make a difference.
Is the Harris campaign actually trying to lose Michigan? It sure seems like it.
This post is part of FP’s live coverage with global updates and analysis throughout the U.S. election. Follow along here.