Young members of the Democratic party are threatening to withhold their vote from President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election over his support for Israel during their war with the terrorist organization Hamas, according to The New York Times (NYT).
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Biden has pledged the United States’ support to the country, even using an Oval Office address to introduce an aid package that would send funds to Israel. Biden’s unwavering support for Israel may cost him votes in the upcoming presidential election among young Americans who believe the president should have more sympathy for the Palestinian cause, according to The NYT. (RELATED: Biden Says It Would Be ‘Big Mistake’ For Israel To Occupy Gaza, Hamas Doesn’t Represent Palestinians)
“I feel very betrayed by Biden,” Angela Balya, a 28-year-old who was attending a pro-Palestine protest in Manhattan, told The NYT. “I definitely will not be voting for him again.”
The Sunrise Movement, a climate activist group that worked to garner support for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, is “raising questions” about whether the organization and other young voters will back the president in his reelection bid, the group’s political director told The NYT.
“If the Democratic Party and President Biden continue to send weapons and military support to Israel, it threatens to lose our generation, and that’s a very dangerous choice to make ahead of a critical election year,” Michele Weindling, the Sunrise Movement’s political director, told the outlet.
Demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza along Steinway Street on October 18, 2023 in the Astoria neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The neighborhood has a high concentration of residents from Morocco, Egypt, Palestine and others countries in the region. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
During Biden’s trip to Israel, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he “wanted to personally come” to Israel to stress his support for the country, adding that Americans were grieving with the country and very worried about the war. The president announced in Israel the United States would be giving $100 million in Humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank.
Left-wing Muslims and Arab Americans are also backpedaling their support for Biden because of his pro-Israel stance. Arab Americans and Muslim leaders say members of their communities feel the president has “betrayed” them because he has not supported the Palestinian people enough.
“President Biden has shown to people that there’s virtually no difference between Republicans and Democrats on the question of the mass atrocities being leveled against Gaza,” Kaleem Hawa, who has organized Palestinian Youth Movement student protests, told The NYT.