By Shahrokh Saei
Chickens come home to roost: Democrats' pro-Israel stance backfires in presidential election
TEHRAN - Democrats suffered a humiliating defeat in the US presidential election in the wake of their unwavering support for Israel’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip.
Former President Donald Trump emerged victorious against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris in the election held on Tuesday.
Trump has made a historic comeback four years after leaving the White House, following his attempt to overturn the 2020 election to keep himself in power. It culminated in his supporters’ mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Since then, the billionaire real estate tycoon has faced two presidential impeachments, criminal conviction and many other criminal charges.
Trump’s victory now means that he has paid no electoral consequences for his attempt to overturn the result of the previous presidential vote.
Victory speech
Trump, a former reality star, declared victory in the presidential election a few hours before being confirmed as the winner.
Trump vowed at his Mar-a-Lago resort early Wednesday to deliver a strong and prosperous economy after millions of his voters turned to him amid frustration over high prices for food and housing.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump said.
The 78-year-old added, “This will truly be the golden age of America.”
Trump is the second president to serve non-consecutive terms after Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.
Trump vanquished Harris following what had been predicted to be a neck and neck race.
He has for the second time defied the aspirations of millions of Americans for a female president following his 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton.
Harris had maintained a small lead over Trump in the national polling averages since entering the race at the end of July.
The election was initially a rematch of 2020 between incumbent President Joe Biden and Trump. But it was upended in July when Biden ended his campaign and endorsed his vice president.
Like Trump, Harris had outlined her plan to “build an economy where we bring down the cost of living”.
Washington warmongering
Nonetheless, amid the cost-of-living crisis and high inflation, the US spends taxpayer money on military adventurism beyond its borders.
Trump has vowed to end the war between Ukraine and Russia shortly after taking power. The US has spent tens of billions of dollars on this war, but it has failed to weaken Russia. In the meantime, the escalating energy crisis resulting from the conflict has taken a heavy toll on American citizens and Europeans.
Both Republicans and Democrats wanted to pit Russia and Ukraine against each other. But Trump, on behalf of some Republicans, is now playing the blame game.
Voters in Michigan's Dearborn, the largest majority Arab-American city in the United States, turned their back on Harris over her support for Israel’s war on Gaza.American people are also fed up with the US over spending their taxpayer money on Israel’s war machine in West Asia.
Since Israel launched war on Gaza in October 2023, the United States has spent a record of around $18 billion on military aid to the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The onslaught has so far claimed the lives of more than 43,400 Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has also killed about 3,000 people in Lebanon amid exchanges of fire with the Hezbollah resistance movement since October last year and the massive bombing campaign against the Mediterranean nation that began more than a month ago.
Biden and Harris have thrown their full weight behind the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza and brutal strikes in Lebanon. But Israel has failed to achieve its goals, which mainly include the elimination of Hezbollah and Hamas resistance movements.
Condemning crimes
Over the course of the Gaza war, huge anti-war protests have been staged throughout the United States.
American protesters have denounced the Biden administration for supporting Israel and arming the regime.
Prior to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, protesters in some swing states called him “Genocide Joe” over his complicity in the Israeli carnage in Gaza.
In March, a pro-Palestine activist interrupted Biden’s campaign speech in Atlanta.
“You’re a dictator, Genocide Joe….Tens of thousands of Palestinians are dead. Children are dying,” the activist shouted.
It stood out a mile that Arab American voters, who played a key role in determining the fate of presidential election, would turn their back on Democrats over their unwavering support for Israel.
In the Democratic primaries, particularly on Super Tuesday, a significant number of people, including Arab and Muslim voters who helped Biden beat Trump in the 2020 election marked their ballots "uncommitted".
Harris is now facing the consequences of the US administration's failure to stop Israeli barbaric attacks. She has supported Israel's aggressive military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, aligning with the regime’s narrative that these strikes target Hamas and Hezbollah positions.
Utter disgrace
The city of Dearborn, Michigan, is the largest majority Arab American city in the United States. In a rebuke of the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and Lebanon, its residents broke in favor of Trump.
Harris suffered a humiliating defeat in Dearborn because back in 2020 Biden won the city with a 74.2 percent of the vote, compared to 24.2 percent for Trump.
Trump had pledged to bring an end to the Gaza conflict; however, it is evident that his primary intention was to diminish Harris's voter support.
Harris and Trump are just different sides of the same coin. Neither of them will care a whit about the lives of Palestinian and Lebanese people who are being massacred by the Israeli regime. Harris's loss only indicates that Americans sought to express their frustration with the US administration's backing of Israel.
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