Biden criticized by Michigan Arab Americans, Muslims for Gaza aid strategy

President Joe Biden's announcement during his State of the Union address Thursday that he would have U.S. troops build a temporary port off the coast of the Gaza Strip to get more humanitarian aid into the war-torn region failed to sway many of his critics in Michigan's large Arab American and Muslim communities demanding a cease-fire.

"I cannot wrap my head around this idea that we have to do this to deliver aid to people who are dying," Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab-American News in Dearborn and a key critic of the Biden administration's failure to rein in Israeli military action that has led to tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza since October, said Friday. "We give money — billions — to Israel ... why can't we tell the Israelis to open Rafah crossing and let the aid get in? There are thousands of trucks loaded with material waiting to get in."

For months, Biden has faced mounting pressure from Arab Americans, Muslims, progressives and others demanding that the U.S. call for an end to Israel reprisals against Hamas in Gaza following that group's attacks against Israel on Oct. 7 that killed some 1,200 people. That criticism has led the president's reelection campaign and administration to dispatch officials to Dearborn, the center of Michigan's large Arab American and Muslim communities; last month, as Biden easily won the Democratic primary in the state for his renomination, more than 100,000 voters in that primary voted "uncommitted," amid a campaign by his critics to use that as a means of pressuring the president to demand an Israeli cease-fire.

In his speech Thursday, Biden acknowledged the circumstances were "gut-wrenching" and that Israel, while having a right to root out those responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks and to liberate hostages, also has a responsibility to limit civilian deaths, which he said amount to a majority of the 30,000 Palestinians killed.

In announcing the move to erect a "temporary pier" in the Mediterranean Sea to provide food, water, medicine and temporary housing to nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by bombings and other violence, Biden acknowledged the situation is "heartbreaking" and that he was working to establish a cease-fire.

But he didn't demand one, saying instead that Palestinians could end the violence by forcing Hamas to release Israeli hostages and turning over those responsible for the attacks. He did say, however, that "protecting and saving innocent lives" must also be an Israeli priority.

All of the 2.2 million people living in Gaza are currently facing acute levels of food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme, with nearly 580,000 on the brink of catastrophic hunger and starvation. The Biden administration has been working to secure a six-week pause in the violence but has so far failed to get all the parties to agree.

Biden made clear in his speech on Thursday that the effort to build a port for aid to reach Gaza would not involve putting any U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza and that his administration remains committed to ending the violence and restarting discussions toward a two-state solution that would provide a home for both Palestinians in the region and the Israelis to live in peace.

Groups and voters calling for a permanent cease-fire said Biden's speech lacked what they want to see out of the administration.

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who has been sharply critical of the Biden administration and met with senior officials last month, watched the speech at home with his wife and said they were "extremely disappointed and frustrated, frankly." He said the president, in his estimation, missed a chance to unify the Democratic Party, which has been riven over the issue of the war in Gaza.

It was particularly frustrating, Hammoud said, to hear the president lecture Republicans for not standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine when "he doesn't have the backbone to stand up to (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu."

As for the temporary pier, the mayor said it is a "workaround" to the fact that the Israeli government won't allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza at a time when Palestinians are starving to death. "It's going to take at least two months to construct the pier at minimum. People don't have two months," Hammoud said. "We keep looking for workarounds as opposed to holding the Israeli government accountable as we would just about any other nation across the globe."

With Biden expected in Saginaw for a campaign event next week, Hammoud said he'd like to hope the president would change his mind and demand an "immediate and permanent and unconditional cease-fire" but until that is considered an option there isn't much to discuss. "Dialogue for the sake of dialogue is meaningless," he said.

Mike Flores, 43, of Hazel Park, who was among those who voted "uncommitted" in the Feb. 27 primary, also described the plan to build a temporary port — coming after the U.S. has arranged air drops of humanitarian aid — as a "shortfall," saying a permanent cease-fire would better allow humanitarian groups to enter the region and distribute aid themselves.

"These air drops and this call for additional access points and this temporary port to be opened does not actually address the issue," Flores said. "The issue is that we need an immediate cease-fire, so the organizations that have the infrastructure to support these types of situations can get in there immediately, like the (United Nations).

"I'm not quite sure why we're trying to reinvent the wheel when we have institutions that do this, that are experts in doing this, but they're unable to do it, because there's no one that is able and no one that is willing to guarantee the safety of these workers. That's why we need an immediate cease-fire."

Flores noted that support for a cease-fire extends well beyond Michigan's Arab American and Muslim communities. In Michigan's Democratic presidential primary, a little more than 13% of voters selected "uncommitted."

Layla Elebad, campaign manager for one of the leading organizations behind the uncommitted movement in Michigan, Listen to Michigan, issued a statement Thursday night reiterating calls for a permanent cease-fire, saying in part: “President Biden continues to not hear the voices of the anti-war movement across our country calling for a permanent cease-fire and an end to U.S. weapons funding for Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign. We would have liked to see Biden call for a timetable from Israel’s government to end its war and occupation against the Palestinian people."

On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the group posted photos of members of Congress — including Elebad's sister, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, the only Palestinian American in the U.S. House — holding signs during Biden's speech saying, "Lasting Ceasefire Now." Tlaib is also one of Israel's most ardent critics in Congress and has called repeatedly on the Biden administration to demand a cease-fire.

Tlaib didn't comment on Biden's remarks Friday.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim American advocacy organization, said Biden has improved his rhetoric on the situation in Gaza but criticized the lack of a call for a permanent cease-fire not being incorporated into the speech.

“He must stop trying to play both firefighter and arsonist," Awad said in a statement. "He shouldn't need to build a pier in Gaza to get humanitarian aid past the Israeli blockade, and it makes no sense to simultaneously send thousands of new U.S. bombs and billions more in American taxpayer dollars to the far-right Israeli government."

Contact Arpan Lobo: [email protected]. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo. Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Biden criticized by Michigan Arab Americans, Muslims for Gaza aid