WHATEVER the Americans may have said on record, the past few weeks of the war in Gaza have proved to be quite trying for them. Central among their concerns is the hit that President Joe Biden’s re-election chances have taken as the war drags on.
In the opinion polls, American voters do not actually list the war in Gaza as one of their central concerns, with the economy and abortion taking the lead. However, those that tend to complain about the economy in the US feel that the seemingly endless amount of aid flowing to Israel and Ukraine ismoney that should have been spent on improving their own situation at home. Even though the US economy is currently in the lead globally, rents and food prices at home continue to be high, causing many Americans to criticise the Biden administration’s policies.
As many know, the campus protests and the fact that scores of graduation ceremonies in the US have been cancelled because protesters have vowed to disrupt them have added to the pressure, which the Biden administration has been feeling, to bring the war to an end. Even though the Democrats have stuck to their usual line of promising unconditional support to Israel and even joined the Republican-controlled House in approving $26 billion in military assistance to Israel, there has been discomfort within.
Most of this comes from the internal polling done by the Biden campaign, which reveals a generational shift in the US on the issue of Israel. Unlike the Republicans,........