Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s declaration on Wednesday that his relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden was “second to none” must have been a welcome respite for the American president, who is grappling with overlapping crises and mounting anger in the Muslim world.
Biden, who campaigned on a promise to end his nation’s “forever wars,” now must deal with a war in Gaza, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising Sino-U.S. tensions over Taiwan. His handling of the Israel-Hamas war has incited condemnation in many parts of the globe and sparked furor from Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S.
“There's a feeling of betrayal in the American Muslim community where American Muslims see the president as being too one-sided in this conflict,” said Robert McCaw, who leads the Government Affairs Department at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy network in the U.S.
The administration’s request for supplemental funding to help foreign allies fight their wars is also meeting resistance from some Republican lawmakers, including the newly elected speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
Johnson, a staunch fiscal conservative, forcefully supported Kyiv in the initial days of the war but more recently opposed additional aid to Ukraine. As speaker he has said funding will have to come with conditions.
However, Johnson, an evangelical Christian, is deeply sympathetic to Israel, calling up a resolution supporting the country in his first action as speaker on Wednesday.
Nine members of Congress, mostly from the progressive wing of Biden’s Democratic Party, voted against the resolution, largely because it did not mourn the loss of Palestinian lives or mention aspirations for a two-state solution.
“I voted against this resolution because it is a deeply incomplete and biased account of what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and what has been happening for decades,” said Rashida Tlaib, who represents a House district in Michigan, a state with one of the largest Muslim and Arab American populations in the country.
Progressive groups have been pushing Biden to do more to see that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza, including through a cease-fire.
Support for Israel
Various polls show more Americans sympathize with Israelis than with the Palestinians, though younger Americans are more divided.
Politically, Biden’s support for Israel will help him secure their votes, including a key constituency of his Democratic Party, American Jews, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
“With American Jews – a very important group in terms of votes and also contributions to the Democratic Party – there's been almost universal praise for President Biden and the way he's handled this,” Sabato told VOA. “Sometimes Jewish Americans will move even 40% to a Republican. I don't think that's going to happen next year.”
An October 25 Morning Consult poll showed that voters increasingly favor Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, with an increase of 9 percentage points since the days immediately following Hamas’ attack on Israel.
However, the impact of the war in Gaza on Biden’s re-election bid in 2024 will depend on whether the conflict can be contained.
“If we get involved directly in these forever wars, yes, Biden will suffer,” Sabato said, underlining other key factors in the president’s approval rating – whether Palestinian deaths can be minimized and humanitarian aid delivered.
The president has repeatedly warned Iran not to widen the war, as cross-border attacks between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah intensify in neighboring Lebanon. U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have also been attacked with drones or rockets at least 17 times in recent days, including on Thursday, according to U.S. officials, who blamed other Iranian-backed militia groups in the region.
Sabato added that as long as Biden keeps American troops out of the line of fire, his support for foreign wars won’t be a major factor in voters’ support. In general, unless soldiers are deployed, foreign policy is not a key driver in how Americans vote.
Economic sentiment, however, plays a pivotal role in how Americans make their electoral choices, and the news is not great for Biden on that front. Despite 4.9% GDP growth in the third quarter and inflation that’s slowly falling from its recent high rates, Americans continue to lament the cost of goods, a key driver of the president’s low approval ratings.
The U.S. is also facing a massive $1.7 trillion federal deficit.
VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson and Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
