8 March 28th-april 3rd, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Biden Blowback The president visits Arizona to woo Latinos amid pushback from the left on Gaza. BY TJ L’HEUREUX I t may be time to revise an old political saying to “As Arizona goes, so goes the nation.” President Joe Biden won Arizona, a critical swing state on his path to victory in 2020, by only 10,457 votes. The margin of the state’s upcoming November election, a showdown between Biden and former President Donald Trump, is expected to be similarly razor-thin. On March 19, Biden won Arizona’s Democratic presidential primary by a land- slide, but more than 15,300 people voted for author and candidate Marianne Williamson. This happened after progres- sives organized a protest vote against Biden for his administration’s handling of the humanitarian crisis in Palestine — even though Williamson suspended and unsus- pended her campaign in the weeks before the primary. Those 15,300 presumably disaffected voters could be difference-makers in November. And Democrats across the country are sounding similar notes of protest. The New York Times published a story on March 19 about a letter sent to Biden by more than 100 Democratic donors and activists warning the president that progressive anger over Israel’s war in Gaza is “increasing the chances of a Trump victory.” “Regrettably, President Biden has provided what appears to be unconditional support for the Israeli operation,” the letter reads. “The Biden administration has been providing armaments, including 2,000 lb bombs, which have been used to flatten entire civilian neighborhoods, causing massive casualties with a high ratio of women and children.” ‘We need to look at things as humans’ Counting the dead in Gaza has become an unfathomable task. UNICEF estimated last week that well over 13,000 children have been killed. Time Magazine reported on March 15 that more than 30,000 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, when a Hamas terrorist attack on Israelis sparked a new, deadly phase of a decades- long conflict. Maher Arekat, a Valley entrepreneur who was born in Palestine but was displaced after the Six-Day War of 1967, is on the Arizona Palestine Network’s board and has been an outspoken advocate for the U.S. to put more pressure on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza. “The American people have been awak- ened with the genocide that is going on. We lost a lot of innocent people,” Arekat told Phoenix New Times on March 19, emphasizing that he did not support the killing of innocent people on either side but believed that Israel used the Hamas terrorist attack as a pretext to kill as many Palestinians as possible. “We need to come clean,” Arekat said. “We need to look at things as humans.” Arizona is not ground zero in the U.S. for anger about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, but it is one of the states where progressive dissatisfaction has the poten- tial to minimize turnout and flip the elec- tion to Trump. The number of people who voted for Williamson in the primary, whether in protest of Biden or not, is greater than the margin of votes by which Biden won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election. Kai Newkirk and Belén Sisa, two progressive political operatives in the Valley, helped lead efforts to get voters to cast their ballot for Williamson under the campaign name Vote Ceasefire AZ. “While the Biden administration’s recent shifts in response to the protest vote movement are welcome, they are far from enough,” the campaign wrote in a state- ment after primary results were announced. “To earn the votes to defeat Trump and the fascist MAGA threat in November, President Biden must use his full power now to demand and secure an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.” Newkirk and other organizers noted that they are not endorsing Williamson, but rather, trying to send a message to the president. “There are so many voters in Arizona and other places around the country who are so dismayed and outraged and heart- broken about what’s happening that they’re saying they don’t know if they can bring themselves to cast that vote,” Newkirk said. After Biden’s State of the Union speech on March 7, the president was caught on a hot mic saying he told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the two would soon need to have a “come to Jesus meeting” about Israel’s military campaign. Still, the violence raged on this week. In a press conference on March 11 calling for a ceasefire, Newkirk and other organizers stated that Trump’s rhetoric reflects a willingness to let Israel escalate its war in Gaza. The Associated Press also reported that Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner said in February that Gaza’s waterfront may be “very valuable.” “I think from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” Kushner said. In addition to pressure from the left, Biden faces a threat from the other direc- tion. Independent and moderate voters, especially those with economic concerns about a steep rise in the cost of living in Arizona, may be swayed toward Trump, even if that rise has little to do with the president. Recent polls show Biden consistently trailing Trump in the state, though not by much when you consider margins of error. Top: Kai Newkirk and other Valley activists spoke out against Israel’s military campaign that has killed tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza during a press conference on March 11 at the Arizona Capitol. Bottom: President Joe Biden visited El Portal Mexican Restaurant on March 19 as he won the Democratic primary in Arizona. (Photos by TJ L’Heureux and El Portal Mexican Restaurant) | NEWS | >> p 11
