America
No ceasefire in Gaza, no votes, Muslim Americans tell Biden
They claim they will seek to rally millions of Muslim voters to withhold money and votes toward President Joe Biden’s reelection in 2024 if he does not take urgent actions to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza. Muslim Americans and some Democratic Party activists say they will strive to accomplish this.
The National Muslim Democratic Council, which comprises Democratic Party officials from states that are likely to determine the election, such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, has issued a demand on Vice President Biden to use his influence with Israel to negotiate a truce by Tuesday at 2100 GMT, which is 5 p.m. Eastern Time (5 p.m. ET). The deadline for the National Muslim Democratic Council’s request is Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT).
In an open letter titled “2023 Ceasefire Ultimatum,” Muslim leaders committed to organizing Muslim voters to “withhold endorsement, support, or votes for any candidate who endorses the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian people.” This promise was made in a call for a ceasefire in 2023.
“Your administration’s unconditional support, encompassing funding and armaments, has played a significant role in perpetuating the violence that is causing civilian casualties and has eroded trust in voters who previously put their faith in you,” the council stated in its letter.
Keith Ellison, a former member of the United States House of Representatives who is now the attorney general of Minnesota and was the first Muslim elected to Congress, and Andre Carson, a member of the House from Indiana, are the founding co-chairs of this group.
The letter is the latest symptom of rising anger and frustration in Arab and Muslim American communities about Biden’s reluctance to condemn Israel’s assaults on the Gaza Strip after an offensive on October 7 by Hamas terrorists from Gaza that Israeli officials say killed 1,400 people and seized 239 hostages. The letter is the latest sign of growing anger and frustration in Arab and Muslim American communities regarding Biden’s failure to denounce Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, medical officials in Gaza reported that 8,306 individuals, including 3,457 children, had been killed as a result of Israel’s air and military attack that has been going on for three weeks.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, made it clear on Monday that he would not consent to any suspension of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza. John Kirby, a spokesperson for the United States Department of Homeland Security, stated that “Hamas is the only one that would gain from that right now.”
On Monday, Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American politician from Minnesota, uploaded a 90-second video on X, the social networking site once known as Twitter. In the video, she condemned Vice President Joe Biden for his support of what she referred to as “Israel’s genocidal campaign in Palestine,” adding, “Don’t count on our vote in 2024.”
Noting that Michigan’s 16 electoral votes were won by a small margin of just 2.6% in 2020, Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claimed that Muslim votes might be vital for Biden in his 2024 attempt for a second term. Elkarra made this statement because a narrow margin won the state of Michigan.
The Muslim American community in Minnesota, where Vice President Biden wants to visit on Wednesday, issued a similar ceasefire request last week, with a deadline of noon on Tuesday. They stated that they intended to have a demonstration on Wednesday, which was the day when the president would be visiting their state.
The reelection campaign for Biden did not immediately provide a reaction.
An official from the White House claimed that Vice President Biden met with a small group of Muslim leaders the previous Thursday. The person also said that administration officials continue to meet with Arab and Muslim community members who are worried about Biden’s handling of the problem.
Even though he identifies as a Zionist, Vice President Joe Biden has selected a more significant number of Arab Americans and Muslims for political roles than any other president in history, in addition to the first two Muslim judges on the federal bench.
According to Jaylani Hussein, who serves as the executive director of CAIR in Minnesota, Muslim American activists in other disputed states essential to Joe Biden’s reelection in 2024 would make similar requests.
“We expect Wisconsin, Ohio and other states to do the same this week,” according to Hussein.
In 2024, Hussein stated that he had no choice but to vote against Biden until the latter called for an end to the conflict. He said he was speaking as himself and not on behalf of CAIR in his remarks.
According to Hussein, over seventy percent of Muslim Americans supported Biden for president in 2020.
Community leaders who identify as Muslim in the United States of America in the states of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin did not reply promptly to calls for comment.
According to Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of CAIR in Philadelphia, Muslim Americans in the state are demanding an immediate ceasefire; however, he was unaware of any preparations to establish a timeframe for this demand.
On Thursday, China said that the Biden administration’s intention to restrict the amount of Chinese content in batteries eligible for significant tax incentives for electric vehicles beginning next year violates international trade rules and will cause disruptions in global supply chains.
According to the proposals, investors in the supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States will be ineligible for tax credits if they utilize more than a trace quantity of crucial materials from China or other nations that are considered to be a “Foreign Entity of Concern” (FEOC).
According to He Yadong, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, “targeting Chinese enterprises by excluding their products from the scope of a subsidy is a typical example of a policy that is not market-oriented.”
“Many World Trade Organization members, including China, have expressed concern about the discriminatory policy of the U.S., which violates the WTO’s basic principles,” said the representative.
As a result of China’s preeminent position in the global battery supply chain, policymakers in the United States and Europe have taken action in response to concerns that low-cost electric vehicles manufactured in China will flood their respective markets.
The European Commission is currently conducting investigations to determine whether Chinese businesses receive improper state subsidies.
Two laws have already been approved in Washington that expressly exclude investors from being able to profit from a $6 billion allocation of tax credits for batteries and essential minerals, as well as subsidies of $7,500 for every new energy vehicle manufactured, should they use FEOCs in their supply chains. These laws make it clear that investors are not eligible to get these benefits.
Specifically, China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are included in this category. The regulations will go into force in 2024 for batteries that have been built and in 2025 for materials that are considered important.
The administration of Vice President Joe Biden of the United States of America is also recommending strict guidelines, one of which is a threshold of 25% ownership, to determine whether a corporation is under the control of an FEOC.
“By establishing ‘glass barriers’, the U.S. is doing more harm than good to the development of EV technologies and the industry more broadly,” he stated, pointing out that the proposals would “seriously disrupt international trade and investment” .
It is estimated that China is responsible for roughly two-thirds of the world’s lithium processing capacity and seventy-five percent of the world’s cobalt capacity. Both of these elements are utilized in the production of batteries.
Analysts, on the other hand, have questioned whether the hyperbole that the United States and the European Union are using on the possible hazards is warranted by China’s role in global battery supply chains.
“There is a great deal of exaggeration surrounding this. Dan Marks, a research fellow for energy security at the Royal United Services think tank, stated that he is uncertain whether the actions that the European Union or the United States are contemplating are proportionate to the magnitude of the risk.
It is more accurate to argue that the strategies being implemented in Europe and the United States are, in fact, industrial strategies. Simply put, they are concerned with having industries that are competitive and able to endure.
After receiving warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that the United States of America was in danger of becoming an autocracy if he were to win the election in 2024, Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that he will not become a dictator until “on day one” if he is elected president of the United States of America again.
To disprove the assertion that he would misuse authority to get vengeance on his adversaries if he were to be re-elected to the White House, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was questioned twice during a town hall meeting broadcast on television in Iowa.
No, no, no. In response to a question on whether or not he would become a “dictator” if he were to win the election in November, Trump stated, “Aside from day one.”
Trump stated that he would utilize his presidential powers to block the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling on the “day one” that he was referring to.
Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House and is expected to face Democratic Vice President Joe Biden in a rematch election, has repeatedly pledged to exact “retribution” on his political adversaries if he can regain power.
In campaign speeches and television appearances this year, he stated that his targets include Vice President Joe Biden, prosecutors who have charged him with scores of felonies, the Department of Justice, and the federal bureaucracy.
One of the most prominent candidates for the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump, was appearing at a Fox News event in Davenport, Iowa, in front of a welcoming audience. Davenport is the state in which the Republican Party’s nomination process will begin on January 15.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Joe Biden, issued a statement as soon as the event ended. She stated, “Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he is re-elected, and tonight he said that he will be a dictator on day one.” Americans must believe him.
Donald Trump, who served as President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden defeated him in the election of 2020.
Since then, Trump has been spreading false accusations that the election in 2020 was stolen from him. This conspiracy was the driving force for the violent uprising that took place on January 6, 2021, in the United States Capitol, which Trump loyalists spearheaded. The lies that Trump told throughout the election are also a central tenet of his present campaign for the White House.
During a televised discussion that will take place on Wednesday at the University of Alabama at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time (0100 GMT), Trump’s opponents for the nomination, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, will be there.
The event will be skipped by Trump, just as he has done for the three Republican debates before it.
Biden has frequently expressed his concern that Donald Trump poses a threat to democracy and that a second term for Trump might bring in an era of authoritarianism in the United States that is unprecedented and perhaps deadly.
In comments with the media this week, former United States Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who is a vocal opponent of President Trump and who co-chaired the congressional investigation into the attack on the Capitol, stated that a Trump dictatorship is a “very real threat” if he is re-elected. Cheney is a member of the Republican candidate for president.
During his trip to Israel, Elon Musk, who had been criticized for an anti-Jewish remark on his social networking platform X, was presented with a symbolic dog tag by the father of an Israeli who had been held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Musk committed the dog tag until all of the pages were released.
“Our hearts are hostage in Gaza,” read the metal tag that Musk got from Malki Shem-Tov, the father of Omer Shem-Tov, who is now being held as a hostage. The office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog released the footage of Musk’s visit on Monday.
The bracelet was wrapped around Musk’s neck. In the latter hours of Monday, he posted a message on X that said, “I will wear it every day until your loved ones are released.”
The dog tags, which are widely distributed across Israel, are a reminder of the cross-border death spree that Hamas carried out on October 7, during which 240 individuals were hauled back to Gaza.
On November 15, Musk expressed his agreement with a post that made a false allegation that Jewish people were inciting hatred against white people. He stated that the poster who mentioned the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was using “the actual truth” in their statement.
Immediately after the post, significant corporations in the United States, such as Walt Disney (DIS.N), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD.O), and Comcast (CMCSA.O), the parent company of NBCUniversal, decided to cease their ads on X, which was once known as Twitter.
An “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans” was what the White House of the United States of America referred to as Musk’s actions.
Musk has indicated that he is opposed to antisemitism and anything that “promotes hate and conflict.” He has also stated that X would not promote hate speech.
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