NO SURPRISE

Palestinians Boast of Helping Biden Defeat Trump

 

Israel Today 

November 18, 2020

The Palestinians have for years expressed frustration and even jealousy over Israel enjoying the kind of political support from Christians abroad that can put a president in the White House.

Now it seems the Palestinians and their apologists might’ve gotten a little revenge.

“I can confirm that the Palestinian community not only participated in the voting, but also contributed to the fundraising campaigns in support of Biden and candidates for Congress that support Palestinian rights,” Dr. Sinan Shakdeh of the American Palestinian Council said in several media interviews.

In a number of key battleground states, Joe Biden continues to lead President Trump by less than a single percent, which in most cases translates to less than 50,000 votes. And some of those states, Michigan and Pennsylvania in particular, have sizable Arab and Muslim communities.

Voter turnout among American Arabs and Muslims is typically low compared to the rest of the population. But this time around, Shakdeh and his cohorts succeeded in getting an unprecedented 84 percent of American Muslim voters to go to the polls, according to a survey conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Of those, 69 percent voted for Biden, and just 17 percent for Trump.

In some places, this was likely the deciding factor. For instance, according to CAIR, Biden received an additional 70,000 votes in Michigan thanks to high Muslim voter turnout. Without those votes, Trump would have won the state.

It is also notable that while the vast majority of Muslim votes went to Biden, support for Trump among the American Muslim community did increase by 10 percent since the last election in 2016. This is attributed to Trump’s conservative views on family issues (think abortion and gay marriage) which are shared by most Muslims.