Quotables

Muslim Democratic voters abandoning Biden. And they're not the only ones.

The Biden administration went around Congress on Friday for the approval of an emergency weapons sale to Israel that includes "projectiles and related equipment."

Muslim community leaders from across the country rallied in Chicago Saturday, calling for voters to drop their support for President Joe Biden because of his administration’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza as the civilian death toll in the war climbs.

Hassan Abdel Salam, organizer of Chicago’s #AbandonBiden event

Salam emphasized that they don’t support Trump or any of the Republican candidates in the primary field — but “four years of any Republican is not comparable to a single day in Gaza.”

“We may get hurt if Trump comes into office, but the long-term benefit is showing both parties that we won’t stand for this again,” Salam said. — Sun-Times

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According to a recent Gallup poll, President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is 39% – the worst of any modern-day President heading into a re-election campaign.

One of the main issues in the upcoming election will likely be the US role in wars in Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In the 2019 presidential election, 69% of American Muslims voted for Joe Biden while only 17% opted for Donald Trump. But Biden’s unconditional support for the war on Gaza has changed all that.

And it’s not just Muslims. The polls also find little consensus among all voters on America’s handling of the war in Gaza, an issue that has caused a rift within the Democratic Party, with more progressive and younger Democrats pressing Biden to call for a ceasefire.

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More Weekend Quotables

Donald Trump

Facing criticism for repeatedly harnessing rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump insisted:

“I never knew that Hitler said it,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday, volunteering once again that he never read Hitler’s biographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf.” — AP

Nikki Haley echoing Trump’s “fine people” comment in Charlottesville.

“I knew 50 percent of South Carolinians saw the Confederate flag as heritage and tradition. The other 50 percent saw it as slavery and hate. My job wasn’t to judge either side.” — Washington Post

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This quote is actually from earlier this month. But as the year ends, I just wanted remind readers what an odious crew of liars regarding the war on Gaza we have in the White House.

Vice President, Kamala Harris:

“Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza.” — Vanity Fair.

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Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich

Smotrich calls for Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave, making way for the Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”. — Aljazeera

Government of South Africa

“The acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group, that being the part of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.” — Statement at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the State of Israel for committing ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza.

Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy

Israelis are not exposed to scenes from Gaza. Yeah sure, figures are published. But figures are only figures. It’s all about the framing. — Sky News

R.I.P. John Pilger

Celebrated Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker covered conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Biafra, dead at 84.

You [western journalists] are “working within a system that is inherently hostile to truth telling. One only has to see the media reaction to the truth tellers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange and the bitter reaction of people who shamed much of the media, almost at a stroke.” — Double Down News