“All they are trying to do is convince us that there is some kind of movement toward where we want,” Siblani said. “But it’s too slow and it’s dragging. It’s more death and casualties that are happening.”

The highest-profile example of the stonewalling came last week when a Palestinian American doctor walked out of a meeting with Biden. But interviews with Muslim and Arab American leaders reveal how that face-to-face protest was only the most conspicuous case of a fracture that has damaged crucial relationships and closed avenues needed to repair them.

But the situation presents a challenge for a president who believes in the political power of personal relationships and has prized his history of sitting down with opponents and critics. It could also jeopardize his reelection this year, with some Muslims warning they are unwilling to support Biden even it that risks returning Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, to the White House.

Salam Al-Marayati, who lives in Los Angeles and leads the Muslim Public Affairs Council, described the attitude as, “Forget them. They have to learn a lesson. And if they lose, that’s the lesson they should learn.”

  • @masquenox
    link
    18 months ago

    If he wasn’t fixated on supporting this genocide

    It’s not Biden - Israel being a holy cow is untouchable policy, not politics. Israel is immune from US politics - and people in the US who doesn’t want to sign on to genocidal white supremacism have run straight into that wall (a wall that wasn’t supposed to be in a supposedly “democratic” state) and don’t really know what to do.

    I don’t envy you.