Harris’s top security aide discusses Mideast diplomacy with Muslim and Arab community leaders

US Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security adviser Phil Gordon met earlier today with Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American community leaders, laying out the Biden administration’s efforts to secure diplomatic solutions in Gaza and Lebanon while raising concern regarding destabilizing Israeli actions in the West Bank, the White House says.

The meeting appears to be an attempt to maintain ties with Arab and Muslim communities, whose members have fumed over the administration’s continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which has taken the lives of thousands of Palestinian civilians and left an ongoing humanitarian crisis for survivors.

An Arab American Institute survey of 500 eligible Arab voters conducted in late September said that 42 percent back former president Donald Trump in the upcoming election, compared to 41% who support Harris.

While the minority community’s socially conservative leanings would seem to make the Republican Party a more natural home for many, the GOP’s Mideast policies have long kept larger numbers of Arab and Muslim Americans away.

But many in those communities blame US President Joe Biden’s policies for the ongoing war, accusing him of complicity in “genocide.” Accordingly, some of those critics don’t see a difference between Biden and Trump — who has been far more hostile to the Palestinian cause — and are considering voting for the Republican nominee over Harris, who they view as an extension of the current administration.