In a strategic outreach to Arab and Muslim voters, former President Donald Trump has promised to restore stability in Lebanon and the Middle East, while criticizing the current administration's regional policies during campaign stops targeting Muslim communities in Michigan.

Trump recently addressed Lebanese-Americans, stating: "Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors, and this can only happen when there is peace and stability in the Middle East."

Taking to X, Trump launched a critique of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris: "During my administration, there was peace in the Middle East, and it will return very soon! We will fix the problems caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon."

The Trump campaign has intensified its outreach to Muslim voters in Michigan, capitalizing on growing dissatisfaction with the Biden administration's support for Israel during the current conflict in Gaza.

During my Administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace again very soon! I will fix the problems caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon. I want to see the Middle East return to real peace, a lasting peace,…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2024

During a Saturday campaign event in Novi, Michigan, Trump shared his stage with prominent Muslim community leaders, telling supporters: "They can decide the election."

In a significant endorsement, Imam Belal Al-Zuhairi praised Trump as "the peace candidate" and highlighted his pledge to "ending American involvement in endless wars."

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Provocative pro-Palestinian protests outside a synagogue in Michigan are protected by the Constitution's First Amendment, a federal court appeals said Wednesday.

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The court declined to stop the demonstrations or set restrictions in Ann Arbor. The protests have occurred on a weekly basis since 2003, with people holding signs that say "Jewish Power Corrupts," "Stop Funding Israel" and "End the Palestinian Holocaust."

Members of Beth Israel Congregation, including some Holocaust survivors, said the protests have interfered with their Saturday worship and caused emotional distress.

"But the congregants have not alleged that the protesters ever blocked them from using their synagogue or that the protests were even audible from inside the building," Judge Jeffrey Sutton said.

He said a proposed remedy –a 1,000-foot (305-meter) buffer and limits on signs – would likely violate the First Amendment.

"The key obstacle is the robust protections that the First Amendment affords to nonviolent protests on matters of public concern," Sutton said in summarizing the case.

He was joined by Judge David McKeague. Judge Eric Clay agreed with the result but on different grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of the activists, saying the protests are entitled to protection even if "offensive, upsetting and distasteful."

"If public officials and courts have discretion to suppress speech they don't like, then none of us truly enjoys the freedom of speech," Dan Korobkin of the ACLU said.

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For the Trump camp, this was significant. The Des Moines Register poll is considered one of the most reliable in Iowa, which many look to during the primaries as well as later on, to get an idea of the political atmosphere in the state. Its pollsters, in contrast to the others in the state, predicted that Trump would win the 2016 election by seven points. And they were right: Trump ended up winning the Hawkeye State by nine points.

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Trump has shot up in this most recent poll and now leads his Democratic opponent Joe Biden 48% to 41%. This lead is beyond that of a margin of error, which stands at 3.4 points. Moreover, Trump's spike in the polls comes as Joni Ernst, the Republican senator from Iowa, is also pulling ahead of her Democratic rival Theresa Greenfield, now leading her by four points. In addition to the encouraging news from Iowa, Trump continues to maintain a statistical tie with Biden according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, which also shows Biden's lead shrinking in Pennsylvania.

The Des Moines Register poll is an anomaly in the state, where other polls point to a tie between the two candidates and is a reflection of independent voters deciding to lean right and cast their ballot for the president. And if they're doing that in Iowa, they may do the same in other Midwestern states – just as they did in 2016, when they handed Trump a victory at the very last minute.

This is the scenario that Biden dreads and Trump is betting on.  The Democratic candidate can take solace in knowing there are far fewer undecided voters this time around and that support is greater for him than it was for Hillary Clinton in 2016 in the Midwest, as well as nationally, although the latter is irrelevant to the US election system.) The bottom line is that anything can happen, and maybe Trump is gaining momentum at precisely the right time, while Biden, on the other hand, is losing steam.

Over the weekend, the Trump campaigned announced it would cancel plans to hold an Election Day party on Tuesday night at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, with the president instead likely to take in the results from the White House. While the move was immediately interpreted by the city's Democrats as a sign that Trump was feeling down and out, it seems they forgot the party would have violated the restrictions in place on mass gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak. Trump was also forced to cancel plans in Nevada last week when that state's Democratic governor refused to allow them to hold a mass rally, leading the president's team to hold one of the rallies on the Arizona border instead.

Trump is optimistic – despite all the restrictions, despite all their attempts to sabotage him, and despite the fact that people are grasping onto poll averages that are not in his favor. Yes, Trump is optimistic, some would even say very optimistic. The polls point to Biden emerging as the victor, but four years ago, they pointed to Clinton. Truth be told, Trump is in a relatively good place. According to one calculation, he is poised to garner 280 electoral votes and win the race, and that's even if he unable to win in Michigan and Wisconsin, which he won with a razor-thin margin in 2016, this time around. Trump will win 280 electoral votes as long as he succeeds in winning in the rest of the states he won in 2016, chief among them Pennsylvania and Florida. The polls indicate this scenario is most definitely possible since in some of these states, he and Biden are in a statistical tie.

Biden stays close to home

If the Independents continue to skew in his favor, and if the Republicans continue to show up for their party, given the passion out in the field, we could in fact see a victory with 280 electorates. One mustn't forget that although Biden is seen as the harbinger of change in many states, in Pennsylvania and in the Midwest, he is seen mainly as the man who will bring about the eradication of the fracking and coal mining industries, and in the minds of independent voters, that is to his major detriment.

All thisת along with the fact that Trump is still seen as better suited to managing the economy once a vaccine for the coronavirus is found, mean Trump is well situated to garner 270 electorates, if not more, and he is determined to use the final days in the lead up to the election to create optimistic momentum.

The president has been holding rally after rally where he assures Americans that the country's golden days still lie ahead while repeatedly warning that Biden will drag America into "endless foreign wars." At every rally, by the way, the crowd goes wild whenever he mentions the pro-Israel steps he has taken, including moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. But Trump main focus at the rallies is on warning voters that Biden will destroy their industries. In Michigan, he told attendees, "A vote for Biden is a vote to extinguish, demolish, and wipe out Michigan's auto industry" while noting he had brought in factories and prevented others from leaving the state. In Pennsylvania and the rest of the Midwest, the president warned Biden would "destroy" the oil industry.

On Sunday, the second to last day before the election, Trump had rallies planned in no fewer than five states: Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The last event, in Florida, where he is also a resident, is expected to kick off at 11:30 p.m. local time. Biden, in contrast, has decided to stay in Pennsylvania, just a stone's throw from his home state of Delaware, for the entire day.

Over 90 million US citizens have already cast their vote, meaning almost half of all registered voters in all 50 states and some two-thirds of the total number of ballots cast in 2016. Most states have already reported record-breaking turnout in the early voting stage. Naturally, the million-dollar question that must be asked is: Who does this benefit? In the coronavirus era, early voting models are no longer relevant, and because early voting is so widespread, no pollster is willing to say who they believe has gained from the phenomenon outright.

At his drive-in rallies, Biden draws a few hundred, and sometimes only a few dozen, cars. Trump draws tens of thousands of people. I have been to his rallies. The people love him. They know he is not responsible for the coronavirus. They know he did good things for the economy, they know his heart is in the right place, and most importantly, they know that while he may talk and tweet, he also takes action.

And so Trump carries on with his crazy process, as one man entering the fray and taking on everyone on his own. As far as the atmosphere on the street is concerned, and the number of Trump masks that abound regardless of Halloween, Trump has won. And that is true even in the country's Democratic capital.

At the airport in Washington on Sunday, two passengers stood next to me in line to rent a car; one a lawyer, the other working for an insurance agency, both proudly donning Trump face masks.

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"He's good for the economy, and he's good for America," John, the lawyer from New York, not exactly the reddest of states, tells me. "I'm convinced he's going to win because ultimately, you want a president that will bring the receipts," he says.

"Biden is the worst candidate the Democrats could have offered, while Trump is Trump. I just hope that after the election, the Democrats will be able to lose with dignity. America can't go on with this division for long," he said, summing up what many have said about Biden. They're not turned off by him like they were with Clinton, but they don't hold him in high regard either. Trump, on the other hand, is appreciated, on both sides of the aisle.

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The study tracked over 350,000 tweets over the course of one month in an attempt to determine popular sentiment regarding social media on a state-by-state basis.

Statements like "I hate social media," "I hate Facebook," "I hate Instagram," "I hate twitter," "I hate Snapchat," "I hate TikTok," etc. were compiled in order to determine the level public enmity relating to the platforms, and were found to be particularly popular among Michiganders.

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Biden again showed strength with working-class voters and African Americans, who are vital to winning the Democratic nomination. Sanders' narrow hopes for good news rested on North Dakota and Washington state. Washington's primary was too early to call, and because all votes there are cast by mail or by dropping them off in a ballot box, many ballots were marked for candidates who have since dropped out of the race.

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The six-state contest marked the first time voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. And the first four states on Tuesday went to Biden, a dramatic reversal for a campaign that appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Now it is Sanders, whose candidacy was ascendant so recently, who must contemplate a path forward.

Addressing supporters in Philadelphia, Biden noted that many had "declared that this candidacy was dead" only days ago, but "now we're very much alive." He also asked Sanders supporters to back him going forward.

"We need you, we want you, and there's a place in our campaign for each of you. I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion," Biden said. "We share a common goal, and together we'll beat Donald Trump."

It marked a high point for the former vice president's staff. They sipped beer and broke into an impromptu dance party after his speech, which was held close to his Philadelphia headquarters.

Even as the contours of the race came into shape, however, new uncertainty was sparked by fears of the spreading coronavirus. Both candidates abruptly canceled rallies in Ohio that were scheduled for Tuesday night. That set the stage for Biden's remarks in Philadelphia, while Sanders flew home to Vermont and didn't plan to address the public.

Sanders' campaign also said all future events would be decided on a case-by-case basis given public health concerns, while Biden called off a scheduled upcoming Florida stop. Still, the former vice president said Tuesday night that he'd be announcing plans to combat the coronavirus later this week.

The Democratic National Committee also said that Sunday's debate between Sanders and Biden would be conducted without an audience.

Among former White House hopefuls and leaders of powerful liberal groups, however, Biden's momentum is now undeniable.

Bradley Beychok, president and co-founder of American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, said his group "will be ALL IN to elect @JoeBiden as our next president." The organization is spending millions of dollars trying to win over people who backed US President Donald Trump in key states in 2016.

Guy Cecil, chairman of the flagship Democratic outside political organization Priorities USA, tweeted: "The math is now clear. Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee for President and @prioritiesUSA is going to do everything we can to help him defeat Donald Trump in November."

There were other major warning signs for Sanders on Tuesday. He again struggled to win support from black voters. About 70% of Mississippi's Democratic primary voters were African American, and 86% of them supported Biden, according to an AP VoteCast survey of the electorate.

After Sanders upset Hillary Clinton in Michigan four years ago, his loss there Tuesday was particularly sobering. It undermined his argument that he could appeal to working-class voters and that he could expand the electorate with new young voters.

One of the few bright notes for Sanders was his strength among young voters, but even that has a downside because they didn't turn out enough to keep him competitive. Sanders won 72% of those under 30 in Missouri and 65% in Michigan, according to AP VoteCast. The senator was also about even with Biden among voters ages 30 to 44.

"There's no sugarcoating it. Tonight's a tough night," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Sanders' highest-profile supporters, said on Instagram. "Tonight's a tough night for the movement overall. Tonight's a tough night electorally."

Another top Sanders backer, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, tweeted: "Yes we are a family, united in restoring our democracy and committed to defeating Trump, but that doesn't mean we should stop fighting for the candidate that best represents our policy priorities in this Primary."

According to an Associated Press analysis, Biden had picked up at least 153 new delegates: 53 in Michigan, 40 in Missouri, 29 in Mississippi, five in North Dakota, 17 in Washington and nine in Idaho on Tuesday. Sanders got 89: 35 in Michigan, 23 in Missouri, two in Mississippi, seven in Idaho, five in North Dakota and 17 in Washington.

Although six states voted, Michigan – with its 125 delegates – got most of the attention. Trump won the state by only 10,704 votes during the general election, his closest margin of victory among Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those states gave Trump the narrow edge in the 2016 Electoral College after Clinton won the popular vote.

Sanders has vowed not to drop out regardless of Tuesday's results and frequently railed against the "Democratic establishment" that he says has aligned against him.

In addition to the powerful groups now siding with Biden, the former vice president has picked up the endorsements of many of his former presidential rivals, including Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker and, as of Tuesday, entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, sometimes mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice, also endorsed Biden and campaigned with him ahead of Tuesday's primary.

Biden also gave a nod to all his former competitors, saying, "We're bringing this party together."

"That's what we have to do," he said.

Not every Democrat was lining up behind Biden, though. Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, who represents a sprawling district from the college town of Ann Arbor to the Detroit suburbs, said Tuesday that she's staying neutral.

"I remember what it was like four years ago and the vitriol and the anger, the people mad at each other the whole election cycle. We can't afford that," Dingell said. "It's about getting out and voting in November."

Like Sanders, Biden has no public events scheduled for Wednesday. And though he's celebrating a growing delegate lead, he's still confronting voters who question his positions, which include a gun control plan that reinstates an assault weapons ban and includes a voluntary buyback program for assault weapons.

That issue was at the center of a testy exchange with a worker while Biden was rallying earlier Tuesday in Detroit. The man accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right." Biden shot back, "You're full of sh*t," but went on to say that while he supports the Second Amendment, "Do you need 100 rounds?"

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The move "formalizes" the caucus' "relationship as an organ of the Michigan Democratic Party and provides for Jewish representation on the governing bodies of the state party, in addition to access to the state party's voter data, which will help us build our field organizing program," MDJC founder and chair Noah Arbit told Jewish News Syndicate in an email interview.

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Arbit founded MDJC last year after noticing that there wasn't a program for Jews at the 2017 Michigan Democratic Party convention.

He said MDJC's mission is seven-fold: "Elevate Jewish voices within the Michigan Democratic Party;" "provide a forum for Jewish Michiganders to discuss political issues with elected officials and candidates;" "combat anti-Semitism and educate the public on its manifestations;" "increase Jewish representation in Michigan politics and government;" "recruit and train Jewish Democrats to organize and run for office;" "elect Democrats who share our values to local, state and federal office;" and "advocate for progressive policies that make life better for all Michiganders."

He remarked that "too many – Republicans, Trump, some on the far-left fringe – were demagoguing issues of anti-Semitism, Israel and the Jewish community in a way that continues to be deeply harmful to American Jews. So in terms of a response, the very founding of this organization is in part to help arrest some of the troubling rhetorical trends we see on the fringes."

In The Michigan Advance, Arbit wrote: "First came the rampant anti-Semitism within the Women's March, ostracizing Jewish activists from a progressive movement that viewed us as somehow part of the problem. Then came a series of ignorant remarks by US Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) – from Omar's 'all about the Benjamins' tweet, insinuating that Jewish money held sway over support for Israel in Congress to Tlaib's ahistorical 'calming feeling' remarks about the Holocaust – which many in the Jewish community found offensive or anti-Semitic."

Nonetheless, regarding Tlaib, The Detroit Free Press reported that Arbit "doesn't believe her comments have been as troublesome as some others" and "worries that animosity toward her in the suburbs could lead some Jews to reject Democrats."

Arbit said, "Of course, we will never hesitate in calling out anti-Semitic rhetoric when someone engages in it, whether left or right."

"But there is a reason why 80% of American Jews continue to vote for Democrats," he continued. "And we are here to hold the line and aggressively making the case that the mainstream Democratic Party is the only political party that truly represents American Jews, particularly in 2020."

Arbit said in Michigan, "We are lucky to boast some of the Democratic Party's finest champions of the Jewish community, including our own representatives, Elissa Slotkin and Andy Levin, as well as senators, [Gary] Peters and [Debbie] Stabenow. The Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus works with each of our members to deepen understanding of the needs of Jewish Michiganders."

He added that "Michigan's Jewish community could not ask for a stronger advocate" than Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who was the first Jewish congresswoman to be elected in Michigan.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The groups, led by the AMCHA Initiative, cited examples, including a University of Michigan professor who supports boycotting Israel denying to write a letter of recommendation for a student wanting to study at Tel Aviv University; the Pitzer College entire faculty body voting in November to suspend the school's study-abroad program at the University of Haifa; and New York University's Department of Social and Cultural Analysis passing a resolution of non-cooperation in May with the university's school in Israel.

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"It is of particular concern that more than half the directors of currently Title VI-funded Middle East Studies National Resource Centers (NRCs) have pledged support for an academic boycott of Israel or engaged in boycott-compliant behavior, including attempts to shut down their universities' study abroad programs in Israel, as have these centers' affiliated faculty," stated the letter.

Title VI under the Higher Education Act of 1965 provides federal funds for international studies and foreign language centers at US universities.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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"Do you know what I saw at the border? I saw Gaza," said Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, during her keynote address on Saturday at the American Muslims for Palestine conference in Chicago. "When you think about the border, you have to got to understand how interconnected the oppression in Palestine is with the oppression taking place at the border."

She also said that she's advocating for clean water in her Michigan district and "fighting for clean water in Gaza."

More than 3,500 people were at the three-day event, according to organizers.

 Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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This is how Benzur describes Dearborn: "You drive through the streets, and all the signs are in Arabic. It wasn't easy to breach the walls of fear, suspicion, and hatred and get them to cooperate with the study."

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Her research focuses on pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli college students in the US. When studying the pro-Palestinian camp, Benzur took things to the very edge, and not only because of the place she had chosen to poll her 90 subjects.

She wanted to clarify whether or not radicalism was "passed on through genes" and whether "extremist positions on the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict and hostility toward the media were passed on from parents to children from a young age." For the sake of her academic mission, she hid her Israeli identity and spoke with the pro-Palestinian students in Arabic, stressing her Iraqi heritage.

After two or three failed attempts, in which she also reached out to female student supporters of Iran and Hezbollah, she found enough students who were willing to fill out her questionnaires.

Benzur also found the 85 subjects who identified as "pro-Israeli" at the University of Michigan, and recruited them for her study via the local chapter of Hillel.

Extremism passed on from one generation to the next

Benzur's work, which is now being published, was conducted in 2015, a year that saw numerous terrorist attacks in Israel and the public as a whole was losing faith in the media. Benzur wanted to look into how hostility toward the media was generated and how it was expressed by the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students when they were shown various texts that reframed the conflict. Her work examined the relationship between the students' ideology and social activity at home and with their friends and how hostile they were to the media.

Among other things, Benzur discovered that students from both sides who were uninvolved in political activity saw the media as fairer and more objective than their more politically active cohort. Those who grew up in "political" homes and devoted time at college to the conflict saw the media as biased and hostile to their own positions.

Parents of pro-Israeli students, she found, had more political and social influence on their children's lives in the context of the conflict than parents of pro-Palestinian students. Parents of pro-Israeli students were also more strongly identified with political and ideological stances that had to do with their positions and were also more politically involved when it came to the conflict. Palestinian parents had much less influence on their children because of the identity crisis their children experienced as the children of Muslim immigrants, Benzur found.

Benzur discovered that the transfer of radical positions from parents to children ran deep and that political biases such as identification with specific parties and political ideologies develop from a young age and remain influential even as the children grow up.

About one-third of the pro-Palestinian students who disagreed with their parents' opinions about various aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reported that they were more "extreme" than their parents (28%). More than half (62%) said they were more supportive of the Palestinians than their parents are. One notable issue for parents of pro-Palestinian students was the Arab world's approach to the conflict. The young generation, unlike their parents, identified with Iran and Hezbollah, whom they perceived as more active on behalf of the Palestinian side.

About half (49%) of the pro-Israeli students reported that they were more supportive of Israel and even more radical on the subject of Israel (44%) than their parents when it came to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The pro-Israeli students said they disagreed with their parents when it came to the two-state solution; Israel's settlements; and the rights of the Palestinian people. The positions of young pro-Israeli students aligned more closely with the Palestinians, despite the fact that they identified as pro-Israeli.

Coverage depends on the network

The research also looked at the students' attitude toward the media in two specific news events from 2015: the abduction and kidnapping of three Israeli teens by Hamas and the murder of a Palestinian teen by Israelis. Surprisingly, the pro-Palestinian students did not characterize the Qatari Al Jazeera America network (which used to broadcast in English and has since closed) as pro-Palestinian before it was pointed out that it was an Arab news network. Only after the network's identity was revealed did they define the reports as "pro-Palestinian." Nor did the pro-Israeli students identify any bias in the reporting by Al Jazeera America until the name of the network was revealed. Only when they were informed that the coverage they had watched was from an Arab channel did they define the reportage as biased against them.

When the students were asked to point out bias in coverage on Fox News, the picture was different. Both groups identified a clear pro-Israeli bias in the network's coverage of the stories, both when they knew that they were watching Fox News and when they were shown the reports without the source being identified.

The two groups of students originally cited The New York Times as a balanced and neutral news source. But when they were shown the Times' coverage about the abduction and murder of the Israeli teens and the murder of the Palestinian teen, they changed their opinions. The pro-Palestinian students claimed that the reporting on the teens' abduction and killing was hostile to their own positions, and saw the reports on the death of the Palestinian teen as objective. The pro-Israeli students claimed that the coverage of the Palestinian teen's murder was hostile toward them, but saw the coverage of the Israeli teens' murder as objective.

Benzur thinks that follow-up research, to be conducted in Israel and the Palestinian territories, is called for. She warns that "hostility toward the media and the perception that it is biased and hostile" could lead to a sense of political and social isolation and even a desire among activists to separate themselves from the "mainstream" through actions that border on violence.

Benzur also recommends that schools start educating students on media consumption. "For both sides to learn about the media's role in a democratic society, and to help them consume media better and be better critics of it, we need to dial down their hostility toward it, and help them understand its function as a supplier of information to the public," she says.

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Diet Eman died on Tuesday in Grand Rapids at age 99, according to Seymour Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. A Celebration of Life service is scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday at the church.

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Eman was born in the Netherlands and was part of an underground resistance following Nazi Germany's 1940 invasion of the northern European nation. Her 1994 memoirs, "Things We Couldn't Say," detailed how Eman provided forged identification cards and shelter for Jews, and how she helped allied pilots who were shot down by the German military.

During a 2015 visit to Grand Rapids, Dutch King Willem-Alexander called Eman one of his country's "national heroes," according to MLive.com.

"We had to help the Jewish people," Eman told WXMI-TV in a 2017 interview. "You live by prayer ... 'Lord these are your people and we want to help them.'"

Eman also told the television station that she had a fake identification card when stopped by Gestapo inspectors and taken to a prison.

"I was always traveling because they were after me and I had a false name," she said. "I had so many different names.

She eventually was moved to a German concentration camp before it was liberated.

Eman later would immigrate to the United States and move to Grand Rapids.

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