The Palestinian American Bishara Bahbah, leader of the political action committee ‘Arab Americans for Trump’, described his shift from Biden supporter to Trump advocate, citing the response to the Gaza war
Haaretz
The founder and national chairman of Arab Americans for Trump said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has ‘100 percent’ promised to pursue a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview he gave to Israeli news outlet Channel 12 on Sunday.
Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American, described his shift from Democratic voter to Trump supporter with Channel 12’s Yuna Leibzon. ‘We have been warning President [Joe] Biden repeatedly to stop the genocide in Gaza,’ Bahbah said. ‘After he did not listen to us, I decided to join the Trump camp.’
Fed up with what he calls Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ empty promises, Bahbah found his way over to the Trump campaign in May when he was invited to help create a political action committee called Arab Americans for a Better America. Alongside fellow prominent Arab Americans – including billionaire Lebanese U.S. businessman Massad Boulos, whose son, Michael, married Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, two years ago – Bahbah started to campaign for Trump.
Shortly thereafter, he founded Arab Americans for Trump under Boulos’ guidance and began meeting with Arab and Muslim communities in all the 2024 election swing states. As he made his case for a Trump presidency, he focused his efforts during the last weeks of the campaign in Dearborn, Michigan, a state in which Trump secured one of his key battleground victories, thanks in no small part to support from these same communities.
According to Bahbah – who, during Trump’s first presidency, publicly criticized his treatment of Muslims – in 2024, Trump is not the same man who once advocated for a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.’
‘I believe he is a different person than he was in 2016 and 2020,’ Bahbah said during the interview. ‘He now wants an end to the war and a lasting peace in the Middle East. And that is what resonates with the Arab and Muslim American communities.’ Bahbah also said that three months ago, Trump specifically told him that he ‘100 percent’ supports a two-state solution. ‘He recognizes the need for Palestinians to have a state of their own,’ he added.
For Bahbah, the president-elect is a counterpoint to what he sees as the weakness of the Biden-Harris administration in standing up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘Trump is the only individual Bibi Netanyahu fears,’ Bahbah said. ‘Bibi literally mopped the floor with Biden and Harris. Every time they put a red line, he crossed it. There were no consequences, and that era is going to come to an end,’ Bahbah said.
At the end of his interview, Bahbah, who was once involved in peace talks on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, offered a message directly to the Israeli public. ‘This is a hand extended for peace,’ he said. ‘Enough with the wars. You have lost children, babies, women.’
‘On the Palestinian and Arab side, we have lost women, children, men, people still under the rubble,’ he continued. ’80 percent of Gaza is destroyed, a large part of southern Lebanon is destroyed. Enough is enough. It’s time for peace’.
‘We support President Trump because we wanted an end to the wars,’ he said. ‘We wanted an end to the bloodshed on both sides. We all want to live in peace. That is the message I bring as a Palestinian American to the Israeli public. We believe in peace. Please join us in achieving peace in the Middle East based on recognizing the needs of each side – your need for a Jewish state and security, and the Palestinians’ need for their own state living in peace alongside Israel.’
Perhaps more of a question: does a leopard ever really change his spots? Is this more hopium??
ed note–for those who were paying close attention, during Trump’s 1st term he spoke specifically–many times in fact–about the creation of a Palestinian State as part of his ‘Deal of the Century’, so the short answer to your question concerning a ‘leopard changing it’s spots’, the answer is ‘no’. What Trump is saying today is exactly what he said several years ago, prior to the release of the Israeli-concocted virus Covid 19 and the theft of the 2020 election.