DEARBORN, Mich. — Bowls of labne and platters of za’atar bread covered the tables at a Lebanese restaurant near Detroit, but no one seemed to have much of an appetite.

On one side were Kamala Harris’s main emissaries to the Arab-American community. On the other, local leaders were explaining – once again – why many community members could not vote for the vice president because of the war in Gaza.

“I love this country, but I can tell you, we have never been more disappointed in this country than we are today,” said Nabih H. Ayad, president of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “We wanted to give the Democratic Party an opportunity to do something, but they didn’t.”

“The only line we cannot cross,” Ayad said, “is genocide.”

Nasrina Bargzie and Brenda Abdelal, who were hired by the Harris campaign to lead outreach to Arabs and Muslims, listened attentively but responded little.

If Harris loses Michigan and the presidential election next week, it’s conversations like this that could explain why. The Detroit area is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans, and Democrats fear Harris is paying a high political price for U.S. support for Israel, which rejects allegations that its military operations in Gaza constitute genocide.

Community members who normally support Democrats said they were faced with an impossible decision. Either they punish Harris for what they see as complicity in the deaths of at least 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, or they support Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which they fear will he revives discrimination against their community.

A reminder of the complexity of the situation occurred in Ann Arbor Monday evening, when Harris held a campaign rally. Assad Turfe, one of the few Arab American elected officials in Michigan to support the vice president, said his community needs someone “who sees us, who understands us and who will express our pain,” adding that “without no doubt, Kamala Harris is that leader.

But as Harris began his remarks, pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted him, chanting: “Israel is bombing, Kamala is paying, how many children have you killed today?” Harris responded, “Hey guys, I hear you” and “we all want this war to end as soon as possible.”

It’s unclear how many skeptics Harris will be able to convince, especially since she hasn’t proposed any concrete changes to U.S. policy toward Israel or the war in Gaza. Four years ago, Joe Biden won by 3 to 1 in Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 inhabitants are of Arab origin. Democrats now fear that some of these voters will turn to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein.

“They’re divided. There are those who will vote for Harris, recognizing that they might get a seat at the table,” said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, who convened the recent meeting at the Lebanese restaurant in its head office. efforts to help the Harris campaign. “But there is a portion who will vote for Stein or who will stay home. And then there will be a minority who will vote for Trump.”

Trump has won a number of endorsements from Muslims in the region, including from two Democratic mayors who represent majority-Muslim cities outside of Detroit. He brought several Muslims on stage at a rally in metro Detroit on Saturday.

He says he will “put an end to endless wars” and recalls the Abraham Accords that Israel signed with several Arab countries during his presidency. He also mocked Harris’ endorsement of former Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican whose father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was a key force behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Harris is campaigning with Liz Cheney to try to ward off moderate Republicans turned off by Trump in Michigan and elsewhere.

But many Arab American leaders — even those who did not support Harris — remain deeply negative about Trump and say his support does not reflect the majority of the community. They also remember his call for a “total and complete halt” to Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. And some point out that Trump has suggested he will give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.

Harris Seduces Someone Who Supported the ‘Uncommitted’ Movement

Turfe, a Lebanese-American and Wayne County deputy executive, is one of the few Arab American leaders in Michigan who has supported Harris. He says it’s to ensure the community doesn’t return to a Trump presidency that “reopened old wounds for the generation that lived through those years after 9/11.”

Turfe said he was awakened by immigration agents in 2005 when they came to arrest his wife, who arrived in the country when she was 2 years old and unaware she did not have legal citizenship.

“They came for her and they destroyed my family,” he said.

Then, in 2006, both of Turfe’s grandmothers were killed in Lebanon as Israel fought alongside Hezbollah in a war backed by President George W. Bush.

Turfe said his community had been primarily Republican until then. But members shifted to Democrats during Barack Obama’s presidency, then helped Biden beat Trump in 2020.

These political ties are now severed.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping more than 200 hostages. Israel launched its offensive soon after with military and diplomatic support from the Biden administration.

As civilian casualties mounted in Gaza, anti-war Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere launched a protest voting movement during the Democratic primaries. They garnered more than 100,000 “unpledged” votes, with the majority coming from the state’s Muslim-majority cities like Dearborn.

Turfe was part of the “uncommitted” movement as Biden was running for re-election, but he said he changed his mind when Harris became the nominee. He endorsed her in August and met with her before a rally near Detroit in October.

He said he spoke to Harris about his grandmothers’ deaths nearly two decades ago and “I felt her empathy.”

“She felt my pain,” Turfe said.

Turfe’s endorsement sparked a backlash. On social networks, retouched images accuse him of approving the atrocities committed in Gaza. He also received text messages calling him a traitor. Long-standing relationships in his hometown of Dearborn became strained.

Dearborn resident Suehaila Amen is used to seeing her community in the national spotlight, having starred in the 2012 TLC reality series “All-American Muslim.” A lifelong Democrat, Amen said she would not vote for Harris.

“They want to send their people to come and see how we feel because now they’re afraid of losing a swing state,” said Amen, who lived in Lebanon from 2017 to 2021. “But you know, if she loses, it’s is of her own initiative, of her own hand, and she will deserve it.

Amen said she doesn’t want Trump to win, but “I have to, ultimately, sleep at night.”

Harris Makes Final Argument to Arab Americans

Harris made a rare reference to Israel’s fight against Hamas and Hezbollah during a recent speech in Oakland County, outside Detroit.

“This year has been very difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon,” she said. The death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, she said, “can and should be a turning point.”

Harris also said she was “very proud to have the support” of Turfe and other Muslim leaders.

But Harris has not called for a reduction in the flow of U.S. arms to Israel, and her campaign did not allow a pro-Palestinian speaker to take the stage at August’s Democratic National Convention, a key demand of the “uncommitted” movement.

Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, has remained in close contact with Arab American leaders in metro Detroit for months and received the Arab American Civil Rights League’s “Profile in Courage” award this summer. Khanna is Hindu but said his family background allowed him to share experiences with Arab Americans.

At the Oct. 26 meeting with Arab American leaders, Khanna sat next to Harris’ Arab and Muslim outreach directors while acknowledging that “not enough” was done by Harris to help end the war between Israel and Hamas.

“If Trump is elected, people like me won’t be in any of the rooms,” Khanna said. “Harris gives people like us a seat at the table to advocate for you.”

That’s the kind of message that resonates with Mike Musheinesh, a Palestinian American who runs his own auto parts store and who attended the meeting. He said the community should vote for Harris “even if we have to hold our noses.”

“If we want a seat at the table, we have to help get it across the finish line,” he said.