By Andrea Shalal
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) – Some prominent Lebanese Americans on Friday endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president in a letter that said the U.S. had been “unrelenting” in its support for Lebanon under the Biden administration and that they expect additional backing if Harris wins in November.
The endorsement came amid ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced. Militant group Hezbollah has also fired on Israel and about 50 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed.
Signatories include former Congress members Donna Shalala and Toby Moffett, former President Barack Obama’s former transportation secretary Ray LaHood, academics, CEOs and investors.
A number of Arab Americans and Muslims are abandoning the Democratic Party over the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have died in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, health officials in the enclave say. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others.
Some Arab Americans and Muslims have declined to endorse Harris, while others are backing her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, or third-party candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party.
The letter was organized by the American Task Force on Lebanon, a Washington policy group, whose president Ed Gabriel is one of several Arab American and Muslim leaders who met with Harris when she visited Flint, Michigan on Oct. 4.
The signers wrote they had been reassured that their concerns about the violence in Lebanon and the need for economic and political reforms would be supported if Harris won the Nov. 5 election. Her views stood in “stark” contrast to Trump, they wrote, without elaboration.
Trump has called Israel’s attacks on Lebanon “unacceptable” but not laid out any strategy. His affiliates are trying to win Arab American votes, with the help of Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos, whose son is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
“The Lebanese people have suffered terribly from the loss of innocent lives and massive displacement of families and one of the worst economic disasters in the world caused by wide-spread corruption. They cannot afford another long drawn out war that further destroys Lebanon,” the letter said, as it called for a ceasefire.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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