Under-pressure Biden claims ceasefire ‘close’
US president Joe Biden said he hopes to have a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas by next week as Democrat voters prepare to send a message that reflects the potential threat the Gaza conflict has created to his hold on the White House.
Biden indicated during a political visit to New York that he hopes to have the agreement in place by Tuesday.
He told reporters travelling alongside him that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has told him that a ceasefire is “close” but talks are “not done yet”.
Biden risks handing Donald Trump the White House with his stance on Israel, progressive Democrats have warned ahead of today’s presidential primary in Michigan, a critical swing state.
Michigan’s large Arab-American community, which helped Biden win the state in 2020, has criticised the president’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
Many have warned that unless Biden changes course, they will not vote in November’s presidential election, potentially throwing open the state for Republican Trump.
An effort to boycott the primary is being spearheaded by Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Michigan congresswoman. She is pushing for Democrats to vote “uncommitted” rather than casting a ballot for Biden in the Michigan primary.
“You all know Trump is an existential threat to our democracy,” Tlaib, a member of Capitol Hill’s Left-wing “Squad”, told a rally in Dearborn, a majority-Muslim and Arab-American suburb west of Detroit.
“And President Biden is risking another Trump term over his support for the most Right-wing government, most extremist government in the history of Israel.”
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, said some of her constituents had “lost 20 or 40” relatives in Gaza.
Three-quarters of Arab and Muslim Democrats in Michigan said they were willing to vote for a third-party candidate in November, according to an NBC poll late last year.
Amid panic in the White House, Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, have visited the state in the past few weeks.
Ahmad Ghanim, a spokesman for Listen to Michigan, the activist group leading the protest campaign, said Biden had lost the community in Dearborn - home to the largest Muslim community in the United States - “at a fundamental level”.
“Michigan is a vital state for Biden. If he loses Michigan, he will lose everything.”
Meanwhile, a member of the US military who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington after declaring that he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” has died.
The 25-year-old airman, Aaron Bushnell, from San Antonio, Texas, started a live stream, set his phone down, doused himself in a clear liquid and ignited it. After setting himself on fire he shouted: “Free Palestine.”
Officers from the US secret service extinguished the flames and Bushnell was taken to hospital, where he died.
Israeli embassies around the world have become the focus of protests since the start of the war in Gaza almost five months ago.
The Biden Administration says Israel has the right to defend itself, but has grown increasingly critical of its conduct in the war, and has specifically warned that any attack on Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, could be devastating for the civilian population.
Israel’s government says it plans to press ahead with its planned operations in Rafah. More than 30,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the start of the fighting, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.