Biden’s Arab Plan: Bring in More and Protect them from Haters

That is the gist of the good part according to Arab-American observers, but his vague policy prescriptions for foreign policy relating to Arabs and Israel was too vague to get the full-throated support of Arab activists.

From The New Arab:

Biden’s ‘partnership plan’ receives mixed response from Arab-Americans

The US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Saturday released a policy plan directed at Arab-Americans that encompasses a wide range of domestic and foreign policy pledges in order to win the community’s support.

The plan had a strong focus on civil and human rights, promising to combat discrimination and restore the country’s values as “a nation of immigrants”.

“Anti-Arab bigotry has been used in attempts to exclude, silence, and marginalise an entire community, and Biden believes it must be rejected whenever it surfaces,” the plan read, adding that Arab-Americans would be included across a future Biden administration.

Could we see Ms. Sarsour in a Biden administration?

Biden’s extensive range of domestic policy proposals received high praise from Arab-Americans, many of whom were staunch supporters of Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary race.

The first pledge included the immediate rescindment of the so-called Muslim ban and the “immoral” family separation policy, as well as increasing the annual intake of refugees to 125,000.

I reported earlier at Refugee Resettlement Watch that Joe Biden has pledged to increase refugee flow to surpass anything his former boss ever managed to do.

The New Arab continues….

A key emphasis of Biden’s plan included combatting discrimination experienced by Arab-Americans in relation to policing, surveillance and counter-terrorism programmes.

[….]

It also pledged to protect the community from the rising threat of far-right violence and prioritise prosecution and thorough documentation of hate crimes.

Oopsy!  But when he talks in vague terms about the Israel-Palestine issue, Arabs are not so happy.

Omar Shakir, Israel-Palestine director for Human Rights Watch, tweeted: “How hard is it to say equal rights? So long as Joe Biden & Kamala Harris [won’t] say that Palestinians deserve same basic rights as all other [people], no-one should be under illusion that they’ll change decades-long ugly status quo. They’re out of touch [with] their party & reality on ground.”

More here.