Would Harris or Trump have different policies towards the Middle East?

[mids2019]

Just this really.

Do we think IS support for Israel will change depending on the next resident of the white house? Personally I don't think a lot will change as the US has many other problems to worry about and it still regard Israel as a vital ally in the rwgion.

No, nothing will change.

I posted this on another thread:

American evangelicals believe every word in the bible is true. Like the apocalypse and the return of Jesus - certain verses in the book of Revelations have been interpreted that none of this can happen unless the state of Israel exists.

And every sign that the return of Jesus could be brought about sooner is good news to the evangelical Christians.

They believe that the process can be advanced by torpedoing the peace process so the Palestinians never get their land back – the ancient borders need to be reclaimed and then Jesus will come back.

That's the view of 80 million American voters.

No-one, not Harris, Trump or anyone is going to anything different, though possibly even worse.

Harris thinks what is happening in Gaza is a catastrophe. Not sure if that would change anything really. Ultimately she will have to continue what Biden’s been doing with a bit more compassion for the Palestinians in her speeches.

Trump acted pro Israel in office but I don’t believe he has strong thoughts on foreign policy. I very much doubt he cares about innocent people getting killed/human rights but the current Israeli administration are a big headache for the US, aren’t playing ball, threat of dragging the US into conflict… so he might get sick of them.

Interestingnppint about Christianity. My daughter was handed a bible as a school leaving present and in the back there were Biblical maps of Israel and many of the names are partially recognisable. Strangely many Jews obviously don't think Christ will return in the manner of Revelations.I

Of course the region is important to Islam as the religion is Abrahamic so you have a blind of real theological problem with the country.

I wonder if Gaza is a particularly heightened conflict as it looks like the oppression of Islam by two other religions, mainly Judaism but also Christianity as practised by many in the most powerful country in the world?

Opp

Trump will find it a headache and I believe he wishes Israel to wrap this up in the region . The US will continue to arm Israel obviously but there will be tensions with Israeli leadership. However Trumps anti Mulsim rhetoric at times may mean he might be quite dispassionate about the whole thing or be conscious of October 7th where I believe American citizens may have been involved.

Harris as a progressive may lose votes on the if she continues to support Israel unequivocally but not enough to be significant politically. As a pp mentioned she doesn't want to alienate the religious portion of US society. It's going to be a balancing act.

Where do you get the figure of 80 million voters from? The Pew Research centre reckons 62 million evangelicals in the US. That doesnt equate to 62 million voters as voter turnout in the US is notoriously low. Looking quickly at the estimates of evangelicals, the electorate in 2022 & current number of registered voters ( who won't all vote, and wont all vote for Trump) I can't get to a figure of more than about 47 million. The US electorate is over 240 million with 158.4 million actually voting last time which was an unusually high turnout for a US election.

Secondly there are actually a lot of different strands of evangelicalism and I dont think they all believe the same thing, other than broadly, for a range of reasons at this moment, supporting Israel politically. Even the Evangelical statement in October explicitly acknowledged the different theological beliefs on Israel. Evangelical christians believe Jews will perish at Armageddon because only Christians will be saved, so they are hardly pro-Jewish.

But we all support Israel's right to exist, don't we? That doesn't necessarily translate into particular micro- policy positions on this conflict.

I don’t think any of them really care about Palestine and won’t be as easy to break the relationship with their allies.

The ME is much more than Israel Gaza and I know everyone's primary concern is human rights so I'm sure we're equally concerned about Trump & Harris's approach to other places such as Saudi & Yemen. Trump was very close to the Saudi regime even after the Kashoggi murder & has personal finanacial interests in Saudi as well as wanting arms deals with them. I don't know anything about Harris's attitude to Saudi https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/less-privileged-personal-how-u-s-saudi-ties-may-soon-n1247439
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/us/politics/trump-mohammed-bin-salman.html
https://www.ft.com/content/6c7cc4fc-a65a-47cf-b7a4-ed0762afea03

Harris has spoken about it

https://x.com/GlobeEyeNews/status/1815491743019680114

Is Saudi ( with U.K. arms to help) fighting Yemen helpful to Israel? Seeing as
Yemen is an enemy to Israel?

A. I suspect you know the answer
B. This is a thread about U.S foreign policy in the Middle East.

I think it's too early to tell.
Trump is a narcissist and will act according to what is in his own best interests.
I hope he is not elected as he is far too volatile.
What will be interesting is how both Trump and Harris deal with meeting Netanyahu during his current visit.

B. That’s why I was asking about the US/British/Saudi policy in Yemen.

A. No, I am not clear on the answer
particularly because a lot of people who seem to be defending Israel’s actions in Gaza have come on threads over the last nine months and accused posters for not
caring about Yemen.

But I always wondered why those who support Israel would want people to be against what is happening in Yemen, at the hands of the Saudis/ U.K and US, when surely the fighting against Yemen ultimately helps Israel? I had previously sort of presumed there must be different factions involved so the admonition about Yemen was not contradictory. I had the impression you might know more about this.

She voted not to sell arms to Saudi as a senator due to their actions in Yemen.

I think it’s safe to say Harris is more about human rights than trump. Which wouldn’t be hard at all. But whether words will translate into action is another thing.

So Harris, what are you going to do for this war not to drag any longer ? Stop selling weapons would be a good start if you become the president

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg3eppp0n57o