President Joe Biden gained a small foreign policy victory by helping to negotiate a pause in Israel's war with Hamas terrorists with a hostage exchange for prisoners.
But Israel's determination to erase Hamas poses a larger political problem for Biden because there is a growing divide in the Democratic Party about how he should handle the conflict, especially among younger voters, entering the 2024 election cycle.
"I think it's a real issue because whenever an important part of the base of your support is upset with you substantively, which I think is happening with young people and what's going on in Israel and the Middle East, that's an issue," Tad Devine, a longtime Democrat strategist who has worked on several presidential and vice presidential campaigns, told The Hill for a story published Thursday.
"How big of a problem is it? If the election were in two weeks, it would be a really big problem. Fortunately, the election is in 11 months. I do think there's a lot of room for the president and his administration to improve on a lot of these issues, not just the issue of the moment in Israel."
Biden's problems with his base began when he refused to call for a cease-fire when Israel began to retaliate following Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack in which more than 1,200 Israelis were massacred, instead saying Israel had a right to defend itself.
The divide became more apparent when 22 Democrats joined with House Republicans to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., after she defended an often-used phrase by Palestinian activists — "from the river to the sea" — that calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state.
And a poll by NBC News released Nov. 19 showed 70% of Democrat voters ages 18-34 disapprove of Biden's handling of the war. Even though the poll was taken before Biden's administration helped to negotiate the hostage-prisoner exchange and pause in the war, it indicates how a large base of Biden's support views his job performance.
"Joe Biden is at a uniquely low point in his presidency, and a significant part of this, especially within the Biden coalition, is due to how Americans are viewing his foreign policy actions," Democrat pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, told NBC News.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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