Lebanon sees Biden, Harris as ‘different sides of the same coin’
The US vote is seen in some countries as the difference between war and peace stability or volatility. But for the Middle East, many here believe that, though both candidates may differ on many of their policies, when it comes to this region, they are more aligned than anywhere else.
People here believe that both of the candidates have the same rhetoric that we’ve been hearing that they have unconditional support for Israel and that is likely to continue once they are in office.
There isn’t a lot of hope here in the Middle East that things will change drastically. What we have seen from the Biden administration is failed attempts to try and bring about a ceasefire to end this conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and it hasn’t been successful so far.
The official position here from various government levels that we’ve heard is that the United States hasn’t been strong enough to stand against Israel and to pressure Israel into agreeing to a ceasefire and that is the government position.
What we’ve heard from regular Lebanese citizens is that these two candidates are basically different sides of the same coin.
There isn’t going to be a drastic change whoever is voted into the White House. There is a clear understanding that the US policy is going to be siding with Israel and things will continue as they are what they are hoping for.
Gaza looks at US polls with ‘cautious optimism, but also scepticism’
So far, there hasn’t been any significant change [in Gaza] from the beginning of the US election campaign.
The people that we talked to have major concerns over two important elements: concern over supplying Israel with more weapons, which will eventually be used to continue the genocidal act across the Gaza Strip. And concern on the impact on humanitarian aid – whether this is going to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, or it will be the same.
Many of the people we talked to said that for a whole year, the US administration headed by President Joe Biden did not do much to change the catastrophic humanitarian situation across the Gaza Strip.
So far, what we’re looking at is cautious optimism, but also scepticism over what is going to happen as soon as the election is over and we have a new president in the White House, because nothing has changed in the past year.
