Since last week’s presidential debate, we’ve seen nearly nonstop news coverage about whether President Joe Biden should drop out as the Democratic presidential contender, expressed in numerous op-eds, on political podcasts and on cable television.
But while Biden’s performance on Thursday is a legitimate issue, the media’s laser-focused coverage of it has resulted in former President Donald Trump all but being given a pass for vile and — in the opinion of many — racist remarks he made at the debate. And Trump’s comments were far, far worse than anything Biden said.
For starters, there was Trump’s use of the word Palestinian as a slur. This came up during a discussion of the war in Gaza, with Trump saying, “Let Israel finish the job.” He then criticized Biden for, in his view, restraining Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military action. That’s the same military, it should be noted, that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and dying, including many women and children, and according to the United Nations has unleashed an ever-growing humanitarian catastrophe along with the widespread destruction of residential homes.
My late father was a Palestinian immigrant. Trump used his heritage as an insult during the exchange when he said Biden “has become like a Palestinian.” To make matters worse, Trump repeated the use of Palestinian as a smear on Friday at a rally in Virginia, where he said about Democratic US Senator Chuck Schumer, “He’s become a Palestinian. He’s a Palestinian now.” The remark presumably meant to suggest that Schumer, who is Jewish, is somehow not supportive enough of Israel.
If Trump, in an effort to insult the president, had said that Biden had “become just like a Black person” or “become just like a Jewish person,” we would have rightfully heard cries of outrage. But after he used Palestinian as a slur, we have heard relatively little condemnation. True, some organizations criticized the vile comment, but it deserves far more pushback than it has received. This insensitive use of Palestinian identity as an epithet is a reminder that their lives mean nothing to some politicians who believe they can score points by demonizing and even dehumanizing them.
