Republican-Aligned Group Targets Arab Communities in Michigan With Ads Highlighting Harris Ties to Israel

 The effort is likely aimed at anti-Israel Muslim and Arab-American voters in the state.

A group seemingly aligned with the Republican Party is running digital advertisements in heavily Arab-American and Muslim communities in Michigan — a state Vice President Harris is at risk of losing because of the Israel-Hamas war and her refusal to call for an arms embargo on the Jewish state. The ads, running on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, highlight Ms. Harris’s support for Israel. 

The digital ads and the existence of the spending group was first reported by HuffPost. 

One of the ads describes Ms. Harris as being on “the right side” of the war because she “put” anti-Israel protesters “in their place.”

“Vice President Harris has chosen a side — the right side,” a narrator says in one ad. “Harris has made herself clear: She stands with Israel and the Jewish people. She has, again and again. She understands the unbreakable bond between the U.S. and Israel. So when Netanyahu came to D.C., Harris hosted the prime minister at the White House.”

“And when supporters of a free Palestine stood up for Gaza, Harris put them in their place,” the ads states. 

According to Google’s Ad Transparency Center, the group behind the ads — Future Coalition PAC — has spent nearly $30,000 on three ads on digital platforms. The ads are targeted at zip codes that are overwhelmingly Arab and Muslim. Those same zip codes provided a large number of votes for the “uncommitted movement” in this year’s Democratic primary, which was run as a protest against President Biden and Ms. Harris’s policies with respect to Israel. 

The group is running three ads: a 30-second spot, a 15-second spot, and a six-second spot. All three include images of the American and Israeli flags, as well as Ms. Harris smiling. “Kamala Harris gets it. We can trust her,” each of the three ads says. 

According to the Federal Elections Commission and the website OpenSecrets, Future Coalition PAC has not reported any donors or spending numbers. The group was registered with the FEC on July 3, and will not be required to disclose their list of donors until the end of September. They ran their first ad on September 1. 

A spokesman for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but one Michigan Democratic operative told HuffPost that the ads were nothing more than a Republican dirty trick. The man who runs Future Coalition PAC, Ray Zaborney, is a Pennsylvania Republican strategist. 

“Clearly, this ad is designed to get low-information and low-engagement Arab-American and left-leaning voters to oppose Harris, a classic ratf–ing operation by a PAC that is helping a former President that uses Palestinian as a slur,” the unnamed Democratic strategist told HuffPost. 

A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether or not they were involved in the effort. 

Muslim voters are poised to play a pivotal role in the upcoming presidential election. Michigan, with more than 240,000 Muslim citizens, and Pennsylvania, with nearly 150,000 Muslim citizens, may decide the presidency based solely on Ms. Harris’s support for Israel. 

According to a survey conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ms. Harris and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are tied among Muslim and Arab voters, each taking 29 percent. Trump takes 11 percent, and left-wing independent candidate Cornel West wins just four percent.

https://www.nysun.com/article/republican-aligned-group-targets-arab-communities-in-michigan-with-ads-highlighting-harris-ties-to-israel