Obama, Harris lean into ‘Gazamaxxing’as Black voters focus on America for the midterms — not the Mideast

Anti-Israel activists hold banners that include, “globalize the intifada” during a protest commemorating Nakba Day on May 15, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York.(Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

And so enter Harris and Obama.There are far moreBlacks in Michiganthan Jews, but the former, like the latter, are beginning to tilt rightward.Black support for El-Sayed is far lower than it needs to be, with African Americans complaining they feel both overlooked by his campaign, as well as turned off by his over-emphasis on Israel, Gaza and Palestinian issues.As one Black Michigander summed up in a recent clever Rogers ad, “El-Sayed cares more about the West Bank than West Detroit.”

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Harris was in Michigan in late September to campaign with El-Sayed and rally Black support.At least that was the plan.Instead, both Democrats devolved into displays of characteristic Kamala “word salad” that clearly did more harm than good.Now Obama will parachute into Detroit this weekend to mop up Harris’ mess, just as new ties emerge betweenEl-Sayed’s familyand Egypt’s extremist Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama may think he’s smart to drop Israel and Palestine into this already combustive mix, but the #gazamaxxing — by him, Harris and Coates — reveals more about their intractable out-of-touchness than actual Black concern for the Middle East. 

Indeed, according to theAfrican American voters were also the least likely of the three groups to agree that America was too supportive of Israel, with 40% disagreeing as compared to White voters at 44% and Hispanic voters at 56%.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris joins Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for a roundtable discussion at Birth Detroit on Sept.22, 2026.(David Guralnick – Pool/Getty Images)

The stat stands sharply against the ubiquitous notion that African Americans — owing to supposed shared experiences of injustice and oppression — organically align with the Palestinian experience.Take it from someone who’s both African American and Jewish American, such “intersectional” overreach is little more than a myth — Blacks and Palestinians have nothing in common.

Our Civil Rights struggle — the one my own father fought to help desegregate his South Texas school — succeeded precisely because of its commitment to nonviolence.As for the Palestinians, violence — whether in Gaza, Israel, the streets of New York and now most spectacularly, along the grand boulevards of Paris — is the only thing their “liberation” movement has ever known.Such statements are not Islamophobic — they’re simply facts.

Obamaand Harris know this — El-Sayed probably does too.But no matter identity and entitlement are what the Dems have always done best and none are more entitled than Harris, Obama and Coates.

Anti-Israel protesters hold a banner saying “From the river to the sea,” at a demonstration calling for an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza.London, U.K., Dec.9, 2023.(Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

This is why all three chose to lean into Israel well beyond the critical eyes of the actual African-Americans they claim to care so much about — Obama and Harris, respectively, inEuropeand Asia;the irrationally Israel-obsessed Coates fielding sycophantic, softball prompts from a fawning white host in New York.

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Masters at manipulating racial anxiety and white guilt, the trio were performing for white audiences too fearful of being canceled or called racist to offer any meaningful pushback.This is why their anti-Zionist screeds passed with scant consequence or criticism — because they landed, as intended, so far from Black ears.

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Ultimately, Kamala, Obama andCoatescould have easily attacked Israel at a church or community event or in leading Black media outlets.But then they would have been jolted by the reality that African-Americans — now contending with outsized homicide numbers and roughlytwice the unemploymentfigures of their white counterparts — have far more crucial concerns than chanting for a “Free Palestine.”

David Christopher Kaufman is a former New York Post editor and columnist and founder of The Octagon Project.Sign up for his Substack newsletter, Counterintuitive.