election day finally reached United StatesTens of millions of Americans are heading to the polls for the most important vote in recent history.

More than 70 million Americans have already cast their votes in what is likely to be a two-horse race between vice president and vice president. Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

According to national polls, both candidates appear locked in a knife-edge contest with almost no light between them.

But the policies of the White House hopefuls could not be more different, and for the first time in years, women’s reproductive health, especially abortion rights, is playing a pivotal role.

For Trump, a convicted felon running for a second term, the main campaign issue has been immigrants and the economy, as well as his pledge to push back against so-called woke culture.

Both launched a wild zig-zag through swing states, with raucous rallies and even an appearance by Harris on “Saturday Night Live” in an attempt to woo undecided voters.

In many states, the results are expected to be announced as soon as the polls close around 19:00 local time. However, if the previous election has to go through, it may take several days for the overall results to be announced.

In 2020, it took four days for Pennsylvania to be called for Joe Biden after a sharp result that secured the Oval Office.

In the complex American political system, the overall outcome will be determined not by the national popular vote but by the electoral college, where each state’s number of voters is weighed roughly by its population size.

Each candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to clinch victory, and the battleground consists of states where polls show a state could go either way.

As a result, swing states like Michigan could be crucial for both candidates.

Biden, home to more than 200,000 Arab American voters, won the state by 154,000 votes in 2020. But Israel’s wars in the Middle East, where the United States fully supports Israel, have haunted the Democratic Party’s campaign, even in traditionally safe Blue states. .

“It is impossible for us to support a genocide,” activist Isabella of the Palestinian Youth Movement told Middle East Eye at a rally in New York City over the weekend.

‘Genocide should be a red line not only for those affected by it, but for everyone with a conscience’

– Maryam Alwan, young voter

“This is clearly a red line for the majority of Americans, and while there are other issues (on which we agree with the Democratic Party), we cannot witness the horrors in Gaza every day knowing that this is what our government supports.”

Israel caused widespread death and destruction in Gaza following attacks on southern Israel on October 7, targeting civilian residences, schools, hospitals, mosques and UN shelters.

The official death toll so far is over 43,000 Palestinians. However, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel is likely to be much higher, as Gaza’s health infrastructure has become unusable due to Israeli bombardment.

U.S. support for Israel’s wars could also upset the voting patterns of young, anti-war and minority voters who are increasingly angry and disillusioned with the Democratic Party.

Columbia University student Maryam Alwan, a first-generation Palestinian American who “identified as a solid Democrat” when she was 18 and voted for Biden in 2020, said she was among the many young voters who will not vote blue on Nov. 5. .

Instead, Alwan said he would send his ballot to his home state of Virginia to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

“This is not a ‘lesser of two worst’ situation,” Alwan told MEE.

“Genocide should be a red line not only for those affected by it, but for everyone with a conscience.”

Alwan says if the historic involvement of a third party costs Democrats the election, the party will have to change its behavior.

Opinion polls show Stein is gaining popularity in Arab and Muslim communities amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and Lebanon.

Although it is extremely unlikely that the Green Party candidate will win the presidency, his supporters see him as a principled choice that could lay the foundation for a greater chance of survival for future third-party candidates.

critical juncture

The US elections come as the world finds itself at one of the most critical junctures of the post-Cold War era, with sharp differences emerging between how the two candidates will conduct their foreign policies.

Harris has faced criticism for her foreign policy experience, and the draft 2024 Democratic Party platform seen by MEE failed to provide answers on how she would tackle many issues.

For many analysts, the 14 million people living in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories will be those most affected by the next administration’s Middle East policy.

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A September poll conducted by Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, found strong support for Trump among both right-wing and centrist Israelis; About 68 percent of Israelis see Trump as the candidate who will “best serve Israel’s interests.” Only 14 percent support Harris.

In 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House” thanks to the then-president’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize Israel’s claim to Jerusalem defined as. Golan Heights.

In the final months of his presidency, Trump also helped broker the Abraham Accords, normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.

Few expect the Harris administration to turn away from Israel, but many have said she presents herself as a more compassionate voice when it comes to Palestinians in the Biden administration.

US-Iran relations are another major foreign policy issue that the next president must address, and both Harris and Trump have expressed harsher views on the Islamic Republic, with Harris calling it the US’s “greatest enemy”.

The Iranian leadership has not made clear which candidate it prefers, but reports suggest it has postponed a potential attack on Israel until after the election and before the inauguration in January.

While Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior military officials have continued their threats against Israel in recent days, President Massoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said that Israel’s latest attacks cannot go unanswered, but that the “type and intensity” of the attacks depend on: In Lebanon Or will there be a ceasefire in Gaza?

Western officials have said Tehran is still discussing options for the attack, including the possibility of using proxies attacking Israel to provide a measure of deniability and possibly prevent further attacks on Iranian territory.

Saudi Arabia and its neighboring powerhouse, the United Arab Emirates, are likely to benefit economically and militarily from Trump’s victory, benefiting from unprecedented levels of US support, including Washington’s hardline stance against Iran.

A senior Arab official told MEE that Gulf states were focusing intently on “how the next administration will deal with the Houthis”.

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, are a member of the so-called “axis of resistance” that Iran has developed to challenge Israeli and US adventurism in the Middle East.

Tehran has varying degrees of influence on this network; The Houthis have been carrying out numerous drone attacks against Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. targeting International shipping vessels in the Red Sea region.

Gerald Feierstein, the former US ambassador to Yemen during the Obama administration, told MEE that the most direct way for the US to stop Houthi attacks is to establish a ceasefire in Gaza.

“If this war ends, the reason for war disappears. It will be more difficult for the Houthis to justify their attacks,” Feierstein told MEE. he said.

It is unclear which candidate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will choose, but sources around him told MEE that they believe a Trump presidency could work well due to their common past.

But in Europe, the prospect of a second Trump presidency has been deeply troubling for some, as Republicans have repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NATO, the transatlantic security party on which many countries rely heavily for their security.

“What happens if a president (Trump) who declares NATO obsolete and no longer wants to keep his security promises is elected for the second time in America?” Friedrich Merz, party leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats, told supporters last week.

“Then we will be on our own. By that I mean not just us Germans, but us Europeans.”