What do Dearborn, Michigan, and Rochdale, a town in rainy northern England, have in common? In fact, despite the 3,600 miles between them, they have quite a bit in common.
The two struggling post-industrial countries each have populations of about 110,000, many of whom are Muslim, which goes a long way to explaining why the Gaza war has played a disproportionate role in national politics on both sides of the Atlantic.
With elections looming in the US and UK, many issues are weighing on voters’ minds.
Migration in the form of illegal boats crossing the English Channel, and America’s porous southern border, inflation, healthcare, jobs and the economy.
But the Gaza war may be the one to trump them all, not because it matters to the majority, but because it is fetishized as super-important by an increasingly belligerent minority.
As far as the Jewish state is concerned, the UK elections on July 4th can be seen as a dry run for the US elections in November.
Look no further than Mexico, where the Israeli embassy was literally set on fire this week ahead of the June 3 presidential election, which Jewish candidate Claudia Scheinbaum is expected to win.
So over the coming month, political strategists across the country will be keeping a close eye on the contest for Number 10, and in particular the role of places like Rochdale.
The town has been dominated by leftists since 1958. The death of a Labour councillor in February forced an early by-election as a dry run for the July 4th election.
Enter George Galloway, the British Workers’ Party leader notorious for his fedoras and friendship with Hamas.
Three of Mr Galloway’s four wives are Muslim and the far-left leader has long allied himself with religious extremists, donating £25,000 to Hamas in 2009.
He has tried to declare the largely Muslim northern town of Bradford an “Israeli free zone” and refused to debate a former Israeli government spokesman. That was in 2013 when Elon Levy discovered he held an Israeli passport.
Mr Galloway ran and was elected to represent Rochdale in March, his victory sending a shock wave through the Labour party, whose leader, Sir Keir Starmer, had for months resisted calls for a ceasefire from the Progressive Muslim Alliance.
Galloway secured an almost entirely Muslim base, a kind of revenge.
Does Rochdale portend disaster for Labour on the Fourth of July? Does Dearborn bode poorly for the Democrats? Last week Labour broke with the US and supported the International Criminal Court case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Secretary of Defence.
A leaked video this week showed Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader who represents another Muslim constituency, begging a group of Muslim leaders for their support in the general election and pledging to recognise a Palestinian state.
Back in Dearborn, in April, at Iran’s annual Al-Quds Day rally, local provocateurs gave incendiary speeches, encouraging the crowd to chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
Imam Osama Abdulgani praised Khomeini for calling Israel an “evil settlement project” and a “cancer.”
Fifty-four percent of Dearborn’s residents are Arab American, and the town became the epicenter of Rashida Tlaib’s “no holds barred” campaign against President Biden in February.
Rochdale, where 36% of the population is Muslim, is just one of several northern towns where radical Islam has taken root: just 1% of Americans are Muslim, but in Britain that number is six times higher.
One photo sums it up: In front of an abandoned building stood a sign endorsing Ahmed Yacoub for mayor, with the slogan “Lend Gaza your vote.” A recent poll found that 46% of British Muslims support Hamas.
In my country and in yours, the Muslim minority includes a sizable fundamentalist minority and is not large enough to decide elections by sheer numerical strength alone.
But they matter in battleground states like Dearborn, and in terms of party unity, which is crucial to winning elections.
Since October 7, President Biden has sent two aircraft carriers to support Israel, but has since come under increasing pressure from the left wing of his party.
With an eye on the upcoming election, the president began by saying Israel was “overstepping boundaries” and ended by withholding arms shipments, throwing a bone to the progressive-Muslim alliance.
Labour leader Starmer has followed a similar pattern, enduring pressure for a ceasefire while promising to halt Britain’s small arms sales to Israel.
Recently, a UK website “The Muslim Vote” The group describes itself as “pro-democracy” and “anti-genocide.”
With the support of several dubious organisations, they encouraged Muslims to vote for parties that would further their collective interests.
This put pressure on the Labour Party to give in to Islamist demands.
Their numbers may be small, but Islamic fundamentalists are shaping the politics of the international left far more than any other major electoral issue.
Thanks to social media, each faction is directing the course of pop culture and possibly the future of our two great nations.
Jake Wallis Simmons is editor of the Jewish Chronicle and author of “Israelphobia.”. “
