Why I Voted For "Uncommitted"

The polling site in my East Rock neighborhood of New Haven was eerily quiet Tuesday morning when my wife and I walked in to vote in Connecticut’s presidential primary. It was clear that most of the state’s voters, Democrats and Republicans, had decided their votes didn’t matter because President Biden and Donald Trump already had enough delegates to win the nomination.

But we believed our votes were in fact important because they sent a message to Biden.

We voted for “Uncommitted.”

We thus joined a nationwide movement protesting Biden’s continued use of our tax money to send billions of dollars to Israel for its genocidal war that has already killed more than 30,000 civilians in Gaza.

According to Gazan health officials, 13,000 of them were children.

Every day those bombs kill dozens of people, sometimes more.

Those of us in the “Uncommitted” camp have always acknowledged that what Hamas did to the Israeli people last Oct. 7 also was genocidal and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. But the savage actions of those Hamas invaders cannot justify the continued assault on Gaza civilians, with no let-up in sight.

In yet another horrific assault by Israeli forces on Monday, the day before we voted, seven volunteers for the World Central Kitchen attempting to bring food to starving Gaza civilians were shelled and killed. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his soldiers had made a “misidentification.” He’s sorry.

And so now many humanitarian food missions have been cancelled, which will lead to even more starvation. We have seen the photos of those seven smiling World Central Kitchen victims — a Palestinian, an Australian, three from England, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada and a volunteer from Poland. One of their relatives said they loved doing their brave work; as they left to deliver that food on the day of their deaths “they were so excited, like they were going to a wedding.”

The number of aid workers killed during the war in Gaza now stands at 196, if not more.

What is Biden doing about this? He told Netanyahu the attack on the food workers was “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, he is pressing Congress to approve a plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel. He is resisting all efforts to cut off our generous ongoing military aid.

This is why more than 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan, which has a large Arab population, voted “Uncommitted” in their primary. In Connecticut 11.6 percent of Democratic voters — 7,647 of us — went for “Uncommitted.” Biden got 84.8 percent and the rest went to fringe candidates. In New Haven, the “Uncommitted” total was even higher: 21 percent. In one of the wards in my neighborhood a majority of the Democratic voters chose “Uncommitted.”

Of course this doesn’t mean we won’t vote for Biden in November. We don’t believe our “Uncommitted” votes help Trump in any way. This is simply a way for us to send a message to the White House. We hope the president listens and finally cuts off military aid to Israel. The people of Gaza need a permanent ceasefire and they need it now.