How Oct. 7 attack and war in Gaza shaped North Texas Jewish and Muslim votes

The October 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza have shaped how many Jewish and Muslim residents in North Texas voted in last week’s general elections.

Jewish community leaders say the fallout of the October attacks complicated their relationship with the Democratic Party and is intensifying a rightward shift among some Jews. For local Muslim voters, the death toll of Palestinian people in Gaza has sparked an intense push to organize and, in some cases, abandon the Democratic Party.

Initial polling data from the 2024 election indicates the attacks in Israel and tens of thousands of deaths in the region since last year were top-of-mind for many Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, and Arab voters across the nation, according to outlets including The New York Times.

In October 2023, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 people hostage.

Out of the 101 hostages currently detained in Gaza captivity, 51 are believed to be alive while 37 hostages have been officially announced as dead, said a recent report.

The United Nations estimates that the war in Gaza has displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. About 92% of Gaza’s main roads and 84% of its health facilities have been destroyed since last October, according to the UN.

Rightward shift for some in Jewish community

Jewish community leaders in North Texas pointed to national trends that show Jewish people moving toward the political right.

“There’s been a shift, I think nationwide, to the Republican Party, but it certainly predates Oct. 7,” said Barry Abels, executive director of Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Joel Schwitzer, regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Dallas, pointed to national surveys from his organization that quantified that shift. Within North Texas itself, Schwitzer and Abels said that a rightward shift has been a little more complicated.

“There’s probably been a shift here in the North Texas community as well, but probably not as stark, because we already had a larger percentage of Jews here that identify as Republican,” Schwitzer said. “North Texas has always had a more robust mix of political opinion among its Jewish communities than the country writ large.”

“I think in the Israeli community, there’s probably a pronounced group of folk who would also perceive that Trump would be more supportive and a better ally of Israel,” Abels said.

Abels said he knew a number of people with dual American and Israeli citizenship who had mailed in ballots favoring Trump. He thought it would take a few years for people to have enough data to fully understand the long-term impact of Oct. 7 and its fallout on Jewish political opinion.

Antisemitism and North Texas politics

North Texas’ Jewish community leaders said antisemitism has increased since Oct. 7 and that they are grateful for the ways local leaders, many of them Republican, have responded to combat it.

“The Dallas Jewish community, like many around the world, has witnessed an unprecedented rise in antisemitism since the horrific terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and throughout the ongoing war,” said Igor Alterman, president and CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, in an emailed statement.

“As a nonpartisan agency serving the local community, we look forward to continuing to work with local elected officials to advance shared values, including peace and democracy, in order to make the world a better place for all,” he said.

Gov. Greg Abbott is one Texas official who has been particularly vocal in condemning antisemitism. Abbott spoke at Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas’ Oct. 7 event marking a year since the Hamas attacks on Israel, where other speakers thanked him for his commitment to the Jewish community.

Schwitzer highlighted a 2023 city resolution expressing support for Israel. “We are very grateful for the unanimous passage by (the) City Council last fall of a resolution that condemned Hamas and stood with Israel,” he said.

The Dallas City Council approved a resolution expressing support for Israel in a 14-0 vote on Oct. 11, 2023. “The city of Dallas stands with Israel in its fight against Hamas, prays for those who have lost family members and friends, calls for the swift return of all hostages, and hopes for a lasting resolution,” it said.

At least 18 people out of 26 who spoke to the City Council ahead of its vote on that resolution asked the council to reject it, The News reported. Speakers said the resolution’s wording included no mention of loss of life in Gaza and was silent on the conditions in Gaza and the West Bank prior to Oct. 7.

For Muslims, Gaza has sparked a wave of organizing

Leaders in North Texas’ Muslim community said the devastation in Gaza led many D-FW Muslims to give up on a Democratic Party they had formerly supported.

Yasir Qadhi is dean of The Islamic Seminary of America in Richardson and resident scholar at East Plano Islamic Center, an influential Plano mosque.

“I have publicly stated that any candidate that endorses genocide cannot be supported by us,” Qadhi said. The religious leader has almost 700,000 followers on X and posted on Nov. 6 that “the Democrats lost because they supported the genocide in Gaza.”

“I do know for a fact, amongst my own acquaintances and congregational members, a lot of people voted third party,” he said. “And they had never in their lives voted (for a) third party.”

His mosque strongly encouraged people to vote and was a polling place in a presidential election for the first time this year, Qadhi said.

“In my 50 years of being in this country … I’ve never seen the passion and dedication of the American Muslim community to get involved,” he said. “This genocide has actually inspired them, in a somber context, to realize that they can’t just be apolitical. That this is our country, we are a part of the system, it cannot happen under our watch.”

Mohamed Elibiary co-founded the North Texas Islamic Council and is a former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security.

He was involved in advocacy in North Texas after 9/11 and said the organizing he’s been seeing since Oct. 7 is a second phase of Muslim advocacy in our area.

“We have mobilized in the past year, since 10/7, with extra urgency to support our Palestinian neighbors, our Palestinian-American constituency, because what’s happening to their families overseas is not right,” he said.

Morad Barghouthi lived with his family in the Palestinian territories before moving to Sachse. He said his parents and sister are still there, and cousins and other relatives have died there since Oct. 7.

Over the last year, Palestinian-Americans like him have been watching gruesome images of loved ones dying in “4K,” Barghouthi said.

“Everything is recorded, you can see it, it’s in front of you,” he said. “While it’s so difficult to deny, there are still people that choose to deny it, and choose to refuse that this is actually happening. That, I think, is what hurts the most.

“Palestinians here just want a candidate that’s human,” he said. “That sees innocent blood as innocent blood, and sees a problem as a problem.”

“That’s not what we found the past year.”