Will the Summer of Anti-Israel Protests Be Enough to Split Biden’s Delicate Coalition?

On January 8, President Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina to deliver one of his first political speeches of the year. Minutes into his remarks, pro-Palestinian hecklers began chanting “Cease-fire now!” — forcing the 81-year-old incumbent to reluctantly acknowledge that his administration’s approach to the war in Gaza is slowly fracturing his own coalition.

“I understand their passion,” Biden said from a podium inside Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. “I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza, using all that I can to do.”