Josh Shapiro Won the Admiration of This Arab American Community Leader. Then His Response to the War in Gaza Disappointed Her.

Pennsylvania-based academic Mireille Rebeiz has been impressed by Shapiro's competence and compassion. But his response to the war in Gaza has left her despondent.

Mireille Rebeiz and her son joined Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro as he signed a document declaring that April was Arab American Heritage Month. Photo courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services.

Mireille Rebeiz first met Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro when she was petitioning him to declare Arab American Heritage Month.

Rebeiz, the Chair of Middle Eastern Studies at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College and a Lebanese-American and Antiochian Orthodox Christian, was involved in Arab American activism in the state.

“I’m someone who has been frustrated with the lack of visibility in the Arab American community for a long, long time,” she explained in an interview.

Rebeiz wrote articles and penned an open letter to Governor Shapiro asking him to support the heritage month.

“Based on that I was invited to the Governor’s office…to actually meet him the day the proclamation was signed last year,” she said.

She brought her nine-year-old son with her because she wanted him to be there for an historical moment.

During their meeting, Rebeiz was impressed with Shapiro’s approach to his constituents.

“It was a wonderful meeting. He was very down to earth, easy to talk to, definitely today consider the geriatric presidential race, it’s nice to have a young politician who’s active, willing to listen!” she recalled.

Her son told Shapiro that he was happy to live in a state that valued his culture, prompting the governor to tell him that he should be proud of it.

“It was a very heartwarming moment,” Rebeiz said.

Rebeiz and her son stood next to Shapiro as he made the proclamation official.

The governor also wrote her son a note that he could use explaining his absence from school. The letter had a deep impact on Rebeiz.

“That’s leading with heart. That’s leading with compassion,” she said.

The note Gov. Shapiro wrote for Rebeiz’s son. Photo courtesy of Mireille Rebeiz.

As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro was one of the leaders in the national campaign against former President Donald Trump’s ban on entry from people from various Muslim-majority countries.

And during his gubernatorial campaign in 2022, Shapiro made a concerted effort to reach out to and mobilize the state’s Arab and Muslim voters.

Shapiro, an observant Conservative Jew, served as a sort of bridge between two communities who had often been at odds over conflicts in the Middle East.

“I’m someone who believes in making sure everybody is to be at the table, and everybody gets to be heard and seen,” Shapiro said in 2022. “We certainly have an appreciation and respect for one another. Let’s be real — we’ve seen a rise in Islamophobia, and a rise in antisemitism. And both are wrong, and both make us less safe. An attack against one is an attack against all.”

It was a message that won the hearts of Arab and Muslim voters across the commonwealth — who also appreciated his competence on core governance issues.

Rebeiz pointed to his quick rebuilding of a collapsed prominent roadway as an example of how effective he has been as governor.

“[He] fixed it in 12 days!” she said.

She was later invited to the White House, where she was able to take part in a national celebration for Arab American Heritage Month.

Rebeiz at the White House. Photo courtesy of Mireille Rebeiz

“A huge disappointment”

But after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th, things began to change.

Rebeiz was taken aback by the carnage visited on civilian Israelis.

“To be honest even my community was like what happened? We don’t endorse what happened on October 7th. Many of us consider the attacks on civilians and and loss of civilian life to be a terrorist attack. I personally consider Hamas and Hezbollah to be terrorist organizations,” she said.

Pointing to Shapiro’s immediate sympathy for Israelis and condemnation of Hamas, she initially found his response to be reasonable.

“So as a first reaction, you know, it was like, okay, understandable,” she said.

But as the war in Gaza continued to drag on and months went by, she saw less and less of the man who had showed compassion and warmth towards her community.

“Nine months into this I can honestly say that Governor Shapiro’s position on the war in the Middle East not only indicates ignorance of American foreign policy, Middle East history but also it proves to be a huge disappointment,” she said with exasperation in her voice.

Rebeiz found it frustrating that Shapiro hasn’t joined other governors who have made forceful calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, complaining that his support for the Israeli government’s position has been unwavering.

I pointed her to comments Shapiro made to the Washington Post in March where he said the war needs to end and Hamas needs to be either defeated or exiled as part of that. In the same interview, he also expressed his desire for an Israeli government not led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he said has “been a destructive force for Israel over time.”

Rebeiz was sympathetic to what Shapiro told the Post but said that hasn’t expressed similar sentiments to people on the ground in the Arab American community Pennsylvania.

She was particularly perturbed by remarks Shapiro made in April that seemed to compare some Palestinian-aligned student protesters to the Ku Klux Klan.

“There's no doubt that some protesters have exhibited heinous antisemitic comments and behavior and so on so forth, like, you know, having the Hamas flag or the Hezbollah flag. You know, I fully recognize that,” she conceded.

But thinking about some of her own students who have joined the protests, she finds herself forlorn over Shapiro’s caustic rhetoric toward the demonstrations.

“A lot of my students were in the protests. And some of them are students of color. So how dare he compare these students to the most heinous movements in the United States’s history. And the worst part is, there was no nuance in his position,” she said. “He compared them as if they’re all one bloc, like they’re all hateful, they’re all racist.”

“Time to rectify the record”

With Biden’s exit from the presidential race and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket, Rebeiz is hopeful.

She thinks Harris has through her rhetoric demonstrated more concern for the Palestinian people than Biden did.

But she hasn’t seen the same from Shapiro. She doesn’t want him to be picked as vice president.

Rebeiz just doesn’t think the same man who demonstrated so much compassion and concern for her and her son last year has been able to do the same for the Palestinian people.

But she’s leaving the door open for him to change course.

She thinks he can take a page out of Harris’s book by demonstrating greater sympathy for Palestinians.

“If he [decides] to follow the lead of the phenomenal woman who is leading with compassion, then he should, and there is still time for him to rectify the record,” she said.