If you believe that Donald Trump is the most dangerous and destructive US president in recent times, if not ever, and that the threats he poses to American democracy, the rule of law, and world peace must be thwarted, is it is essential that Democrats gain control of the House and Senate on November 6.
One crucial Senate race that Democrats need to win is the Michigan seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters. That poses a dilemma for Michigan voters, particularly Jews and friends of Israel, following the Democratic primary win by Abdul El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel.
The subservient Republican-led Congress has dreadfully failed in its constitutional responsibility as an independent branch to combat the excesses of this president, who falsely claims Article II of the Constitution gives him the “right to do whatever I want as president.”
Two-thirds of American voters tell pollsters they disapprove of the job the president is doing, and fewer than one in eight feel that Congress is doing a good job.
All indications are this will be a change election. More so than in many years, every vote and every seat counts, particularly in the Senate, which must approve Trump’s nominees for top administration and judicial posts, a particularly critical function as he continues remaking the nation’s government in his own extremist image.
For the past two years, the GOP-led Senate has rubber-stamped Trump’s unqualified nominees, such as Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi, and Kristi Noem, among others. And it will continue to do so if they control the next Senate. More reason why Michigan is a must-win for Democrats.
El-Sayed’s nomination poses a vexing problem for Israel-focused Jewish voters. A Muslim and a physician, who holds a PhD from Oxford University, he was born in the Detroit suburbs to Egyptian immigrants. If elected, he would be America’s first Muslim senator, but not the first Arab-American senator; Michigan, South Dakota, and New Jersey have had Arab-American senators.
Four members of the current 119th Congress are Muslim, all Democrats, and in the House of Representatives. There are 10 Jewish senators, nine Democrats, and one independent, and 25 Jewish representatives.
What was supposed to be a likely Democratic seat has become the most controversial and divisive contest for the party as well as pro-Israel voters. Michigan has one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the nation, more than triple the state’s Jewish population. Its opposition to former president Joe Biden’s support for Israel helped swing the state in Trump’s favor two years ago.
The Republican nominee for the Senate seat is former Rep. Mike Rogers, who had a pro-Israel record in the House and good relations with the state’s Jewish community.
Many Democrats are troubled by their nominee’s Middle East views, but agree with much of his liberal domestic and social views. This is quite the reverse with Rogers, who is running on his support for the Trump agenda. Rogers lost his Senate bid two years ago to Elissa Slotkin, who is Jewish.
AIPAC support can be viewed as toxic
AIPAC and its political action committee spent more than $32 million trying to defeat El-Sayed. Its support had once been highly sought after by candidates in both parties, but in recent years, thanks to its hard swing to the Right with its embrace of Trump, election deniers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and for Israel’s conduct of the Israel-Hamas War, the organization has become a pariah and its money is viewed as toxic in some races.
Rogers personally asked the group to drop any ads on his behalf. Pro-Israel voters yes, AIPAC no. He also recognizes that public attitudes toward Israel have turned negative. Even pro-Israel candidates have spurned AIPAC this year.
Netanyahu and AIPAC’s attacks have done more than anything else to win the nomination for El-Sayed, who has said, “I want AIPAC to cease to be a force in Democratic elections.”
El-Sayed’s primary success was a major victory for the pro-Palestinian movement and a stunning defeat for the pro-Israel lobby. As a senator, he will want to put those views on the agenda.
Many pro-Israel activists, former AIPAC staff, and supporters agree. We believe the group’s decisions to go partisan, to tie itself so tightly to the corrupt and extremist Netanyahu regime, to rate and endorse candidates and to create PACs have proven a catastrophic mistake that has done incalculable harm to the US-Israel alliance.
When asked if he believes in Israel’s right to exist as a national homeland for the Jews, El-Sayed dodges and dismisses it as a “gotcha.” “Israel exists,” he answers. According to The New York Times, he has said: “Israel should not exist as an explicitly Jewish state.”
That understandably alienates many of Israel’s supporters in the mainstream of the Democratic Party and the Jewish community.
He appears to prefer a secular binational state, or letting the parties decide whether they want one or two states. He said he doesn’t believe in “ethno-states” for anyone.
He has called for an immediate and total halt to US military aid and weapons deliveries to Israel and Egypt. He considers Israel’s response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacres a “genocide,” and has called Netanyahu “a war criminal.” He said the actions of Israel and Hamas were equally indefensible.
Many Jews were troubled by his response to the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, when he seemed to defend the attacker, who reportedly lost some family members in a recent Israeli attack in Lebanon.
“Hurt people hurt people,” he said, which some saw as justification for the synagogue attack.
Some Jewish Democratic donors are endorsing and raising money for Rogers. Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, where El-Sayed lives, endorsed Rogers, saying El-Sayed “has only shown contempt for the Jews.”
He rejects the antisemitism label, insisting his commitment to Jewish safety is equal to that for his own daughters. Antisemitism and Islamophobia must both be fought equally, he added. Michigan Jewish leaders feel his denunciation of antisemitism has been too weak.
Given the threats to America and the Free World posed by an unchecked Trump administration for the next two years, the election of a Democratic Congress should be the highest priority.
El-Sayed’s election may be necessary to convince AIPAC and Israeli leaders that they have a serious problem, and kissing Trump’s narcissistic ring isn’t working. They are in great danger of losing their most important allies unless they make some dramatic changes – and quickly.
Israelis will also have a chance this fall to elect a new government, one that can move toward reconciliation not only in that deeply divided country and with the Palestinians, but also with the friends that Netanyahu sacrificed on the altar of his personal ambitions. Rebuilding bipartisan support in Washington, which Netanyahu and AIPAC have squandered, is urgently needed.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.