{"id":235272,"date":"2026-08-04T10:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/235272\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T10:46:11","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-has-one-answer-for-every-michigan-problem-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/235272\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul el Sayed has one answer for every Michigan problem: Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abdul el Sayed<\/a> faces Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan\u2019s<\/a> Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. Just one week ago, the two squared off in their final debate before the primary election. You might have expected local and state issues to dominate. El Sayed saw to it that they did not.<\/p>\n

He was asked how he would make life more affordable for Michigan residents. His answer: He doesn\u2019t take money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and will \u201cmake sure that, rather than sending your money somewhere else to drop bombs on other people and their kids, we can keep that money here at home.\u201d Having already rerouted the affordability<\/a> question to Israel, he pressed on, reminding the audience that Stevens recently voted against an amendment to block military aid to Israel. The reason for her vote, in his telling? \u201cThat is the pro quo that comes with the quid of $30 million spent by AIPAC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he profited from his podcast appearances, he pivoted again: \u201cI\u2019m more concerned about the fact that \u2026 we\u2019re fighting a war that has cost billions of dollars that has been pushed by the government of a foreign country.\u201d Israel, again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What of his views on improving Michigan\u2019s public schools? He allowed himself a sentence on the subject before returning to the Jewish state. \u201cWe are being robbed. The money that we should have to invest in our schools is being sent to foreign governments to destroy other people\u2019s schools. \u2026 That is exactly what AIPAC wants.\u201d More than merely shifting the conversation to Israel, el Sayed blames the Jewish state for domestic problems.<\/p>\n

None of these questions invited a discussion about the Middle East<\/a>. Yet, again and again, el Sayed steered the conversation back to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The debate reinforced a broader pattern in el Sayed\u2019s candidacy. Opposition to Israel is the lens through which he frames nearly every political question. He has previously said that he \u201cstruggle[s]\u201d with whether Israel should exist, called the Israeli government \u201cevil\u201d like Hamas, and accused it of genocide. He has also suggested that no reason other than money could drive someone to support Israel: \u201cNot if you\u2019re a Democrat and you believe in human rights,\u201d he said recently on CNN.<\/p>\n

RACES TO WATCH IN MICHIGAN AS ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS FACE OFF AGAINST CHALLENGES ON THEIR LEFT FLANK<\/a><\/p>\n

El Sayed is not an outlier in today\u2019s Democratic Party. He is the norm. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently picked a fight with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros, recently victorious in her district\u2019s Democratic primary, singled out AIPAC in her victory speech and said that one of her primary goals in office is to \u201cend the genocide in Palestine.\u201d Adam Hamawy, the winner of the Democratic primary in New Jersey\u2019s 12th Congressional District, declared that \u201cthere is no such thing as progressive except for Palestine.\u201d For an increasingly vocal faction of the party, Israel has eclipsed nearly every other issue.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy is part of a senator\u2019s portfolio, though the same cannot be said for a mayor like Mamdani. So, it is not surprising that the Middle East was litigated on the debate stage. Productive discussion is healthy, particularly as the conflict with Iran continues, and a new Gaza<\/a> peace plan has just been announced. But it is a different story when every domestic question becomes an occasion to change the subject to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexandra Orbuch Horowitz is a\u00a0New York City-based writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abdul el Sayed faces Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in Michigan\u2019s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. Just one week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[14188,22474,2922,2492,57192,37,499,8576,42204],"class_list":["post-235272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-elections","tag-abdul-el-sayed","tag-aipac","tag-antisemitism","tag-democratic-primary","tag-israel","tag-judaism","tag-michigan","tag-primaries"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117036841892685869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}