{"id":248329,"date":"2026-08-14T01:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/248329\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T01:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T01:45:28","slug":"flanagan-wins-minnesota-primary-amid-israel-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/248329\/","title":{"rendered":"Flanagan wins Minnesota primary amid Israel debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peggy Flanagan, the likely next senator from Minnesota, defeated a moderate pro-Israel congresswoman, accuses Israel<\/a> of genocide and says she would oppose offensive weapons sales to Israel.<\/p>\n

If the victory Tuesday of the state\u2019s lieutenant governor over Rep. Angie Craig sounds like an echo of last week\u2019s election in another midwestern state, Michigan, listen a little closer: Flanagan differs from Abdul El-Sayed<\/a> in critical if subtle ways when it comes to Israel and Jews.<\/p>\n

Flanagan has not joined El-Sayed and a number of left-wing challengers for Congress in saying that she would oppose US funding for defensive weapons like the Iron Dome missile program.<\/p>\n

Her platform says she would have joined the two incumbent Minnesota senators, Amy Klobuchar, who is running for governor, and whom she hopes to replace, and Tina Smith \u201cin voting to halt offensive weapons sales to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

That places her within the current Democratic mainstream: 40 out of 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats<\/a> voted in April for the bill banning offensive weapons when it came up.<\/p>\n

Her platform also calls for \u201ca two-state solution which allows for a secure Israel and Palestinian self-determination.\u201d El-Sayed will not commit to recognizing Israel\u2019s existence as a Jewish state, or to a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticDemocratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks in Detroit after a radio appearance on Dr. Horace Sheffield’s GOTV Community Rally on August 01, 2026. (credit: Finn Gomez\/Getty Images)Temple Israel defaced with hateful messages on Oct. 7 anniversary\u00a0<\/p>\n

The crisis moment in El-Sayed\u2019s relationship with his state\u2019s Jewish community came when he appeared to equivocate in condemning a violent attack on a Detroit area synagogue in March when pre-school was in session.<\/p>\n

Flanagan was unequivocal: \u201cOur Jewish communities are facing unprecedented levels of violence and threats,\u201d she wrote then on social media. \u201cIt is on all of us to call anti-semitism out when we see and hear it, and to make sure that all of our faith communities are treated with respect. Hate brings no one more safety, more dignity, or more peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is equally as adamant when the threat is closer to home. In 2025, on the anniversary of the October 7, 2023<\/a> attack, a different synagogue called Temple Israel in Minneapolis was vandalized with graffiti in the shape of two inverted triangles, a symbol associated with Hamas, and reading \u201cAl-Aqsa Flood,\u201d Hamas\u2019 name for its attack on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, Temple Israel in Minneapolis was defaced with anti-Semitic hate,\u201d Flanagan wrote. \u201cMy heart is with the congregants of Temple Israel and our entire Jewish community. Hate has no home in Minnesota, and every house of worship should be a safe place to pray.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are things that Flanagan has done and said that nonetheless unsettled the pro-Israel community.<\/p>\n

Some Jewish Democrats voiced concern to the Minnesota Star Tribune that Flanagan played into antisemitic tropes by singling out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in her campaign against Craig, a page out of El-Sayed\u2019s playbook in defeating AIPAC-backed Rep. Haley Stevens, and the playbook of a number of progressive congressional candidates this year.<\/p>\n

During the lead-up to the primary, Flanagan was vocal about her opponent Craig\u2019s support from the pro-Israel lobby, calling her \u201cAIPAC\u2019s candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Flanagan spokesperson told the paper that she has \u201cconsistently condemned antisemitism<\/a> and will continue standing with Jewish Minnesotans against hate.\u201d Flanagan\u2019s campaign did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Flanagan had the support of Israel-critical progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who authored the proposed ban on the sale of offensive weapons, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Like them, and unlike Smith and Klobuchar, she has accused Israel of genocide.<\/p>\n

She also drew the endorsement of progressive Jewish organization Bend the Arc.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a close friend of the Twin Cities Jewish community and a trusted ally in the fight against antisemitism,\u201d wrote Bend the Arc\u2019s CEO, Jamie Beran. \u201cShe understands that Jewish safety is bound up with the safety and freedom of all our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Flanagan will take on Republican nominee Michele Tafoya, a former NFL sideline reporter who has expressed support for Israel and its war with the US in Iran. Minnesota has not elected a Republican US Senator since 2002. Flanagan is favored to win in a state which has trended increasingly blue in recent years.<\/p>\n

Flanagan also says she will not support New York\u2019s Chuck Schumer if he chooses to seek another term as party leader in the Senate. Schumer is a pro-Israel stalwart.<\/p>\n

Republicans, who control the Senate, have unanimously voted against Sanders\u2019 resolutions, rendering them essentially symbolic tools for Democrats to voice disapproval of the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

If progressive Israel critics like El-Sayed and Troy Jackson in Maine<\/a> win in November and help flip the Senate, and especially if Schumer gives up leadership, the pathway to blocking weapons sales to Israel would become clearer than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peggy Flanagan, the likely next senator from Minnesota, defeated a moderate pro-Israel congresswoman, accuses Israel of genocide and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[22474,19410,1275,2344,37,8576,1200,7795],"class_list":["post-248329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-abdul-el-sayed","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-democrats","tag-iron-dome","tag-israel","tag-michigan","tag-minnesota","tag-us-israel-relations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117091337993873795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248329","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=248329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}