ORIGINAL POST
I’ve never seen a Democratic candidate criticized by other Democrats with such an extraordinary barrage of bigotry, lies and bullshit as Abdul El-Sayed has been.
I will provide some of the evidence that the attacks on El-Sayed are false and malicious in an addendum at the end of this post. This evidence is easy to find but El-Sayed’s critics mostly aren’t willing to look for it. Instead, they repeat ad nauseam the lies that have been endlessly repeated by people who claim to support Jews and Israel but are, in fact, supporters of Netanyahu’s horrible regime.
But first let me summarize the charges against El-Sayed and the truth, and explain why it is so important that he win the election tomorrow.
To begin with, El-Sayed
—is not a member or supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.
—does not call for the elimination of the Jewish state. He supports a just settlement between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis and has said that it is up to the two parties to determine if that consists of one state, two states, or some combination of them.
—has not blamed Israel or American Jews for inflation or other economic troubles.
—did not ignore the attack on Temple Israel but explicitly condemned the violence and antisemitism, stating that worshippers have a right to safety and peace.
—has explicitly rejected the contents of the antisemitic ad funded by the antisemite Cenk Uygur.
If you believe the opposite of any of these things, you have fallen for the series of lies and nonsense being put forward, along with explicit anti-Muslim bigotry, by the Republicans and their supporters in this race.
He does think that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza and that the US should not fund Israel’s military activities.
So do I.
I’m Jewish and a Zionist. (A critical Zionist who has supported a Palestinian state / political entity for 58 years but a Zionist nonetheless in that I still support a Jewish state / political entity.) And I think that the best thing that the US can do for Israel is use its influence to stop Netanyahu’s policies.
And even if you disagree with me on this, there is simply no question that we need a Democratic Senate to support our ideals and values:
—To reject Trump’s violation of our constitution in his devastating budget cuts, which, among other things, have led to the death of a half million people in developing countries.
—To reject Trump’s horrible, unconstitutional and illegal rampage against immigrants, including many fully documented immigrants and undocumented immigrants who have lived here for decades, working hard to support their American citizen children.
—To reject Trump’s devastating cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.
—To reject Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires.
—To reject the appeals to racism, sexism, bigotry against Muslims and Jews that are central to Trump and MAGA’s policies.
The first question I ask about a politician is not, “Is he good for Jews?” I ask if he supports freedom and justice on the firm belief that such a commitment is exactly what Jews need. So, if I did ask whether some politician is “good for Jews,” the answer would be obvious.
Jews and Jewish life have thrived under liberal democratic governments that have upheld the rule of law, civil liberty, democracy, and a commitment to social justice.
We have been devastated and murdered by fascist regimes.
The choice we face in this election is simple: do we support a party that, however imperfect, is defending liberal democracy? Or do we support a party that has embraced fascism, authoritarianism, and the continuing upward redistribution of income to the corporate elite?
Even if every lie about El-Sayed were true, I would still vote for him if I lived in Michigan. The stakes are too high not to support Democrats everywhere.
But the lies are the product of the MAGA Republican embrace of bigotry and falsehood.
I just sent El-Sayed another check. I urge you to do so as well.
If you live in Michigan, please vote for him if you haven’t already.
And for God’s sake, stop embracing and repeating the lies and falsehoods about El-Sayed. Don’t let your fears lead you to accept this incredibly dangerous nonsense.
THE EVIDENCE
–Did El-Sayed condemn the Rebellion PAC ad?
Yes. In this presser he says “the ad was not made by me and I disagree with the contents of that ad” https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sSXoHLzTW_w
–Did El-Sayed’s response to the attack on Temple Israel excuse the attack? Did his response support Palestinian terrorism?
Read the whole thing. The answer is clearly no.
“Yesterday, our state was rocked by news of a heinous attack on Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. An armed assailant drove his truck into the building where there are 140 children. Because of the heroism of Temple security and law enforcement, the assailant was disarmed and ultimately killed. No teachers, children or congregants were physically harmed. I’m so relieved.”
“I grew up not 15 minutes away from Temple Israel. Many of my childhood friends and classmates worshiped there. I shuddered to think through the emotions of the parents whose children were in the synagogue. This attack will leave scars on the inside. That’ll stay with the community for decades. These scars, they’ll echo centuries of trauma on the part of the Jewish people, calling back the memories of atrocities, including the Holocaust against Jewish people, that are torn afresh every time something like this happens.”
“To my Jewish sisters and brothers, I want to reaffirm my commitment to your rights to worship, to learn, to practice and to celebrate your faith. Antisemitism has no place in our communities. Ever. Full stop.”
“Yesterday, we also learned that the attacker was Ayman Ghazali. He was Arab American and Muslim. I condemn what he did. There is never a justification for attacking innocent people or houses of worship. Never.”
“As an epidemiologist, I’ve spent my career studying the worst things that happen to people to understand how to stop them from happening, and I’ll never forget one of the simplest lessons I learned while on my psychiatry rotation in medical school: hurt people hurt people. Violence is a cycle. Ayman Ghazali lost family, including two children, in an airstrike in Lebanon last week. They were innocent people. And then, in an evil act of displaced rage, he tried to take it out on innocent children, who had nothing to do with the loss of the innocent children he lost, except that they share a faith.”
“Temple Israel is not the state of Israel. Jewish people are not the state of Israel, and the people of Israel are not the political actors who make direct choices for the State of Israel. We cannot and must not conflate these – an act rooted in antisemitism. One can have righteous anger at the actions of the State of Israel while expressing solidarity with the Jewish people, including Jewish people in Israel. The conflation of these – whether in the dastardly way Ayman Ghazali did or in an effort to use the specter of antisemitism to defend the indefensible – it sits at the root of our failure to stop this violence.”
“Ayman Ghazali hurt people. There is no justification for what he did. A week earlier, an airstrike killed his niece and nephew. Imagine if that had never happened. Imagine there was no war in Iran. Imagine if there were no airstrikes in Lebanon. Imagine if his family had never died. Imagine there was never an attack on Temple Israel. That’s the world that we want to live in. That’s the world we need to build for.”
“Violence always begets violence. Only peace can extinguish that. Because hurt people hurt people.”
–Is El-Sayed a member or supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood?
No one has provided any evidence in support of this claim. There is some sketchy evidence that his half-sister may have said some things supportive of it in the context of the Egyptian revolution against the Mubarak regime.
It is also true that supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US have contributed to his campaign.
Even if true, these claims consist of guilt by association, not evidence of his own view.
No candidate controls who contributes to him. No candidate’s views should be attributed to him because of the views or associations of his family members or campaign contributors.
If people had evidence of El-Sayed ever supporting the Muslim Brotherhood or agreeing with its ideas, they would post it. They haven’t.
El-Sayed did sign a letter supporting the Morsi Presidency in Egypt, calling on him to purge state institutions of officers loyal to the previous regime. The letter makes no mention of the Muslim Brotherhood. Lots of people, including me, had hopes that Morsi would create a democratic government to replace the autocracy of Mubarak. We were, of course, disappointed. That does not make us supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The idea that El-Sayed supported the Muslim Brotherhood comes from the fervent imagination of right-wing Republicans including Laura Loomer. He has disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood more than once during the campaign. See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/29/laura-loomer-trump-abdul-el-sayed-muslim-brotherhood
–Does El-Sayed support Israel’s right to exist?
In a long interview with Ross Douthat on 60 Minutes, he said that he has long supported a two-state solution. He has said he supports the right of Israel to exist if it is open to a Palestinian state.
Elsewhere he has said that he would accept any solution reached by Israel and Palestine whether it is 2 states or 1 state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX44XDt0gXI
–Does El-Sayed recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state? That is implicit in what he said above.
But he has questioned any state that gives one ethnic group privileges over others. That should not be objectionable to anyone who believes in liberal democracy and the rights of human beings. It is one thing for a majority of people to be of one ethnicity. It is another, wrong, thing for that group to receive special privileges and benefits. That was the premise of Israel in 1948. Israel hasn’t always lived up to it any more than the US has lived up to our Declaration of Independence. But sadly under Netanyahu, the commitment of Israel to this principle has waned.
–Is El-Sayed an antisemite given his criticism of Israel?
He has condemned the Gaza War and attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank.
I, and most American Jews, agree with this critique of the Netanyahu government.
He’s also said that American Jews are not responsible for what Israel does. (See the statement on Temple Israel above.)
–Why has El-Sayed been slow to respond to Jewish critics?
Some critics of El-Sayed think that El-Sayed should spend half of every day reassuring us by condemning some of his supporters who we rightly despise or some of the statements they make which are awful.
These folks don’t seem to understand that he is running in a tight election, that we should want him to win. Every time he is distracted from his central message, his campaign is undermined.
The standard rule in politics is to not engage with criticism, especially when it is utter bullshit. Engaging with it amplifies the criticism and gives it more attention. So you are asking him to do exactly what any good campaign adviser would tell him not to do.
In addition, most candidates don’t spend all their time on social media. They are dependent on their staff to stay in touch. So it is not unusual for responses to take time.
I understand where this criticism comes from. Many of us Jews are upset that instead of getting unquestioned support from Democrats, Israel is now subject to criticism. None of us likes to hear this even if we are ourselves critical of Israel and especially Bibi’s far-right government.
El-Sayed is not here to make us feel better about this situation. And he certainly didn’t cause it. Netanyahu did.
So stop expecting him to spend his campaign reassuring us. That’s not his job.
Instead, work to create a pro-Israel movement that is not blind to the horrors of Bibi and the rights of Palestinians.
I’m sure El-Sayed would support that one.