El-Sayed’s win changes the conversation on Israel — and Israel’s relationship with US Jews
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| RealityBites |
"Just four years ago, if a US Senate candidate had said it was “unfortunate” that Jewish voters wouldn’t accuse Israel of genocide, it would have likely driven weeks of headlines.
The same goes for the prospect of an aspiring senator who vowed to block offensive arms sales to Israel.
On Tuesday, both such candidates — Maine’s Troy Jackson and Texas’s James Talarico — won their races, part of the Democrats’ sweep of the US midterm elections. Yet their comments hardly registered, because both were far from the most extreme Democratic critic of Israel to win election.
That title goes to Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan. His positions have been covered exhaustively during a bruising primary and general election: He constantly accuses Israel of genocide and says US tax dollars shouldn’t be spent to “drop bombs on other people’s kids” — a reference to US military aid.
He has disparaged the very idea of a Jewish state, and has said Israel is not a US ally. He has said money is the only reason a Democrat who “believes in human rights” would support Israel. In a recent interview, he scoffed at the idea of limiting a Palestinian state to the West Bank and Gaza, suggesting Palestinians should get parts, or all, of Israel proper." . . .More.
For many Jewish Michigan voters, El-Sayed’s justification for synagogue attack unforgivable . . . "The Jewish member of the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents did end up reaching a decision, but he declines to share how he cast his ballot, citing the election’s extreme divisiveness.
“This election has been enormously painful for Michigan’s Jewish community. We’ve been divided in lots of different pieces by lots of different candidates,” says Acker in an interview from his law office outside of Detroit, noting that a majority of the state’s Jews are Democrats and that those voters largely did not back El-Sayed in the primary.
The most decisive factor in their decision-making was El-Sayed’s response to a terror attack on a nearby synagogue earlier this year.
El-Sayed issued a statement in which he said that there could be no justification for the targeting of Temple Israel, but went on to explain that “hurt people hurt people.”
The progressive Democrat eventually apologized for the remark, but largely for its timing, as opposed to its substance.
So while the Jewish community in Michigan overwhelmingly came out in support of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris two years ago, Acker expected a much more even split in today’s Senate race.
“For a lot of Jewish Michiganders, ‘Hurt people hurt people’ was an unforgivable way to talk about us,” he says." . . .
For many Jewish Michigan voters, El-Sayed’s justification for synagogue attack unforgivable
. . . "El-Sayed’s win may have shifted one more factor that Israelis scrutinize: the Jewish vote.
"US Jews have voted in large majorities for Democrats for about a century, and most American Jews support Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, even if they object to its prime minister and many of its policies." . . .
"Until recently, these stances didn’t present a contradiction at the ballot box. Most Democratic officials were pro-Israel, so Jews could vote their liberal values while also feeling confident that their representatives and senators supported Israel’s existence and safety.
"This year, in Michigan, Jewish voters had to choose. Their options were a pro-Trump Republican who supports Israel, and a progressive Democrat who opposes the country. Early returns suggest that the vote was close, but that El-Sayed won a slim majority of Jewish voters — 57 percent." . . .
Democrats tell Republicans to 'lawyer up'
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| Dark Angel |
