El-Sayed Says Israel Is ‘Not Our Friend,’ Giving Rogers New Ammunition in Tight Michigan Senate Race
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said Israel is “not our friend,” remarks that Republicans quickly seized on in one of the closest Senate races in the country.
Asked by ABC News’ Linsey Davis whether he considers Israel an American ally, El-Sayed answered, “An ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn’t be fighting is not an ally,” the New York Post reported.
He compared Israel to a child’s friend who keeps borrowing money, talks behind the child’s back and drags them into fights with other friends.
“I think it’s time for us to realize that Israel is actually not our friend,” El-Sayed said in the interview, which ABC promoted on social media ahead of its Monday night broadcast.
El-Sayed has gone further in other interviews. He told MS NOW that “the government of Israel has done nothing but use us” and accused the Israeli military of war crimes and genocide, the Post reported.
His Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, responded the next morning. “It’s pretty hard to say that this guy is anything but anti-Jew,” Rogers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Rogers called Israel “the best ally we have in the Middle East” and said it has “Western values baked into their political system.”
El-Sayed has rejected accusations of antisemitism, saying he loves Judaism and that “AIPAC and Israel are not the same as Judaism and the Jewish people,” the JTA reported.
Vice President JD Vance has joined the attack. At a recent Michigan rally, he said El-Sayed is “10 times more interested in what’s happening in Palestine than in Port Huron.”
Rogers is courting the state’s estimated 100,000 Jewish adults and other traditionally Democratic voters. Hundreds of Jewish voters, including some lifelong Democrats, have signed a pledge to support him, according to the JTA.
Some prominent Jewish Democrats, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Attorney General Dana Nessel, have endorsed El-Sayed. Others, including congressional candidate Jeremy Moss, have not.
El-Sayed has also faced questions over his sister-in-law’s past federal watchlist lawsuit. He told Fox News she did nothing wrong and blamed Islamophobia, the Jerusalem Post reported.
El-Sayed has said his objections go beyond Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an Oct. 27 election. “Let’s see who the next prime minister is,” he told MS NOW, adding that no candidate has committed to Palestinian self-determination.
Some Jewish voters have also been troubled by El-Sayed’s ties to left-wing streamer Hasan Piker and by his linking of a spring attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield to Israel’s war in Lebanon, the JTA reported.
During last week’s debate, El-Sayed sidestepped a question about whether Israel or Iran poses the bigger threat, later calling it “ridiculous” and saying both countries “have proven dangerous in their own way.”
The race remains close. A Marist poll conducted Oct. 15–18 found El-Sayed leading Rogers 50% to 48% among likely voters, within the margin of error.
Rogers and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are scheduled to appear together in Detroit next week at a Republican Jewish Coalition event titled “Who Will Keep Us Safe?”
Rogers lost Michigan’s 2024 Senate race to Slotkin by fewer than 20,000 votes. The open seat could help decide control of the Senate on Nov. 3.
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