Michigan’s far-left Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is scrambling to patch things up with Jewish voters — and the latest move looks like classic damage control.
His campaign now plans to hire a “Jewish liaison,” according to reporting from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and others. The hire comes after months of controversy over El-Sayed’s anti-Israel record and comments following a March attempted terrorist attack on a West Bloomfield Township synagogue preschool.
After the attack, El-Sayed offered “context.” He noted the assailant’s family had been affected by fighting in the Middle East and said “hurt people hurt people.” Many heard that as explaining away an attack on Jewish children. He has since issued two apologies, including at the Michigan Democratic Party Jewish Caucus’s “Summer Simcha” fundraiser on Sunday, where he said he would “take it all the way back” if he could.
Voters at the event were not sold. When a mother asked whether he would support funding Israel’s Iron Dome to protect children — her own kids were about to fly to Israel — he would not. “He doesn’t care about the safety of my children,” she said. El-Sayed has previously called Israel an “illegal apartheid regime,” branded its government “bloodthirsty,” and demanded a complete freeze on U.S. aid.
His ally, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, undercut the whole charm offensive. Piker told followers El-Sayed is not moderating on Israel and that he himself is being “dangled” as cover. Republican opponent Mike Rogers called the apology tour “the epitome of what a conman does.”
Michigan has roughly 100,000 Jewish residents, a historically Democratic bloc that could matter in a tight Senate race that may decide control of the chamber. El-Sayed won a narrow primary after making opposition to AIPAC and Israel a centerpiece. Now the general election is exposing the cost.
Hiring one liaison does not erase a record of cozying up to extremists, traffic in “genocide” rhetoric, and refusing to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Token outreach after the fact is not the same as moral clarity. Jewish voters — and anyone who believes America should stand with its allies against terrorism — can see the difference.
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