EL-SAYED CONTROVERSY

Democratic Senate candidate Haley Stevens continues to position herself as the moderate, pro-Israel, pro-Jewish constituency candidate in the race even as she gets lambasted for accepting money from the pro-Israel political action committee fund AIPAC, often a bundler of funds from Jewish contributors. Fellow candidate Mallory McMorrow has disavowed accepting AIPAC money, along with any corporate PAC funds, but in the wake of the heinous terrorist attack on

West Bloomfield’s Temple Israel, she spoke to Jewish Insider, acknowledging, “Antisemitism is real.” McMorrow, whose husband is Jewish, said her five-year-old daughter was at preschool at another Reform temple at the time. “This could have been us. This could have been our daughter,” she said. A Catholic, she said she has made a point to reach out and speak to both Jewish and Muslim leaders in the area. Candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is running as a staunch progressive in the race, has taken a position poles apart from Stevens and McMorrow, inviting a left-wing commentator Hasan Piker, who has a history of antisemitic and pro-Hamas remarks, to join him at campaign events at Michigan State University and University of Michigan. Both Stevens and McMorrow condemned Piker, the events and El-Sayed for having Piker join him. At the MSU event, El-Sayed said it is “critical that Democrats embrace” Piker, who has said, among other inflammatory statements, the U.S. deserved 9/11. At U-M, El-Sayed said of the Temple Israel attacker, “It’s just critical for us to understand that hurt people do hurt people, and the circumstances happening 6,000 miles away can affect the lives that we live here.” As Robby Soave, a commentator for The Hill, said, “That, I find, is a bridge too far.”

Abdul El-Sayed

Hasan Piker