El-Sayed’s obsession with Israel is coming to – Latest News
Abdul El-Sayed’s current victory in Michigan must be a wake-up call for California.
The political motion that helped propel El-Sayed to victory is already flourishing right here, and its loudest obsession is a tiny nation hundreds of miles away.
Israel.
At a time when Californians are struggling with housing prices, homelessness, crime, failing faculties and the fundamental affordability of raising a household, why are native politicians spending valuable time turning metropolis halls into debating chambers on the Middle East battle?
Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a General Election Kickoff Rally for Michigan Democrats at Renaissance High School on Friday, August 7, 2026, in Detroit. (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Richmond’s City Council handed a decision accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” calling for an finish to US navy assist to Israel, and weighing in on Israeli navy coverage.
Santa Monica’s City Council debated and handed its own Gaza ceasefire decision.
Whatever your views on the warfare, ask your self a easy query: Is this why we elect metropolis council members?
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Can Richmond negotiate a Middle East peace settlement? Can Santa Monica decide American international coverage?
Of course not.
But they will repair potholes. They can deal with homelessness. They can improve public security, help small companies and make their cities work higher for the people who really dwell there.
Yet anti-Israel activism has more and more change into a defining political trigger on the far left. AP Photo/Paul Sancya
That must be their focus.
Yet anti-Israel activism has more and more change into a defining political trigger on the far left.
We noticed the depth of that motion on school campuses, together with UCLA. We see it within the Democratic Socialists of America, which helps the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion and ending US navy help to Israel. And now we see politicians related with this motion gaining energy from LA to New York to Michigan.
LA voters ought to pay specific consideration.
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Four members of the 15-member Los Angeles City Council belong to DSA, and Councilwoman Nithya Raman, herself a DSA member, is operating for mayor.
The query Californians ought to ask is not whether or not each progressive candidate holds precisely the identical positions. It is what form of political tradition we’re normalizing.
Look at Michigan.
El-Sayed has campaigned alongside Hasan Piker, a Marxist provocateur who stated America deserved 9/11 and whose anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitic statements ought to disqualify him from the company of any candidate operating for workplace. Yet reasonably than distance himself from Piker’s rhetoric, El-Sayed and different DSA candidates have chosen to share a political stage with him.
LA Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman speaks at a press convention on Friday, July 24, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Jonathan Alcorn) for CA Post
During a leaked donor call, El-Sayed talked about utilizing political victory to push Democrats additional left, saying, “Ideally, you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message.”
He was referring to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who is not a Republican adversary. He is a fellow Democrat whose great ideological offense seems to be refusing to abandon his outspoken help for Israel.
When members of a political social gathering are focused for defeat as a result of they refuse to undertake an anti-Israel litmus check, Americans ought to listen. That is no longer merely a debate over international coverage. It is an effort to punish dissent and implement ideological conformity within one of America’s two main events.
We dwell in a nation already traumatized by political violence. Our leaders must be decreasing the temperature, not invoking photographs of political opponents on pikes.
The contradictions change into even more durable to ignore.
El-Sayed’s marketing campaign attacked main opponent Haley Stevens for voting for a congressional decision honoring Charlie Kirk following his assassination.
Yet when Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, leaked marketing campaign audio reportedly captured El-Sayed cautioning his workers in opposition to commenting as a result of “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad.” He then mentioned pivoting the dialog towards Israel and AIPAC.
As an Iranian-American Jew, that stopped me cold.
My household is aware of what Khamenei’s regime represented.
El-Sayed’s marketing campaign attacked main opponent Haley Stevens for voting for a congressional decision honoring Charlie Kirk following his assassination. REUTERS
Iranian girls had been imprisoned for demanding fundamental freedom. Dissidents had been crushed. Protesters had been killed. Jews and different minorities lived below repression. Families like mine fled Iran as a result of spiritual extremism reworked the nation we beloved.
So when an American politician seems more snug attacking a fellow Democrat for honoring an assassinated American political determine than talking plainly in regards to the death of the chief of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism, I imagine Americans are entitled to ask the place our politics are heading.
This isn’t about demanding unquestioning help for Israel.
Criticize Netanyahu. Debate Gaza. Question American navy assist. That is democracy.
But one thing completely different is taking place when Israel turns into an ideological litmus check and when politicians hundreds of miles from the Middle East appear more animated by Israel than by the on a regular basis issues their constituents elected them to resolve.
As a mom, that is what issues me most.
Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks at a General Election Kickoff Rally for Michigan Democrats at Renaissance High School on Friday, August 7, 2026, in Detroit. (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) AP Photo/Paul Sancya
I speak to California mother and father frightened about whether or not their kids can afford to dwell right here. Whether their faculties are making ready them for the longer term. Whether their neighborhoods are secure. Whether their kids will ever give you the chance to buy a home within the state the place they grew up.
Those aren’t left-wing issues or right-wing issues.
They are California issues. They are American issues.
And they’re what our elected leaders ought to wake up enthusiastic about each morning.
Voters deserve leaders whose campaigns are constructed round bettering their lives.
Michigan simply confirmed us the place this motion can lead politically.
California ought to listen earlier than November.
Shirin Yadegar is the founder of LA Mom Magazine and a political commentator.
