Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is positioning money in politics as the centerpiece of his campaign. Specifically, he rails against donations from large political action committees that hope their dollars will influence policymaking.
Even more specifically, El-Sayed condemns the money the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliates are directing into the campaign of his opponent in the Democratic primary, Congresswoman Haley Stevens. A super PAC backed by the pro-Israel lobby has given her $15 million so far.
El-Sayed is among the leading voices in the Democratic Party pushing the canard that AIPAC dollars are locking U.S. policy to Israel’s interests. He implies that AIPAC bears responsibility for the deaths of 75,000 Palestinians in the Gaza War.
But, as often happens when self-righteousness emerges on the campaign trail, hypocrisy is not far behind.
The American Priorities PAC, a pro-Palestinian committee set up to counter AIPAC, said earlier this month it will “do whatever it takes” to get El-Sayed elected, including spending on his behalf.
In addition, the Washington Free Beacon reported this week that El-Sayed’s father-in-law, Jukaku Tayeb, contributed $200,000 to another independent committee, the Fighting for Michigan PAC, which was set up to boost El-Sayed’s Senate bid.
That could be dismissed as simply a father wanting to support his daughter’s husband, except for Tayeb’s background. The site reports he’s been a leader of the Islamic Society of North America, a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The federal government named the Islamic Society as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation in 2007, when Tayeb was among the ISNA top leadership.
Several of the Holy Land Foundation’s founders were convicted of funneling $12 million to Hamas, the terror group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza War. The Islamic Society has since denounced Hamas terrorism and supported a two-state solution in the Middle East. But while it condemned the atrocities of Oct. 7, it didn’t call out Hamas by name.
That’s an important distinction. El-Sayed considers AIPAC cash to be blood-stained because of the Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza. But not one of them would have died had Hamas not invaded Israel and committed its atrocities. The blood in Gaza is on Hamas’ hands, yet the genocide accusers have excused the terror group from responsiblity.
I called El-Sayed to ask about his contradictory stance on PACs. He had a spokesperson call me back instead. She noted that campaigns are not allowed to coordinate with PACs, and that’s true ― true of Stevens and AIPAC as well, by the way. She promised to send me a broader statement that never came.
The aversion Democrats such as El-Sayed pretend to have to money in politics applies only to those PAC dollars that don’t come their way.
Nolan Finley’s columns appear regularly in The Detroit News. Sign up for the Nolan Out Loud report.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: El-Sayed has a two-faced stance on PAC dollars | Finley
Reporting by Nolan Finley, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nolan Finley, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
