79-year old Jewish Michigander, a retired early American historian, here. I voted, with great enthusiasm, for Abdul Rahman Muhammad El-Sayed (I use his full name, because, as I have learned, it points to virtue)...Virtue that Abdul shares. I was hardly the only superannuated Jew to vote for Abdul, at least in my county, Wastenauw, with its two large universities, and many Jewish Michiganders.
And I agree that the Fascists will come after the Jews as well as the followers of Islam.
There is a full-press court of fear and lies by very Zionist Jews aimed at Michigander Jews, as reported by Jewish Insider. Excerpts: "“I can’t vote for El-Sayed,” Michael Horowitz, a Jewish community leader and Detroit businessman who supported Stevens... told Jewish Insider. “So many things I find despicable about him, not the least of which is his close association with Hasan Piker,” the antisemitic Twitch streamer, who Horowitz said “demeans America, demeans Jews and demeans all but the most radical among us.” Horowitz claimed he had heard "in the Jewish community with say they will be supporting Rogers." I have listened to Piker a number of times; he is not Antisemitic, unlike those who link Israel to the diaspora, implying dual loyalties (I refer to the ADL, who, of course condemned El-Sayed). Jewish Insider could not find a single Jew who supported Abdul---none of the Jewish protesters who joined the encampment at U Mich, none of the Jewish academics at UMich who have written about the IDF genocide, not a single supporter of JVP or IfNotNow, both of which campaigned for Abdul and clearly have their work cut out for them. I certainly hope that Peter publishes this piece in the NYT, where it will be seen.
I, too, am a 79 year old Jewish Michigander who strongly supports the candidacy of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. We have organized a "Jews for Abdul" coalition for two reasons: primarily, to assert and demonstrate the total compatibility of Dr. Abdul’s views and policies with traditional Jewish values and, subsequently, to defend him vigorously against accusations of antisemitism.
And this is coming from a Lebanese-Muslim-American whose FULL name is Nabil Kassem Mohammad Khodr Abdul-Sater. I should have kept it Nabil Abdul-Sater. I shortened it to Nabil Sater (long story). Maybe one day I wil tell you.
And you thought Abdul Rahman Muhammad El-Sayed is bad?
You make some fair points, but fall down in defending the reprehensible campist Hasan Piker, who if not an antisemite does a damn good impersonation of one.
Please give me an example; I have listened to him repeatedly and have never heard an antisemitic comment, worse, for instance, what Omar Bartov has written about Israel?
thank you, peter. mercy, the noise machine is in overdrive. abdul el-sayed and anyone like him DOES represent a threat...to white supremacy...to empire and its foundations...and to our fairy tales about what the united states is and the values it stands for. pinning our hopes and dreams onto an individual or the blue team in a system corrupted by power and money is a pattern. nationalistic preoccupations are too small now for the challenges humanity faces. for me, only a global shift of consciousness will do. we are one human family involved in a larger project called life. the very survival of our species may hang on this shift.
The threat to our democracy and the post War world order lies not with Muslims, not with Jews , but with the gang of Silicon Valley Techno/Oligarchs, of whom Peter Thiel is the presumed leader. Their fondest desire seems to be to destroy the ideals we like to think of as unique to and real in America.
Jason Linkins (bit.ly/45OgUJg) over at the The New Republic has a great expose on the Muskrat’s millstone around Susan Collin’s neck. It seems that Muskrat’s brainchild xAI has begun to embrace pornography as part of its AI generated offerings. That’a a good look.
But the piece goes further in describing what has been going on in the fascist party since Cheeto descended the golden escalator to the cheers of paid attendees to falsely appear to support him. With his BFF relationship with a pedo extortion expert to his Access Hollywood tapes to his civil lawsuit losses to E Jean Carroll and Stormy Daniels, Cheeto has created a political party that throws morality out the window and makes anything pornographic not only fair game but part of the game.
Not only have the fascists decided that lawlessness is ok but that anything that restricts their game to be off limits. In other words pornography, misogynistic behavior including putting an end to female reproductive rights, child and domestic spousal abuse, workplace sexual harassment are all on the table.
So Americans are at a crossroads of deciding what kind of country WE the People want to have. Do WE want a country that has moral standards? Or are WE just a bunch of lawless animals because that’s what the fascist Republicans are exemplifying to US.
Well said but also people should want to be outspoken about and call out a this Islamaphobic bigotry because it is the right thing to do. It is a double standard otherwise. And not just do it for self interested protection. It is sad that this is where we are at
Supremacy of white pseudo Christian nationalists is the apartheid aim of these ideological supremacists. No democracy in their heart , just domination. The Holy One has one one global marvelously diverse human family loved ultimately by the Creator. Supremacy is evil heresy and rejected by God.
I stood in the sacred space of Yad Vashem The World Holocaust Remembrance Center as a member of U.S. Commerce Secretary Daley's delegation to Israel in the preparation round of our diplomatic preparations for the official visit of President Clinton and the First Lady to Palestine and Israel. No one checked my faith background, or the Secretary's, or any member of our delegation. We gathered in solemn silence and I think at our spiritual core we renewed a promise "NEVER AGAIN." I don't believe it starts with death camps and killing special operations. The process of exterminating a people begins with denying their rights to live in peace and freedom as fellow citizens. With disrespect. With false accusations of criminal acts. With false accusations of treason and disloyalty. With mockery of religious practices. With fantasies of malevolent acts. Peter doesn't need me to say he's telling the TRUTH. We believe these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How about it? Would we like to give it a try? No one is going to do it for us. We have to learn how to do it for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren until the end of the world.
Some of you may be interested in this excerpt (link at the bottom) from an interview with Abdul El-Sayed, in which he speaks about Israel/Palestine.
What he says leans into “welfare not warfare” rhetoric in a way that internationalists are wary of: there’s always a slightly nationalist tinge to any “spend our tax dollars at home, not abroad” framing, which can come back to bite the left when we advocate various forms of international aid.
However, he is quite clear on the fundamentals of the Israel/Palestine conflict and stresses the need for a solution guaranteeing self-determination for both Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East.
He has also compared aid to Israel to aid to Egypt (he’s from an Egyptian family), which he also opposes, and counterposes this to aid to Ukraine, which he describes as “a righteous struggle to protect a sovereign nation from being invaded by their neighbour.”
He told NBC “in Ukraine, you’re talking about attacks from a leader of a neighboring sovereign country, who clearly violated international law in attempting to breach the sovereignty of the Ukrainian public. That is conditional on that circumstance [whereas] we have been offering unconditional foreign military aid to Israel, independent of the circumstances, for years and years and years. And might I say, it’s not just Israel; it’s also Egypt, it’s also Jordan. It’s also Saudi Arabia. That’s the difference. It’s about the conditions.”
Less to El-Sayed’s credit is the speaking tour he did with Hasan Piker, a supposedly “left wing” influencer who has supported Hamas and Hezbullah, and also declared that the 9/11 attack was justified. El-Sayed has described Piker’s comments about 9/11 as “dumb” but not disavowed the rest of this vile character’s crass, campist politics.
El-Sayed has been widely described as a member or supporter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) but my information is that he is not: if so, good! The DSA’s politics in recent years have degenerated into campist, semi-Stalinist nonsense and "my enemy's enemy is my friend" stupidity.
Anyway, here’s a link to the important part of the interview:
That’s a lovely moment of Jewish inclusion and belonging you describe at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Interesting to think about it in the context of the Jewish AG of Michigan not attending this year’s Democratic convention in Michigan because she doesn’t feel safe there as a Jewish woman.
Please also ask Finkelstein whether in 2007, he posted an email mocking a petition that opposed the death threats against Canadian author and Muslim dissident Irshad Manji.
When Irshad Manji was subjected to credible fatwas and death threats from extremists due to her work criticizing mainstream Islamic practices, advocacy groups and a web portal launched a petition supporting her safety.
It is alleged that Finkelstein wrote an email to the organization hosting the anti-death threat petition, asking: "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?"
79-year old Jewish Michigander, a retired early American historian, here. I voted, with great enthusiasm, for Abdul Rahman Muhammad El-Sayed (I use his full name, because, as I have learned, it points to virtue)...Virtue that Abdul shares. I was hardly the only superannuated Jew to vote for Abdul, at least in my county, Wastenauw, with its two large universities, and many Jewish Michiganders.
And I agree that the Fascists will come after the Jews as well as the followers of Islam.
There is a full-press court of fear and lies by very Zionist Jews aimed at Michigander Jews, as reported by Jewish Insider. Excerpts: "“I can’t vote for El-Sayed,” Michael Horowitz, a Jewish community leader and Detroit businessman who supported Stevens... told Jewish Insider. “So many things I find despicable about him, not the least of which is his close association with Hasan Piker,” the antisemitic Twitch streamer, who Horowitz said “demeans America, demeans Jews and demeans all but the most radical among us.” Horowitz claimed he had heard "in the Jewish community with say they will be supporting Rogers." I have listened to Piker a number of times; he is not Antisemitic, unlike those who link Israel to the diaspora, implying dual loyalties (I refer to the ADL, who, of course condemned El-Sayed). Jewish Insider could not find a single Jew who supported Abdul---none of the Jewish protesters who joined the encampment at U Mich, none of the Jewish academics at UMich who have written about the IDF genocide, not a single supporter of JVP or IfNotNow, both of which campaigned for Abdul and clearly have their work cut out for them. I certainly hope that Peter publishes this piece in the NYT, where it will be seen.
I, too, am a 79 year old Jewish Michigander who strongly supports the candidacy of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. We have organized a "Jews for Abdul" coalition for two reasons: primarily, to assert and demonstrate the total compatibility of Dr. Abdul’s views and policies with traditional Jewish values and, subsequently, to defend him vigorously against accusations of antisemitism.
Just joined Jews for Abdul. Thanks for the mention.
Thank you, Allan, for this GREAT post.
And this is coming from a Lebanese-Muslim-American whose FULL name is Nabil Kassem Mohammad Khodr Abdul-Sater. I should have kept it Nabil Abdul-Sater. I shortened it to Nabil Sater (long story). Maybe one day I wil tell you.
And you thought Abdul Rahman Muhammad El-Sayed is bad?
You make some fair points, but fall down in defending the reprehensible campist Hasan Piker, who if not an antisemite does a damn good impersonation of one.
Please give me an example; I have listened to him repeatedly and have never heard an antisemitic comment, worse, for instance, what Omar Bartov has written about Israel?
Peter’s eloquent warning against bigotry is greatly needed today, and I hope will be embraced by most Americans.
thank you, peter. mercy, the noise machine is in overdrive. abdul el-sayed and anyone like him DOES represent a threat...to white supremacy...to empire and its foundations...and to our fairy tales about what the united states is and the values it stands for. pinning our hopes and dreams onto an individual or the blue team in a system corrupted by power and money is a pattern. nationalistic preoccupations are too small now for the challenges humanity faces. for me, only a global shift of consciousness will do. we are one human family involved in a larger project called life. the very survival of our species may hang on this shift.
Sadly the stranglehold that AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups have on Jews deprives many Jews of their agency to live out their true moral values.
The threat to our democracy and the post War world order lies not with Muslims, not with Jews , but with the gang of Silicon Valley Techno/Oligarchs, of whom Peter Thiel is the presumed leader. Their fondest desire seems to be to destroy the ideals we like to think of as unique to and real in America.
There used to be an anti-defamation league, for things like this
Fascist Republicans Gambit Of Amorality
Jason Linkins (bit.ly/45OgUJg) over at the The New Republic has a great expose on the Muskrat’s millstone around Susan Collin’s neck. It seems that Muskrat’s brainchild xAI has begun to embrace pornography as part of its AI generated offerings. That’a a good look.
But the piece goes further in describing what has been going on in the fascist party since Cheeto descended the golden escalator to the cheers of paid attendees to falsely appear to support him. With his BFF relationship with a pedo extortion expert to his Access Hollywood tapes to his civil lawsuit losses to E Jean Carroll and Stormy Daniels, Cheeto has created a political party that throws morality out the window and makes anything pornographic not only fair game but part of the game.
Not only have the fascists decided that lawlessness is ok but that anything that restricts their game to be off limits. In other words pornography, misogynistic behavior including putting an end to female reproductive rights, child and domestic spousal abuse, workplace sexual harassment are all on the table.
So Americans are at a crossroads of deciding what kind of country WE the People want to have. Do WE want a country that has moral standards? Or are WE just a bunch of lawless animals because that’s what the fascist Republicans are exemplifying to US.
thank you thank you thank you thank you... yes!!! 100% agree on every single sentence you speak here.. Will share..
This one is one of your best.
Well said but also people should want to be outspoken about and call out a this Islamaphobic bigotry because it is the right thing to do. It is a double standard otherwise. And not just do it for self interested protection. It is sad that this is where we are at
Supremacy of white pseudo Christian nationalists is the apartheid aim of these ideological supremacists. No democracy in their heart , just domination. The Holy One has one one global marvelously diverse human family loved ultimately by the Creator. Supremacy is evil heresy and rejected by God.
I stood in the sacred space of Yad Vashem The World Holocaust Remembrance Center as a member of U.S. Commerce Secretary Daley's delegation to Israel in the preparation round of our diplomatic preparations for the official visit of President Clinton and the First Lady to Palestine and Israel. No one checked my faith background, or the Secretary's, or any member of our delegation. We gathered in solemn silence and I think at our spiritual core we renewed a promise "NEVER AGAIN." I don't believe it starts with death camps and killing special operations. The process of exterminating a people begins with denying their rights to live in peace and freedom as fellow citizens. With disrespect. With false accusations of criminal acts. With false accusations of treason and disloyalty. With mockery of religious practices. With fantasies of malevolent acts. Peter doesn't need me to say he's telling the TRUTH. We believe these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How about it? Would we like to give it a try? No one is going to do it for us. We have to learn how to do it for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren until the end of the world.
Some of you may be interested in this excerpt (link at the bottom) from an interview with Abdul El-Sayed, in which he speaks about Israel/Palestine.
What he says leans into “welfare not warfare” rhetoric in a way that internationalists are wary of: there’s always a slightly nationalist tinge to any “spend our tax dollars at home, not abroad” framing, which can come back to bite the left when we advocate various forms of international aid.
However, he is quite clear on the fundamentals of the Israel/Palestine conflict and stresses the need for a solution guaranteeing self-determination for both Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East.
He has also compared aid to Israel to aid to Egypt (he’s from an Egyptian family), which he also opposes, and counterposes this to aid to Ukraine, which he describes as “a righteous struggle to protect a sovereign nation from being invaded by their neighbour.”
He told NBC “in Ukraine, you’re talking about attacks from a leader of a neighboring sovereign country, who clearly violated international law in attempting to breach the sovereignty of the Ukrainian public. That is conditional on that circumstance [whereas] we have been offering unconditional foreign military aid to Israel, independent of the circumstances, for years and years and years. And might I say, it’s not just Israel; it’s also Egypt, it’s also Jordan. It’s also Saudi Arabia. That’s the difference. It’s about the conditions.”
Less to El-Sayed’s credit is the speaking tour he did with Hasan Piker, a supposedly “left wing” influencer who has supported Hamas and Hezbullah, and also declared that the 9/11 attack was justified. El-Sayed has described Piker’s comments about 9/11 as “dumb” but not disavowed the rest of this vile character’s crass, campist politics.
El-Sayed has been widely described as a member or supporter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) but my information is that he is not: if so, good! The DSA’s politics in recent years have degenerated into campist, semi-Stalinist nonsense and "my enemy's enemy is my friend" stupidity.
Anyway, here’s a link to the important part of the interview:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x-9IQh6DYvd59p1EQ2-TkhMR2kKgNlDO/edit
That’s a lovely moment of Jewish inclusion and belonging you describe at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Interesting to think about it in the context of the Jewish AG of Michigan not attending this year’s Democratic convention in Michigan because she doesn’t feel safe there as a Jewish woman.
Peter, this is POWERFUL.
Love the DNC story.
Please also ask Finkelstein whether in 2007, he posted an email mocking a petition that opposed the death threats against Canadian author and Muslim dissident Irshad Manji.
When Irshad Manji was subjected to credible fatwas and death threats from extremists due to her work criticizing mainstream Islamic practices, advocacy groups and a web portal launched a petition supporting her safety.
It is alleged that Finkelstein wrote an email to the organization hosting the anti-death threat petition, asking: "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?"