How Abdul el Sayed can win Michigan

I confess that I never expected to see an American election where the choice of candidates in more than a few districts will be a democratic socialist versus a Republican monarchist — but live long enough, and you’ll see everything.
As I listen to these democratic socialists and King-Trump-right-or-wrong Republicans, one of my favourite movie lines keeps coming to mind. It’s from the 1997 film “As Good as It Gets,” when Jack Nicholson, playing a misanthropic writer, answers his door to find a neighbour asking him to walk a dog and offering cheery advice about opening window curtains to see “God’s beautiful work.” Nicholson says to her, “Where do they teach you to talk like this?” He adds, “Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.” How I wish I could say that to both these extremes: We’re all stocked up on crazy in American politics. Sell it someplace else.
But because this is the only country I have, because the midterms will be razor-close and because I am convinced that two more years of Donald Trump completely unchained — controlling the House, the Senate and tacitly the Supreme Court — could bring about the end of America as we have known it, I have to think about how to make the best of some not great choices.
The case most deserving of attention is in Michigan, so here is some free advice for Abdul el Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate there. Why him? Because his victory or defeat could determine whether Trump continues to be able to rule as a monarch without any congressional oversight.
Sir, if you want to win over Jewish and centrist voters in Michigan; increase your odds of victory; be true to your pro-Palestinian, Arab American roots; and stick it to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel organisation whose super political action committee spent $32 million trying to defeat you in the primary, you need to thread your political needle very carefully. There is a way.
El Sayed says Michigan Jews should not be worried about him — insisting that his commitment “to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.” That’s commendable, but many American Jewish voters are not just looking for stronger police protection from their elected representatives. They are looking for recognition of the right of Jews to self-determination, like any other people.
Yes, many American Jews, especially young ones, now agree — as I do — with Israel’s former Mossad chief, Tamir Pardo, who in 2023 denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bringing “horrible racist parties” into the country’s highest Cabinet offices, describing them as “a lot worse” than the Ku Klux Klan.
But don’t confuse that with the belief in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state: That is still something very dear to most American Jews — just as much as Palestinian statehood beats in the heart of most Arabs and Muslims. Israel is part of their identity, and El-Sayed is not swaying American Jews when he simply tells them he will protect their synagogues.
He needs to stress his even more commendable and constructive position — which I just heard him describe to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins — that he believes “in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians alike.” That is a very good perspective, and it is different from that of the democratic socialist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, who has argued that Jews are not entitled to self-determination in a state of their own — a Jewish state in their biblical homeland.
As Jay Michaelson, a contributing columnist to The Forward, has pointed out, “Already, El Sayed’s statement is a useful contrast to Mamdani’s. He is not pontificating about the abstract legitimacy of Israel or Palestine; on the contrary, he is insisting on the pragmatic view, that I share, that ‘what the ultimate peace should be’ must be decided by both Palestinians and Israelis — a position rejected by both the Zionism-is-colonialism crowd on the left and the Jewish supremacists on the right.” But when El Sayed campaigns with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, it is not surprising that Jewish voters wonder what his real position is on their right to a state of their own like every other people.
Let’s be very clear: Hamas is a terrible organisation, first and foremost for Palestinians. The free pass that it has been given by some pro-Palestinian progressives — who criticise Israel and never Hamas, as if it has no agency — is shameful.
I normally would not even get into these weeds, but it is too distressing to watch how the democratic-socialist left has pulled so many young Democrats away from America’s long-standing Middle East position of two states for two peoples — self-determination for Jews and Palestinians. Any other position is a geopolitical loser for America and a loser for Palestinians, Israelis, Arab Americans, Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans, and every other American.
El Sayed should just keep stressing what he told CNN — that he believes “in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians alike” and he’d support any peace agreement they mutually agreed to.
And then go back to talking about the Midwest and leave the Mideast alone.
Being for any other exclusivist position — that only Palestinians or Jews are entitled to a national homeland between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River — is a prescription for a forever war, because approximately 7 million Palestinians and 7 million Jews now live in that area, and neither group is leaving. Anyone advocating either of the above is an enemy of peace and will alienate the centrist voters who will decide this election.
That said, I can understand that El Sayed is bitter about AIPAC spending $32 million to defeat him in the Michigan primary and will no doubt spend more to try to defeat him in the Senate race. But he can’t let it get the best of him and cost Democrats a Senate seat, leaving the country with two more years of Trumpian monarchy.
It is not only El Sayed, though, who needs to draw clear red lines. American Jews have let AIPAC drive them over a cliff.
As readers of this column know, I have been a longtime AIPAC critic. (The true pro-Israel and pro-American lobby is J Street.) AIPAC lost its way years ago when it had a choice regarding how to be pro-Israel — to put America’s interests and values first or Netanyahu’s interests and values first. AIPAC chose to be pro-Netanyahu.
I repeat — this is not complicated. El Sayed can be pro-American, pro-Michigan, pro-Palestinian, pro-Muslim, pro-Israel, pro-Jewish people and expose AIPAC for the Netanyahu front organisation that it has become: Just keep being for two states for two peoples. Then just talk about Michigan.
Trust me, his Republican opponent will not like that. And if it upsets the far-lefties in his own party, that’s a bonus for him and the rest of us.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Thomas L Friedman The author is a NYT columnist