Rather than turn El-Sayed into the villain Piker is, the media, voters, and Democrats are giving him a pass, hoping you'll ignore his own antisemitism. The smart voters, and the smart Jews, are not ignoring it.
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El-Sayed’s antisemitism is the issue; not Hasan Piker
Democrats want their Michigan Senate candidate to disavow his podcaster pal. The problem is that most on the political left have already embraced his Jew-hatred and lies.
By Jonathan S. Tobin st Jerusalem News Syndicate (JNS) 8-28-26
"Democrats wish Hasan Piker would just go away. But he won’t and it’s
their own fault. And declaring him to be a distraction that should be
ignored, or condemning him without also disavowing their U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan who embraced and campaigned with him, won’t cut it.
"Piker
is back in the news because during a live stream on his popular Twitch
channel, he said: “If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there
that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone’s going
to come around and take action, not against the State of Israel, mind
you, but against American Jews.”
How antisemitism works
"This
is a standard trope of antisemitism in which Jews are blamed for the
hatred and violence aimed at them. In effect, he’s saying that if Jews
continue to support the Jewish state and aid efforts to ensure its
survival, they will not merely provoke the same sort of terrorism that
was visited upon the Jews of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but will incur
similar atrocities against Jews in the United States.
"That this
vile effort to rationalize, if not justify, violence against Americans
elicited condemnation is unsurprising. Democrats like House Minority
Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Michigan Democratic Senator Elisa
Slotkin condemned it. Even his buddy, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who embraced
and welcomed Piker to join him on the campaign trail during his
successful effort to win the Democratic senatorial primary, felt the
need to distance himself from the comments.
"Liberals understand
that their chances of winning control of the Senate in the November
midterm elections will be considerably diminished if they lose in
Michigan as a result of this controversy. So, they are pushing for
El-Sayed to disavow Piker and to make a better effort to appear as if he
opposes antisemitism and understands why his candidacy has inspired
fear among Jews in Michigan and around the country.
"For them, it
is simply a matter of political common sense. If a major party candidate
for high office is being negatively affected by the extreme statements
or actions of an ally, there’s only one thing to do. The candidate needs
to cut off ties with the ally and move on, thereby supposedly proving
his moderation and good judgment.
"It is therefore frustrating for the national party and its many media cheerleaders that El-Sayed just won’t do that.
"But
the issue isn’t that El-Sayed is being either stubborn or prioritizing
loyalty to his friend over the goal of winning the Senate for the
Democratic Party. It’s that he doesn’t really disagree with Piker and
thinks that anyone who believes that supporters of Israel shouldn’t be
abused (even if not subjected to actual terrorism) has lost his or her
moral compass.
The Dems’ Tucker Carlson
"This issue bears some resemblance to the dilemma Republicans face dealing with Vice President JD Vance’s refusal to disavow or condemn his friend, Tucker Carlson. As I noted earlier this year, though there are major differences between them, Piker is the Democrats’ Carlson, only worse.
"The
similarities between Piker and Carlson are mainly centered on their
common embrace of antisemitism and their ability to use their embrace of
conspiracy theories to attract a broad audience of disaffected
Americans, especially younger males.
"Contrary to the instincts of
liberals, who tend to think they can fix intractable problems with their
enlightened discourse, Jew-hatred always is about the antisemites, not
the Jews. And it always tells its target audience that the Jews are
taking away from them whatever they value.
"Carlson platforms
preposterous conspiracy theories like the one according to which the
Jews invented pornography to undermine American society. Piker does the
same and, along with others on the left, appeals to those who want to
believe the actual victims of a historic genocide during the Holocaust
and intended genocide of Oct. 7 are the perpetrators of a fake one
against the Palestinians. In each case, as is always true of
antisemitism, the goal is to incite hatred for Jews, and now the Jewish
state, in order to acquire power.
"Carlson will be a millstone that
hangs around Vance’s neck unless and until he specifically disavows him
and stops acting as if he and the antisemitic groyper wing of the GOP
are a necessary and welcome addition to the Republican governing
coalition.
"Still, there is a significant difference between the two situations.
"At
least for the moment, whatever their feelings about the vice president
and the possibility of his becoming their 2028 presidential nominee, the
overwhelming majority of Republicans has rejected the extremism and
antisemitism of Carlson and his groyper friends. That’s been made
abundantly clear in opinion polls and Republican primaries this year
where candidates, including longtime incumbents like Rep. Thomas Massie
(R-Ky.), have flopped. Not to mention the fact that President Donald Trump has ejected them from the party.
"But
the opposite is true of the Democrats. Animus toward Israel, along with
opposition to enforcing immigration laws, has become the organizing
principle of Democratic politics. That’s why the emphasis on getting
El-Sayed to disavow Piker, or to rationalize continued support for his
Senate candidacy even if he doesn’t, makes it obvious that the problem
on the left is far bigger than one obnoxious podcaster’s antisemitism.
"Indeed,
the trouble goes beyond El-Sayed’s own long record of antisemitic
positions and troubling comments about violence against Jews, even while
continuing to claim that he wants to protect them.
"Over the
course of the last year, growing numbers of Democrats and liberal
pundits have embraced a raft of blood libels about Israel and the Jews.
The big lies that Israel has perpetrated a “genocide” in Gaza, imposed
starvation there or is an “apartheid state” rather than the Middle
East’s only democracy, have been widely embraced not only by extremist
podcasters like Piker, but by vast numbers of Democratic officeholders
and many, if not most, liberal pundits at supposedly respectable
publications and broadcast networks.
"Democrats have accepted
the centerpiece argument of El-Sayed’s primary campaign about stopping
the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby from “buying” Congress as a legitimate
argument. Many, if not most, are no longer willing to accept campaign
donations from it even if they remain supporters of the Jewish state.
"Democrats
may think that Piker’s comments justifying violence against Jews for
supporting Israel go too far, which is embarrassing for them because he
is linked to one of their main midterm hopefuls. But many, if not most,
agree with the podcaster and his friend, El-Sayed, that there is
something unwholesome or even wrong for Jews and other like-minded
Americans to organize and seek to use the same tools employed by all
advocacy groups to persuade voters to support their position.
"The
fact is that hatred for Israel—and the targeting of mainstream liberals
for being insufficiently hostile to the Jewish state—has been a decisive
factor in victory after victory in 2026 primaries for candidates
affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America or their allies.
Embracing blood libels
"Democrats, including their leaders, like Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,
who are supposedly pro-Israel and concerned about antisemitism, have
already demonstrated that they are willing to tolerate it if it comes
out the mouth of a fellow Democrat like El-Sayed. Not even his
invocation of traditional tropes—singling out Jews for opprobrium by
mainstreaming blood libels about Israel, and claims that Jews are using
their wealth to manipulate policy against American interests—was enough
to get them to disavow his candidacy. Nor did his rationalization of a terror attack on a Michigan synagogue.
"Nor
should we have expected them to, since such hateful discourse has long
since been normalized among political liberals in the post-Oct. 7 world,
where Israel is now the main focus of hatred from the left.
Anti-Zionism, which seeks to strip Jews of rights that no one thinks to
wish to deny any other people, is indistinguishable from antisemitism.
But it is now kosher among Democrats, rather than, as it used to and
should be, a belief that should be relegated to the fever swamps of the
far-left and the far-right.
"Seen from that perspective, Piker is
not a distraction from the real issues or a red herring being
highlighted by Republicans to sabotage a Democratic candidate. He is
entirely relevant to a key issue being debated across the country.
"The
willingness of Democrats to let their party be hijacked by a far-left
faction and its allies whose hatred for Israel and the Jews is at the
core of their woke belief system is the real issue. In so
allowing—whether out of moral cowardice or a conviction that partisan
loyalties and opposing Trump and the Republicans is more important than
fighting antisemitism—they have created a moral dilemma for themselves.
"The
only way to salve their consciences is not by criticizing Piker or
persuading El-Sayed to distance himself from him. It’s by disavowing
El-Sayed and every other antisemitic candidate who camouflages his
extremism by playing the part of a loyal Democrat who seeks to defeat
Trump and all his works and allies.
"If they won’t do that, they
should stop pretending they care about opposing Jew-hatred and simply
embrace their party’s new identity as the political expression of modern
American antisemitism."
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.
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Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS, a columnist for Newsweek
and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American
political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle
East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think
Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin
Daily” program, available on all major audio platforms and on YouTube.
Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief
political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger.
He has won 60-plus awards for his columns, commentary, art criticism
and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on
politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history
at Columbia University.
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