Does anyone besides me remember David Duke in the late 80s/early 90s? He was a neo-Nazi, a Jew-hater, and a white supremacist who actually served as a Republican in the Louisiana House. That was shocking at the time, but I never could have imagined that so many vile antisemites would one day control the Democrat party and infiltrate the United States House and Senate.
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Matthew Continetti, Oct 30, 2026
"At first glance, the 2026 election looks like any other midterm. The incumbent party is exhausted. The opposition is eager to rebuke an unpopular president. Economic concerns predominate. An electoral thumping seems inevitable. Check results from 2022, 2018, 2014, 2010 and 2006 for reference.
"Under the surface, however, an ugly force is stirring in U.S. politics that makes this midterm campaign different. For the first time in generations, antisemitism has emerged from the shadows to influence American public life.
"From Graham Platner to Abdul El-Sayed, from Hasan Piker to Tucker Carlson, antagonism toward Israel, “Zionists” and foreign intervention has morphed into fear and loathing of a minority that has lived peaceably and productively in this country for more than 300 years.
"The results on Nov. 3 will be more than a gut check on Donald Trump’s presidency. They will measure our collective immunity to an ageless hatred that destroys everything it touches.
There is no single definition of antisemitism. Scholar Ruth Wisse defines it as the organization of politics against the Jewish people. Disagreeing with Israeli politicians or policy isn’t antisemitic, but there is a line beyond which opposition turns into obsessive, uncontrollable enmity. Former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky says criticism of Israel becomes antisemitic when it demonizes, delegitimizes or applies double standards to the Jewish state.
"I follow the Justice Potter Stewart rule: I know antisemitism when I see it.
"The Michigan grocery ad, for example. The one-minute spot depicts a married couple in a store aisle. As they review their shopping list, the wife tells her husband to return a carton of eggs to the shelf. Why? “We have to set that $7 aside,” she says. “For killing Palestinians.”
"Message: Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and congressman, cares more about Israel than America. Mr. Rogers, the ad concludes, is for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is “for you.”
"Produced by Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks—uncle of Hasan “America Deserved 9/11” Piker—the ad has been condemned for its accusations of dual loyalty, demonization of Israel, economic illiteracy and antisemitic tropes. Many Democrats, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), rightly say it’s beyond the pale.
"Mr. El-Sayed is the exception. According to a spokesman, “No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign.” Glad that’s cleared up. Note, however, that the spokesman neither disagrees with the ad’s content nor suggests it be removed from circulation. The libel that food is expensive in Kalamazoo, Mich., because Jews divert U.S. taxpayer money to Be’er Sheva, Israel, is left untouched.
"No surprise. Mr. El-Sayed has made opposition to the U.S.-Israel alliance central to his candidacy. This is a man who traffics in all three of Sharansky’s “D’s.” He demonizes Israel for committing a bogus “genocide” against Palestinians. He falsely charges Israel with apartheid while saying nothing about human-rights abuses in Iran. He refuses to say Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.
"Mr. El-Sayed didn’t want to comment on the assassination of Iran’s dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about his death. His flippant response to a failed terror attack on a synagogue and preschool was that “hurt people hurt people.” He implied during a recent debate that Israel and Iran are equal threats to the United States. He’s dodged questions about family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas.
"Mr. El-Sayed’s radical candidacy might have been dismissed in previous election cycles as an outlier, a novel product of Michigan’s fervid college towns and sizable Arab and Muslim population. Not this year. Mr. El-Sayed is simply the most prominent—and perhaps the most vulnerable—representative of the anti-Israel and antisemitic bile flowing through the body politic in 2026. He has company.
"Troy Jackson, the former Maine state senator who replaced Mr. Platner in July as the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, might not have Mr. Platner’s Nazi tattoo. But he shares Mr. Platner’s aggressive opposition to Israel. Mr. Jackson said in September that some Jewish Mainers refuse to call Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide “only because they’re Jewish.” He later apologized for the slur.
"Messrs. El-Sayed and Jackson are running to join a Senate Democratic caucus that voted overwhelmingly in April to cut off aid to Israel. On the House side, the democratic socialist “Squad” is set to double in size next year. New members will include Melat Kiros, the Colorado congressional candidate who won’t say that last year’s firebombing attack on pro-Israel marchers in Boulder was antisemitic.
"The terrorist, who shouted “Free Palestine,” killed an 82-year-old Jewish woman and injured a dozen people, including a Holocaust survivor. Ms. Kiros is still figuring out the assailant’s motive. “This was an attack that was specifically attacking Zionism and Israel,” she said on Oct. 21. No kidding. That’s what made it antisemitic—as is Ms. Kiros’s refusal to call anti-Jewish hate by its name.
"Rising antisemitism isn’t only a problem for Democrats. No one who travels in Republican or conservative circles can have missed rising anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Jewish prejudice among young men. Republicans have been able to remove antisemitic figures such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) and block antisemitic candidates such as Dan Bilzerian, a social media personality who ran for a Florida House seat. Yet antisemitism persists online and on podcasts.
"Victory in November for candidates who traffic in antisemitism will switch on a massive green light for antisemites across the political spectrum. The legitimacy barrier against open antisemitism will fall. American Jews will be in danger.
"They already are. Anti-Jewish attacks are the most common form of religious-based hate crimes, according to FBI data. Last year was the third-highest year on record for such crimes. This activity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Efforts to delegitimize Israel wind up legitimizing hostility to Jews.
"As Americans have soured on Israel, as elected officials such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have elevated anti-Zionism into a left-wing litmus test, as podcasters of all stripes invert the history of World War II and spread lies of a Jewish conspiracy, antisemitism has flourished on the street. Tongues wag. Bigots crow. Innocents pay the price.
"In 2018 the late rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks spoke eloquently of how antisemitism corrupts society. First, antisemitism moves from the fringes to the center of a political party. Then, when a party sees it won’t be held accountable for antisemitic views, the virus gains strength. Finally, the opponents of antisemitism are vilified and punished for speaking out. “All three factors exist in Britain now,” Rabbi Sacks concluded.
"America has crossed Sacks’s first threshold. Is it about to cross the second, where antisemites pay no price for slander?
"The 2026 election will decide. Affordability comes and goes. Antisemitism is a permanent stain. “That is why I cannot stay silent,” Sacks said. “For it is not only Jews who are at risk. So too is our humanity.”
Mr. Continetti is a Free Expression columnist at WSJ Opinion.
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