The Shift: Pro-Israel centrists strain to spin El-Sayed’s historic Michigan win

This week, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed overcame the biggest single-race investment in AIPAC’s history, beating Haley Stevens to become the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan.

Stevens, a four-term House member, received $62 million worth of support from outside groups, with half of that coming from AIPAC’s Super PAC, the United Democracy Project. The race was viewed as AIPAC’s most important fight yet. El-Sayed calls for an end to the United States’s military relationship with Israel, while Stevens opposes any modification to the $3.8 billion arrangement. The loss comes amid a surge of left-wing electoral victories across the country, as Israel’s reputation continues to plummet among U.S. voters.

Despite these facts, centrist pundits, pro-Israel groups, and sectors of the mainstream media have attempted to spin El-Sayed’s win as unimpressive. Many expected him to win by a larger margin, goes the logic. The fact that the race ended up being close is simply proof that the left has electability issues that will ultimately be exposed during the general election.

“Progressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted,” declares the headline of a POLITICO article that primarily testimony from Democratic operatives.

“These guys are unbelievably cocky,” says an anonymous one, referring to the campaign that was outspent 9-to-1 and still prevailed.

“Bottom line is if (El-Sayed) wins, the DSA brand beyond major urban areas is not popular,” says another. “Certainly puts a dent in the movement especially with Cori Bush’s loss.”

You can read that first sentence as many times as you want, but it won’t start making sense. As for the second point, yes, Cori Bush lost in a race that didn’t seem to have much to do with her position on Gaza, but where’s the dent? The recent progressive insurgency remained strong in Michigan, where Uncommitted co-founder Abbas Alawieh won a state senate primary, DSA member Chris Gilmer-Hill won a state house primary, and Justice Democrats-backed State Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated pro-Israel multimillionaire Rep. Shri Thanedar in the state’s 13th district.

There’s a subsection of this curious narrative where we see the very centrists who keep losing attempting to give the guy who just won advice. Their central argument is that, if El-Sayed wants to beat GOP Mike Rogers, he will have to denounce popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and throw the left-wing activists who helped win overboard.

“I am not a Hasan-doomer and I think he has an important place in the ecosystem but I hope he and the pool party crowd head back to LA and let Abdul ignore this very bad advice,” says Rob Flaherty, who was the Deputy Campaign Manager for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, Digital Director for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, and Deputy Director of Digital Communications for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Michael LaRosa, who was the press secretary for former First Lady Jill Biden, says that the progressive victory actually proves that the left is a “paper tiger.”

“That’s a reminder that normal voters just aren’t as obsessed or fixated by a conflict 7 time zones away as he is,” he tweets. “Voter priorities are much closer to home.”

The massive amount of polling on this issue and the recent progressive wins suggest that genocide has actually emerged as a litmus test among many Democratic voters, but probably not among former employees of the Biden administration. I’d also love to know who LaRosa envisions a “normal voter” to be, but I have a hunch.

Perhaps the most hilarious spin on the Stevens loss came from the Democratic Majority of Israel (DMFI), which might want to change the name of its lobbying group now that 80% of Democratic voters dislike Israel.

In DMFI’s telling, their $62 million defeated candidate is reimagined as The Little Engine That Could.

“The lesson from Tuesday’s results is twofold: There is clearly strong anti-establishment energy this cycle, but no one should count pro-Israel Democrats out,” claimed the group. “While El-Sayed’s razor-thin victory in Michigan is disappointing, it was hardly the sweeping triumph he predicted or a mandate for his views. Haley Stevens ran a strong campaign, built a diverse coalition that included Black and Jewish voters and moderate Democrats, and came within a single percentage point despite trailing by double digits in some late polls.”

Do you believe in miracles?

Van Jones

It’s been a strange political career for Van Jones, who co-founded a Maoist collective in his youth, but now spends his time criticizing the alleged excesses of the left on CNN.

On Tuesday night, he didn’t disappoint.

During a panel about the Michigan election at the network, former Obama advisor and political consultant David Axelrod didn’t hesitate to bring up the $32 million elephant in the room, mentioning AIPAC’s spending in the race.

“It’s a legitimate question,” said Axelrod. “Should essentially an agent of any foreign government, whether it’s Israel or any other, be able to spend … $30 million in a race like this to influence the outcome of that race?”

Axelrod was the only Jewish person on the panel, and before he made the comments, he pointed out that he was the son of a Jewish refugee and that he takes antisemitism seriously. These caveats weren’t enough for Jones, who clearly took umbrage with the notion that AIPAC, which lobbies for the interests of a foreign country, is a foreign agent.

 “I don’t think that they’re an agent of a foreign power. I think they’re American Jews,” he said, “Their issue is to protect Israel.”

“Why is AIPAC so mad?,” he added. “This guy is saying that the U.S. government can’t even sell defensive weapons to Israel, which would make Israel completely defenseless. Now that would be a reason for a group of people who cares about Israelis to say this is not our guy.”

This wasn’t the only time that Jones conflated Jews with Israel. Earlier in the day, he made comments about what an El-Sayed victory would mean for Muslims.

“If you are an Arab kid in America right now, if you’re a Muslim kid in America right now and you’re looking at this, this is one of the biggest nights of your life,” said Jones. “This is Barack Obama. This is Hillary Clinton.”

“So, you know, whenever there’s a first, you have real hopes and you have real fears,” he added. “There’s real fears in some Jewish homes tonight. But this is a big deal.”

Back in reality, El-Sayed has repeatedly made a distinction between Israel and Jews, praising Judaism and talking about how fights against Islamophobia and antisemitism are intertwined, but we’re sure to see more of this narrative going forward, from Republicans and moderates like Jones.

Odds & Ends

💸 Abdul El-Sayed overcomes massive AIPAC spending to win Michigan primary

📖 Book Review: AIPAC on steroids

🎭 Why theater workers are boycotting the play ‘Birthright’

📺 Electronic Intifada: How complicit media tried to sell a genocide

🇮🇱 Zeteo: Israel Has Imprisoned a 16-Year-Old Palestinian-American Boy for Two Weeks

🏛️ Counterpunch: Lessons from Michigan: How Standing Up to Israeli Genocide Could Win Democrats Congress

🥇 The Intercept: Abdul El-Sayed Beats the Democratic Establishment and AIPAC in Michigan

🗳️ Truthdig: The Electability Hustle

🫏 Drop Site: How a Squandered Democratic Trifecta Is Pushing Michigan Left

👀 Jewish Currents: With Jewish Establishment’s Help, A Black Political Group Battles the Left

🗣️ Common Dreams: El-Sayed Challenges ‘Corporate Sellout’ and ‘Coward’ Mike Rogers to Five Debates

🇮🇷 Responsible Statecraft: Surprise strikes signal Iran is digging in for a long war