Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed's first hire as senator-elect has accused Zionists of "controlling" American politics, echoing an antisemitic trope that suggests Jews control geopolitical affairs.
El-Sayed tapped Brenda Abdelall to serve as director of his transition team, Politico reported Friday. Abdelall, an Egyptian-American professor, attorney, and former lobbyist, also served in the Biden Department of Homeland Security and as director of the Kamala Harris campaign's outreach to Arabs and Muslims in 2024.
The hiring could indicate that El-Sayed plans to focus more on Israel and the Middle East at the expense of his campaign trail mantra of "money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all." El-Sayed often bristled at questions about Israel and his affiliations with anti-Israel activists, calling it a distraction from voters' concerns about health care and the cost of living.
But Abdelall, who created a course called "Islamophobia and the Law" at the University of Michigan, promoted conspiracy theories about Jewish control of world affairs.
"The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics," Abdelall told the New York Sun at a conference for the American Muslim Council in 2002. "I would say they're controlling a lot of it." The Washington Free Beacon reported on the comments when the Harris campaign hired Abdelall; the campaign said they no longer reflected Abdelall's views. Abdelall has also accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "terrorism," Newsweek reported. The Harris campaign said Abdelall no longer agreed with those remarks, as well.
El-Sayed, who defeated Republican Mike Rogers by 7 points in Tuesday's blue-wave election, has echoed similar sentiments on the campaign trail about Israeli influence on U.S. policy. El-Sayed asserted that President Donald Trump went to war against Iran due to pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and argued that Israel is not an ally of the United States, saying that "an ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn't be fighting is not an ally."
According to the Sun, Abdelall said in the 2002 interview that the defeat that year of then-Alabama congressman Earl Hilliard (D.) in his primary showed the extent of Jewish influence in politics. Pro-Israel groups spent heavily against Hilliard for opposing a bill that condemned Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel.
Abdelall's mother Mona Abdelall told the Sun she agreed with her daughter's remarks. "Just listen to President Bush's speech," said the elder Abdelall. "He's just blindly supporting [then-Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon."
The elder Abdelall has worked in Michigan with El-Sayed's father Mohamed, a part-time imam and engineering professor. After the 9/11 attacks, Mona Abdelall invited the elder El-Sayed to speak to Ford factory workers as part of an "Islam 101" seminar to dispel concerns about Muslims after the terrorist attacks, the New York Times reported in November 2001.
Brenda Abdelall has worked for other Islamic advocacy groups, including Muslim Advocates, a nonprofit funded by George Soros and other liberal billionaires to "halt bigotry in its tracks." Her mother founded the Ann Arbor branch of the American Muslim Council. The group attracted intense criticism from congressional Democrats, including New York congressman Jerry Nadler, for claiming that the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster "was an act of divine retribution against Israel, and attributable to the presence of the first Israeli astronaut on the mission." Hillary Clinton returned donations from the group while running for Senate in the 2000 election cycle after an American Muslim Council board member declared support for Hamas, the New York Times reported.
Both Abdul El-Sayed and Brenda Abdelall have cast the 9/11 attacks in terms of the backlash against Muslims, rather than the effect of the attacks themselves.
"When 9/11 happened, there was no longer a choice about whether you could be politically aware and politically savvy," Abdelall said in 2017. "We all, especially as American Muslims, had a responsibility to be informed, engaged citizens."
In a 9/11 anniversary post, El-Sayed wrote that while he mourned those killed on September 11, he would, the following day, "mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country." And in an anniversary essay for CNN, El-Sayed asserted that "the health of Muslims and Arabs" was "another victim of 9/11," claiming that American Muslims experienced poorer health because of discrimination they faced after the attacks.
El-Sayed faced scrutiny during the campaign over his affiliations with activists and community leaders who pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories and have praised terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. He campaigned multiple times with socialist influencer Hasan Piker, who said that "America deserved 9/11" and that Israel is "worse than" Hamas. El-Sayed appeared at three recent campaign events with Osama Siblani, a Dearborn-based community leader who calls Hezbollah and Hamas "freedom fighters."
El-Sayed's sister, Eman Abdelhadi, called Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel "a blessing." Abdelhadi has also claimed that her and El-Sayed's mother and relatives in Egypt have "long been" members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Free Beacon reported. El-Sayed repeatedly claimed he had dual citizenship in the United States and Egypt, though his campaign said he never was a dual citizen, the Free Beacon reported.
El-Sayed's office did not respond to a request for comment.
