Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. Representative Haley Stevens in their debate on Monday, July 27, 2026 (screenshot).
The Democratic Party's continued support for Israel's genocide is not just a moral and political liability but also an economic one which impacts it voters, yet the party refuses to frame it as such.
Many elements of the Democrat Party’s establishment flank are bewildered at how the zionist ethnostate of Israel’s contemptuous pogroms of subjugation, dehumanization, and genocide against the Palestinian people remain a salient issue ahead of the Midterm elections this fall. It seems as if those elements of the Democrat Party who are bankrolled by the zionist lobby believed the issue of Israel’s genocide would fade away after a series of ignominious electoral losses in 2024, including that of former Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite the fact that numerous polls revealed the Harris and other Democrats lost their elections in 2024 due in large part to their intransigency regarding the genocide in Gaza and overall plight of the Palestinian people, the Democrats omitted the issue altogether in its sloppy and langorous autopsy report that it finally released earlier this year. Even the “secret autopsy” report that was not released to the public confirmed that the Democrat National Committee’s (DNC) own data, “indicated that Harris’s backing of the Biden administration’s pro-Israel policies led voters (particularly younger ones) to withhold support for her as a candidate for president,” according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) who were granted access to the document.
It’s important to juxtapose the state of U.S. politics following the summer of 2020, when numerous United Statesians took to the streets and the polls in reaction to the public lynchings of George Floyd and Ahmad Aubrey and the execution of Breona Taylor (Floyd and Taylor at the hands of the State) and the state of politics following the summer of 2024. The former led to the election of Joe Biden, which more or less quelled the fervor of what some, quite fecklessly in my opinion, referred to as “Freedom Summer” - a myopic attempt to draw parallels to the summer of 2020 and that of 1964 when civil rights formations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Council of Federated Organizations utilized a variety of tactics to elucidate to the world the draconian denial of people(s)-centered human rights of Black folk in the South.
Yet, whereas Freedom Summer of 1964 resulted in reforms that addressed the material conditions of Black folk including the Voting Rights Act and, earlier that summer, the Civil Rights Act (it can certainly be argued how much these laws actually improved material conditions for Black folk, especially poorer ones), the summer of 2020 produced little to no reforms of consequence and not much more than a zionist, neoliberal president in Joe Biden - an architect of one the most repressive laws, the 1994 Crime Bill, which continues to adversely impact Black people, families, and communities - who not only did little to nothing to address state repression and executions of Black folk, nor the material conditions of poor and working class people of all races/ethnicities, but who was also a major catalyst of the political and electoral conditions that largely contributed to the losses Democrats experienced in 2024 due to his aiding, abetting, and funding of Israel’s genocide and other war crimes against Palestinians.
During the election cycle of 2024, after a summer of the world witnessing myriad instances of a livestreamed genocide and the indiscriminate murder of journalists who were covering it, the issue of Israel’s war crimes and candidates who were complicit with them were front and center. From the emergence of the “Uncommitted” movement to the “Abandon Harris” campaign, the plight of the Palestinian people proved to be a salient issue for voters. And any hopes held by establishment, pro-zionist elements of the Democrat Party that the Palestine issue would fade away after 2024 were obliterated…almost immediately during the election cycle of 2025 that saw the meteoric rise of Zohran Mamdani who defeated establishment Democrat candidates like former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and his predecessor Eric Adams (who didn’t even run as a Democrat in the Mayoral primaries due to corruption scandals) to become New York City’s 112th mayor. As sociologist and professor Heba Gowayed notes in a piece she wrote for the Guardian entitled Zohran Mamdani has the Palestinian Protest Movement to Thank for his Win, “Mamdani’s victory shows that his support for Palestine is not a liability, nor irrelevant to his mayoral campaign. In fact, Palestine has moved to the heart of domestic politics thanks to an organized, grassroots movement of Palestinians and allies, students and activists, that paved the way for this mayoral win.”
Gowayed’s analysis has proven to be veracious, as exemplified by the results of key elections during the 2026 primaries at all levels of government from municipal elections that saw the nation’s capitol elect an anti-genocide, democratic socialist mayor, to federal elections including three House of Represenative races in New York City that saw the ouster of two pro-zionist incumbents - Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman - and the metro area Denver primary that resulted in the defeat of 15-term incumbent, Diana DeGette. At the Senate level, anti-genocide candidates are also making waves, most notably in Maine, where former candidate Graham Platner surged to victory with the largest number of primary votes in the state’s history. And while Platner was forced to rescind his candidacy due to a series of troubling allegations that he denies, his replacement, Troy Jackson, has explicitly referred to Israel’s action as a genocide and is calling for an end to U.S. military aid to the zionist ethnostate. And in Michigan, where the Democrat Party’s primary for U.S. Senate will take place next week, insurgent candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who has also referred to Israel’s actions as a genocide and supports ending aid to the nation, is running a tight race against a Democrat establishment favorite and pro-zionist candidate, Representative Haley Stevens. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and affiliated lobby groups have spent $30 million in that race - the largest amount for a single race in the zionist lobby’s history - in favor of Stevens.
Much to the chagrin of the Democrat Party, the issue of Israel’s human rights violations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the Palestinian people isn’t going away and remains an issue at the top of voters’ minds heading into November. Political analyst Simon Marks recently made this point in a recent interview asserting, “If you look at what’s taking place in the primaries, the limbering up that’s going on, in congressional races all over the country, you see candidates who are trying to navigate very carefully and cautiously, much more so than they ever would have done in the past, questions about their support for Israel versus questions about their support for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.” Simon went on to predict that the issue will be a major issue in the forthcoming Midterm elections. A big reason for this is the shifting attitudes of United Statesians concerning Israel irrespective of party affiliation or political leanings. For instance, in a recent piece, ‘This is Not Just a Left Issue—it is an American Issue’: Israel’s Favorability Sees Massive Decline Among US Public, Polls Say, writer Corey Walker notes, “The change [in attitude towards Israel] is no longer confined to progressive activists on the far left or isolationists on the far right. Negative views of Israel are increasingly visible across the broader electorate, including among independents, younger Republicans, and voters both with and without college degrees, the polls show.” Walker, in part, was reacting to a recent Fox News Poll that revealed 44 percent of registered voters viewed Israel favorably, down from 58 percent a decade earlier.
Given that the Democrats can’t simply wish or hope away the Palestine question/issue, they, for the most part, have resorted to three tactics that I have observed since the losses of establishment candidates and as we get closer to the Midterm elections in November. The first tactic is outright hostility against insurgent candidates, specifically the social democrats who operate under the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) banner. Senator John Fetterman - a Democrat for now - is an exemplar of this hostility. In a recent interview Fetterman called Mayor Mamdani “an idiot” and further proclaimed, while discussing DSA candidates and lawmakers, “These are crazy people. And now they are electing people across our country, ya know, Colorado, even in my own state, definitely in New York City right now.” Van Jones, a favorite Trash Panda Politics pusher of the Democrat party establishment, took to X (formerly twitter) to decry DSA candidates and suggest they are “hijacking the movement” with “insane, outlandish, and nutty ideas.” The outright hostility tactic appears to lack efficacy as polls suggest that DSA candidates are enjoying a net favorability of +17 versus +4 for moderate, congressional Democrats, and another recent poll shows that United Statesians would be more likely to vote for a democratic socialist than a candidate endorsed by President Trump or one who identifies as a “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) candidate. And Mamdani, for his part, enjoys a higher favorability rating among U.S. Jewish people than Prime Minister Netanyahu according to a recent poll.
The second tactic employed is a feckless attempt to place the blame of the Palestinian question/issue solely in the lap of Prime Minister Netanyahu and elements of his government including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Many Democrats seem to believe that by making Netanyahu and his government the proverbial fall guy this will somehow present them as more reasonable and compassionate. A recent vote on an amendment to a bill introduced by outgoing Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) to end military aid to Israel confirms this. While the amendment ultimately failed, nearly half of the Democrat caucus in the House voted for it, including many who have previously demonstrated inexorable support for Israel and previously voted to send billions of tax payer dollars to its genocidal war machine. For instance, Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) who has previously taken money from AIPAC, and is in a primary race of his own against incumbent Senator Ed Markey, explained why he voted for the Massie amendment, “We simply cannot continue to condone Netanyahu’s actions that are against our moral conscience and our own national security interests.” And Representative Steven Lynch (D-MA) who has previously voted to continue sending aid to Israel yet voted for the Massie amendment noted, ““We’ve all grown frustrated with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions. His actions have really, I think, motivated a lot of the ‘yes’ votes.”
This tactic also has no muster as it completely ignores the fact that Israel is not the way it is because of Netanyahu, Netanyahu is the way that he is because of Israeli society that has kept in power for a total of nearly two cumulative decades. Polls taken since Israel’s genocidal activities commenced in 2024 indicate that 64% of Israelis support collective punishment of Gazans, and 62% support, "evacuating Palestinians from Gaza, even by force and military means,” with 70% signaling that if Palestinians are forced from Gaza they should never be allowed to return. While it’s true that not all Israelis agree with or support the criminal actions of the Netanyahu government, the Democrats attempt to suggest that there is a copious amount of daylight between the majority of Israelis and their government is misleading and found wanting.
Given the demonstrable inefficaciousness of the first two tactics to mollify the concerns and opinions of the 77 percent of Democrats who believe Israel is committing a genocide and the 60% of United Statesians who don’t want more military aid sent to the zionist ethnostate, which includes 75% of Democrats, the establishment contingent of the party is ramping up a third tactic - their attempt to paint the Palestine question/issue as a “single issue,” a “purity test,” and one that is not as important as the issues of affordability and an economy that is pushing poor and working class people to the brink of perpetual penury. Pro-Israel and zionist lobby Democrats are correct that economic hardships will certainly be on the minds of voters when they head to the polls in November. However, attempting to separate populist issues from the funding of Israel’s genocidal war machine further demonstrates how out of touch these Democrats are as it pertains to the axiomatic nexus between military spending and the material conditions of poor and working class people.
Doctor El-Sayed, arguably, has used his campaign more than other candidates to highlight how military aid to Israel prevents tax dollars from being spent on domestic programs. In a recent debate with Stevens he stated, “I want your tax dollars spent in Michigan to provide schools in Michigan, to build healthcare in Michigan, to build roads in Michigan, and I think that money sent over there to kill kids and women is the worst use of our tax dollars.” Pundits of the bourgeois press have criticized El-Sayed for highlighting the connection between tax dollars sent to Israel preventing tax dollars from being spent on domestic programs. Last week, writing for Washington Monthly, Bill Scher characterized El-Sayed’s argument as, “...a false choice used as misdirection.” Scher added, “For the last 15 years, the U.S. has spent about $4 to $5 billion a year on military aid to Israel, except for a one-year spike to $12.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 following the October 7 attack. One can argue we should spend more on health care and education and less on Israel, but our ability to spend on health care and education—especially since the federal budget is not subject to any balanced budget rules—is not constrained by what we give to Israel. Scher may have a point if his argument didn’t contain blatant inaccuracies - according to the publication Military.com, the U.S. has sent at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since Al Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. Yet Scher does raise a key point, the fact that the U.S. government prioritizes aiding a genocide over aiding poor and working class residents of this nation.
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR) elucidates the toxic priorities of Democrats and Republicans as they pertain to prioritizing Israel militarism over domestic material conditions. USPCR created a tool, Not My Tax Dollars, that breaks down how military aid to Israel in 2025 alone could have been spent domestically including over 600,000 households with one year of rent, 1.9 million families with one year of groceries, and 3.4 million children with free or low-cast healthcare for one year. And the tool is based on $12 million rather than the $21.7 million reported by Military.com. Nonetheless, USPCR’s tool still showcases the fact that the discretionary portion of the U.S. budget devoted to militarism results in an austerity budget and reduction of social programs including, but not limited to SNAP, public housing, public education and medicaid, which is particularly egregious given that citizens of Israel are provided universal healthcare and heavily subsidized education by their government. Morgan Strong put it succinctly in a piece he wrote for Middle East Eye, “US taxpayers unwittingly exercise great largesse towards the people of Israel, at great detriment to themselves. Millions of Americans are without basic healthcare because they cannot afford it. Millions of US university students are deeply in debt from student loans taken to finance their education - all while the US underwrites Israel’s economy.”
The Democrats want nothing less than a discussion on how their support for military spending, including aid to Israel, neglects the critical and basic needs of poor and working class people. This especially true of the Congressional “Black” Caucus who have no mechanism to explain to the Black masses why many of its members continue to vote for sending more aid to Israel than their own constituents. But this ubiquitous contradiction can no longer be obfuscated or perambulated. The consequences of fossil fuel wars of choice and aggression on the U.S. economy including increased inflation, food prices, petroleum prices, housing costs, and power bills will very much be on the minds of voters this November, with many more making the connections between support for Israel’s genocidal and imperialist war machine is an affront to addressing affordability in the U.S. Democrats may not want to have this discussion, but as voters have demonstrated thus far during the Midterm primaries, they no longer have a choice. The veil has been lifted and the full truth continues to penetrate the opaqueness that previously beguiled the masses into unfettered support for Israel at their expense.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright is an international climate and environmental liberation advocate, a racial justice practitioner, and a writer and policy expert residing in the United States with his family and their mischievous cat, “Evil” Ernie. He is a proud and active member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the Movement for Black Lives. His radio program, “Full Spectrum with Anthony Rogers-Wright,” airs on the Mighty WPFW network every Tuesday at 6:00 PM EST.
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