This week, Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. He didn’t do so by focusing on lower costs for families. Instead, he did so by making the U.S.-Israel relationship the villain of his campaign, repeatedly questioning Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. He spent his last days on the campaign trail with Hasan Piker, an online streamer who has praised Hamas, referred to Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” and blamed America for 9/11.
Hate is being normalized in plain sight, and not just online. It has now manifested not only in elections, but also outside synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. This shouldn’t scare only the Jews. These sentiments are anti-American.
From Piker on the socialist left to Tucker Carlson on the native-populist right, influencers with millions of followers now repackage age-old antisemitic conspiracies and tropes as edgy commentary. Add to that a Democratic Senate nominee in Maine with a Nazi tattoo, who dropped out of his race for other reasons, and it’s clear we have a crisis on our hands.
