Anti-Israel Muslim lawmakers in the US Senate: a danger? (full show)
Radio Judaïca ·
"Do you think it is dangerous for anti-Israel Muslim lawmakers to join the US Senate?" That was the question of the day put to Radio Judaïca listeners on October 23, 2026, and a majority of them said yes. Speaking with Lise Benkemoun, David Benaym, a journalist who specializes in the United States, discusses Abdul El-Sayed's Senate run in Michigan, the influence of the Democratic Socialists of America, Zohran Mamdani's plan against antisemitism in New York, the vote of Americans living in Israel in the midterms, and the Ilhan Omar affair. The conversation is in French. Abdul El-Sayed: faith is not the issue No Muslim has ever sat in the US Senate. If Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan on November 3, he would be the first. For David Benaym, the danger is real, but not where people expect it: if this were only about faith, the answer would be no. Millions of Muslim Americans vote, serve in the military, work as doctors or police officers, and that is no problem at all. "The issue is not prayer, the issue is the imprint of political Islam." In his view, Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Zohran Mamdani are not lawmakers who simply happen to be Muslim, but lawmakers whose worldview is shaped by a political Islam in which the Palestinian cause is central, Israel is the designated enemy and the West is guilty by nature: "a software, not just a faith". He notes that the candidate said on American television this week that Israel was "neither a friend nor an ally", that he refuses to answer when asked whether Israel has the right to exist, and that his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, says his family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, citing posts by his mother-in-law in Egypt. Abdul El-Sayed took weeks, even months, to denounce the Brotherhood. The real danger, he concludes, lies in the office itself: a senator serves six years, sits on committees, can block nominations, and military aid to Israel is voted in the Senate. A senator makes a position respectable and normalizes it within the party.
"Subsidizing apartheid": a slogan that works Lise Benkemoun quotes Abdul El-Sayed's campaign line: the money used "to subsidize apartheid" should be invested in America. "It works, to be honest," David Benaym replies. It is the most effective line of the campaign because it talks less about the Middle East than about Americans' wallets: their schools, their hospitals, their roads, against a faraway country. It is the old isolationist reflex, "America First", except that this time it comes from the left, and it resonates in a wounded industrial state that has seen its factories close. A poll this summer showed that three Democrats out of four want to reduce or stop US aid to Israel; in July, more than a hundred House Democrats voted to cut part of it, something unthinkable five years ago. The message works less with independents, voters over 50, part of the Black electorate and some Jewish voters. But in Michigan, he points out, Jews make up less than 2% of the electorate, and Arab Americans far more. On the ground in Michigan Back from a trip to the United States that took him to Michigan, David Benaym believes Abdul El-Sayed has a real chance: the state has not elected a Republican senator in about thirty years. The mood he saw there is deeply divided. He met historically Democratic Jews ready to vote Republican for the first time, in particular after the terrorist attack in March on Temple Israel in Michigan, after which Abdul El-Sayed measured his words, with a phrase widely quoted by American Jews, "hurt people hurt people": in effect, he excused the attack by explaining that its perpetrator had lost part of his family in southern Lebanon. It cost him part of the Jewish vote. He also met American Jews ready to vote for him, because his local policies matter more to them than his relationship with Israel. "The wallet always talks." DSA: a lot of noise, and the fear they inspire The Democratic Socialists of America do not yet carry the weight people give them, but the noise is enormous: more than 120,000 members, more than 200 chapters, the largest socialist organization in American history. Founded in the 1980s by a committed Zionist, its official line today is an end to all military aid to Israel and a boycott, and under its rules, equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is grounds for expulsion. Their method is the Democratic primaries: this summer they unseated lawmakers who had held office for decades, in Denver, New York and Michigan, each time using Israel as the line of attack. But they only win in ultra-Democratic districts. Their real power is the fear they inspire in moderate Democrats, who think twice before defending Israel in public. The most telling sign, in his view: AIPAC changed strategy this week, acknowledging that its support has become a liability for Democratic candidates in some primaries, something no one would have believed three years ago. And in Michigan, AIPAC has started giving money to Mike Rogers. The Mamdani plan: "a report on lung cancer that never mentions tobacco" David Benaym read Zohran Mamdani's plan against antisemitism: about thirty pages, with serious measures, money for the security of synagogues and Jewish schools, Holocaust education, the prevention of hate crimes. New York's major Jewish organizations welcomed positive elements. The problem is the hole in the middle: in thirty pages on antisemitism in New York, the word Israel barely appears, and there is no definition of antisemitism, on purpose. A New York rabbi found the image that sums it up: a report on lung cancer that never mentions tobacco. The plan draws no line between the Jew and the Zionist; part of the funding would also go through an Arab American association in Brooklyn known for its anti-Israel activism. The message, as he sees it: you are protected as Jews, as long as you leave Israel at the door. For the largest Jewish community outside Israel, that is a break. But he also notes something else: rabbis speaking out, organizations waking up and setting up a watch unit on each of the mayor's appointments. "New York's Jews no longer keep their heads down, and that is what is new."
Americans in Israel and the midterms About 500,000 American citizens live in Israel today. For David Benaym, the real question is not their number but what they have seen: 80% of American Jews voted Democratic, and a shift after October 7, invisible in 2024, could be felt for the first time in this election. The difficulty: midterms draw few voters, with turnout between 40 and 60%. The open question is whether Americans who made aliyah will vote from Israel. The Ilhan Omar affair Donald Trump said overnight in a post that Ilhan Omar's real name is not Ilhan Omar, that she used a false name, that she may have married her brother and that she should be removed from Congress. Is that realistic? David Benaym recalls the facts: on October 12, federal agents searched her home near Washington as part of a criminal investigation that has lasted for years and whose subject no one officially knows. Three weeks before the election, she has not been charged with anything, and federal authorities generally do not investigate a candidate this way so close to a vote, which is a problem. But if the FBI went to her home, something real is going on. This week, in a court document, prosecutors referred to her as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, alias Ilhan Omar: that is what is new. The conservative press broke the story and Donald Trump seized on it. The allegation: she entered the United States illegally as a minor and married her brother, taking that name to become an American citizen. Lying on immigration papers to become American is the ultimate offense: she could be deported, lose her seat and all the influence she has built since her election in 2018. David Benaym points out that she is one of the most hostile voices toward Israel in Congress. A few years ago, she said the attacks against her were "all about the Benjamins", after Benjamin Franklin on the 100-dollar bill: Jews, money, power, one of the most antisemitic tropes. She apologized at the time. "If she fell, it would be huge. For now it looks like a political move, but there also seems to be substance to the accusations." "La question du jour", Radio Judaïca, October 23, 2026, hosted by Lise Benkemoun. Thumbnail photos: Abdul El-Sayed by Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY-SA 4.0), Zohran Mamdani: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CC BY 4.0), Capitol: Architect of the Capitol (public domain).