Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Party’s Senate candidate in the US state of Michigan, has said Israel is not a friend of the United States. He made the comment when asked whether he considers Israel a US ally, and restated his hard line on Israel.
“An ally that takes money from you and tries to drag you into a war you should not be in is not an ally,” El-Sayed said in an interview with ABC News on Monday, 19 October.
Describing the US relationship with Israel through the example of a friendship, he said: imagine a friend who keeps taking your children’s money, talks about them behind their backs and picks fights with your other friends.
“What would you tell your child? You would probably say he is not really your friend,” he told the journalist.
“It is time for us to realise that Israel is not actually our friend,” El-Sayed said.
His remarks came as allegations about members of his family have surfaced. His sister-in-law, Miriam Zughayer, was recently accused of involvement in a federal case concerning the terrorist watch list during the administration of former US President Barack Obama.
Speaking to Fox News, El-Sayed dismissed the allegations, saying his sister-in-law had done nothing wrong. He suggested the situation may have arisen from Islamophobia because of her name and identity.
“There is a system here in which people with a different kind of name are treated as guilty before they are proven innocent. That is the result of a structure built by people like Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan,” El-Sayed said.
El-Sayed’s stance on Israel has also caused concern among part of the US Jewish community. Ahead of the November midterm elections, rabbis and other Jewish leaders have called on the Democratic Party to adopt several “non-negotiable” policies to protect Jewish safety.
They fear El-Sayed’s anti-Israel stance could harm the safety of Jews in the United States.
Meanwhile, some Democratic-leaning students at the University of Michigan, frustrated with the candidate selection for Michigan’s Senate race, have recently joined El-Sayed’s campaign.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report