Platner, El-Sayed Embrace Warning That They Are 'Direct Threat to the US-Israel Relationship'

Two Democratic US Senate candidates in closely watched primary races found themselves in rare agreement with a powerful pro-Israel lobby group on Tuesday evening after it warned the two progressives posed "a direct threat to the US-Israel relationship."

"I’m Abdul El-Sayed and I endorse this message," said the physician and public health advocate running in a three-way race in Michigan, where he recently emphasized at a rally that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—the group that issued the warning to voters—has endangered Jewish Americans by promoting the idea that criticizing the Israeli government is antisemitic.

In Maine, combat veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, the presumed winner of the June 9 primary following Gov. Janet Mills' decision to suspend her campaign, said he was also "proud to appear" in AIPAC's fundraising email, "and many AIPAC fundraising emails to come."

In its email to supporters, AIPAC said El-Sayed and Platner are the chosen candidates of a "coordinated, well-funded effort to punish anyone who stands with Israel"—one that's being "driven by the far-left fringe of American politics."

The group added that the movement is being "pushed" by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—one of the nation's most prominent Jewish political leaders and consistently ranked as the most popular member of the US Senate—and "amplified by voices like Hasan Piker," a Twitch streamer and commentator who has campaigned with El-Sayed.

Piker's involvement in El-Sayed's campaign sparked a weekslong controversy, with the other two Michigan Democrats in the race, AIPAC-backed Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, accusing El-Sayed of associating with someone who's promoted antisemitism and comparing Piker to white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes. Both El-Sayed and Piker have condemned antisemitism, expressed vehement support for Palestinian rights, and denounced Israel's US-backed attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories.

In its email, AIPAC doubled down on its claims that El-Sayed and Platner are part of an extremist movement that occupies the fringes of American public life, warning that they've embraced "extreme rhetoric, pushed false accusations of genocide, and openly support cutting off aid" to Israel.

But numerous polls in recent months have suggested that Israel's actions since it began attacking Gaza in October 2023 with US military funding—killing more than 72,000 Palestinians, creating the largest child amputee population in the world, and imposing an intentional starvation policy—have resulted in plummeting approval ratings for the country and its right-wing government, without any help from Sanders, Platner, El-Sayed, or Piker.

Months into Israel's war on Gaza, cracks in Israel's popularity among US voters were already beginning to show. In May 2024, a poll by Data for Progress found that 56% of Democratic voters believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, and 54% said they supported suspending all US arms sales to Israel until it stopped blocking humanitarian aid.

Public disapproval has only grown more pronounced since then. A Gallup poll showed in February that for the first time, a larger share of Americans sympathized with the Palestinians than with Israel in the Middle East conflict. In March, a survey by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies found that just 32% of US voters viewed Israel positively, down from 47% in 2023.

Just before the US helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last October—a deal Israel has repeatedly violated, killing hundreds of Palestinians since it was reached—a Washington Post poll found that 61% of Jewish Americans believed Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza and 40% said Israel was guilty of genocide.

At a rally held by Platner and Sanders in September, the political newcomer garnered loud applause when he called for an end to US funding for the Israeli military.

On Tuesday, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary, AIPAC replied to El-Sayed's "endorsement" of its attack by insisting that many voters want to vote for a candidate "who backs a partnership that delivers for Michigan—more jobs, a stronger auto industry, thriving agriculture, and better healthcare."

The Medicare for All advocate retorted that he plans to be "a senator who keeps Michigan tax dollars in Michigan to fund schools, healthcare, and roads... in Michigan."

Recent polls have shown a close race in the state. The most recent survey by the Glengariff Group found Stevens ahead of El-Sayed by just two points, with McMorrow behind six points. A poll by Emerson College, also taken in mid-April, found El-Sayed and McMorrow tied with 24% of the vote, despite the attacks on El-Sayed over his campaigning with Piker.

The Michigan primary is scheduled for August 4.