Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed Launches Bid (Source: WLNS 6 News/Youtube)

Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat and outspoke critic of Israel running for the US Senate, is trailing in new polling within the state of Michigan and performing the worst among all candidates when paired against leading Republican contender Mike Rogers. 

In a hypothetical matchup against Rogers, El-Sayed would only command 40.1 percent of the vote, according to polling released by the Detroit Regional Chamber in partnership with the Glengariff Group. Rogers would win 46.9 percent of Michigan voters. Comparatively, pro-Israel Democratic candidate Haley Stevens leads Rodgers in the poll by a margin of 45.2 percent to 43.8 percent. 

El-Sayed also trails Stevens in the Senate Democratic primary, according to the poll. El-Sayed would win 22.2 percent of Michigan Democratic primary voters. Stevens, who describes herself as a “stalwart supporter of the Jewish state,” currently holds a comfortable lead in the contest, commanding 34.3 percent of primary voters. 

El-Sayed launched a Senate campaign last month, saying that Congress should “fight back” against the Trump administration. The child of an Egyptian immigrant, he first emerged onto the national political landscape in 2018 when he launched an ultimately unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in the Wolverine State. During that campaign, El-Sayed received endorsements from fellow progressive stalwarts Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). 

El-Sayed has also positioned himself as a fierce critic of Israel. The progressive champion was a prominent supporter of the “Uncommitted movement,” a coalition of Democratic officials which refused to support the 2024 Kamala Harris presidential campaign over her support for Israel. However, El-Sayed later clarified that he would support Harris over Donald Trump in the general election.  

The Senate hopeful has been especially critical of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. On Oct. 21, 2023, two weeks after the Hamas-led slaughter of 1,200 people in southern Israel, the progressive politician accused Israel of “genocide.” He also compared Israel’s defensive military operations to the Hamas terrorist group’s conduct on Oct. 7, 2023, writing, “You can both condemn Hamas terrorism AND Israel’s murder since.”

In comments to Politico, El-Sayed criticized Democrats’ handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arguing that Democrats should become the “party of peace and justice” and said that they “ought not to be the party sending bombs and money to foreign militaries to drop bombs on other people’s kids in their schools and their hospitals.”

Some observers have argued that El-Sayed’s Egyptian heritage and critical views of Israel could buoy him in Michigan, a state with a significant Arab American and Muslim population.

The post Anti-Israel Michigan Senate Candidate Trails in Early Polling first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

A screengrab shows according to the Israeli Army, Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar, taken from a handout video, released Dec/ 17, 2023. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas‘s Gaza chief and the younger brother of the Palestinian terrorist group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Yahya Sinwar, had been killed.

Mohammad Sinwar had been the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month and Netanyahu said on May 21 that it was likely he was dead.

The Israeli leader announced that Sinwar had been “eliminated” in an address to the Israeli parliament as he listed off names of other Hamas officials that Israel had killed over the past 20 months, including Sinwar‘s brother Yahya.

“In the last two days we have been in a dramatic turn towards a complete defeat of Hamas,” he said, adding that Israel was also “taking control of food distribution,” a reference to a new aid distribution system in Gaza managed by a US-backed group.

Hamas has yet to confirm Sinwar‘s death.

Netanyahu‘s announcement comes as the Israeli military has intensified its war campaign in Gaza after a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Israel has said it aims to dismantle Hamas‘s governing and military capabilities and secure the release of hostages that are still held in Gaza.

The war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed out of Gaza, rampaging through southern Israeli communities and killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

More than 250 were captured and taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir on May 26 said Hamas had lost many assets, including its command-and-control center.

Sinwar was elevated to the top ranks of the Palestinian terrorist group last year after Israel killed his brother Yahya in combat.

Yahya Sinwar masterminded the October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, now in its 20th month, and was later named the overall leader of the group after Israel killed his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visits the Iranian centrifuges in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran may pause uranium enrichment if the US releases frozen Iranian funds and recognizes Tehran’s right to refine uranium for civilian use under a “political deal” that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, two Iranian official sources said.

The sources, close to the negotiating team, said on Wednesday a “political understanding with the United States could be reached soon” if Washington accepted Tehran’s conditions. One of the sources said the matter “has not been discussed yet” during the talks with the United States.

The sources told Reuters that under this arrangement, Tehran would halt uranium enrichment for a year, ship part of its highly enriched stock abroad or convert it into fuel plates for civilian nuclear purposes.

A temporary pause to enrichment would be a way to overcome an impasse over clashing red lines after five rounds of talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.

US officials have repeatedly said that any new nuclear deal with Iran – to replace a failed 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers – must include a commitment to scrap enrichment, viewed as a potential pathway to developing nuclear bombs.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied such intentions, saying it wants nuclear energy only for civilian purposes, and has publicly rejected Washington’s demand to scrap enrichment as an attack on its national sovereignty.

In Washington, a US official told Reuters the proposal aired by the Iranian sources had not been brought to the negotiating table to date. The US State Department and Iran‘s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this article.

The Iranian sources said Tehran would not agree to dismantling of its nuclear program or infrastructure or sealing of its nuclear installations as demanded by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Instead, they said, Trump must publicly recognize Iran‘s sovereign right to enrichment as a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and authorize a release of Iranian oil revenues frozen by sanctions, including $6 billion in Qatar.

Iran has not yet been able to access the $6 billion parked in a Qatar bank that was unfrozen under a US-Iranian prisoner swap in 2023, during US President Joe Biden’s administration.

“Tehran wants its funds to be transferred to Iran with no conditions or limitations. If that means lifting some sanctions, then it should be done too,” the second source said.

The sources said the political agreement would give the current nuclear diplomacy a greater chance to yield results by providing more time to hammer out a consensus on hard-to-bridge issues needed for a permanent treaty.

“The idea is not to reach an interim deal, it would (rather) be a political agreement to show both sides are seeking to defuse tensions,” said the second Iranian source.

Western diplomats are skeptical of chances for US-Iranian reconciliation on enrichment. They warn that a temporary political agreement would face resistance from European powers unless Iran displayed a serious commitment to scaling back its nuclear activity with verification by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Even if gaps over enrichment narrow, lifting sanctions quickly would remain difficult. The US favors phasing out nuclear-related sanctions while Iran demands immediate removal of all US-imposed curbs that impair its oil-based economy.

Asked whether critical US sanctions, reimposed since 2018 when Trump withdrew Washington from the 2015 pact, could be rescinded during an enrichment pause, the first source said: “There have been discussions over how to lift the sanctions during the five rounds of talks.”

Dozens of Iranian institutions vital to Iran‘s economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been sanctioned since 2018 for, according to Washington, “supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.”

Iran‘s clerical establishment is grappling with mounting crises – energy and water shortages, a plunge in the value of its currency, losses among regional militia proxies in wars with Israel, and growing fears of an Israeli strike on its nuclear sites – all exacerbated by Trump’s hardline stance.

Trump’s revival of a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran since he re-entered the White House in January has included tightened sanctions and threats to bomb Iran if current negotiations yield no deal.

Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Tehran’s leadership “has no better option” than a new deal to avert economic chaos at home that could jeopardize clerical rule.

Nationwide protests over social repression and economic hardship in recent years met with harsh crackdowns but exposed the Islamic Republic’s vulnerability to public discontent and drew more Western sanctions over human rights violations.

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