Zionist Organization of America president Morton Klein is warning that Democratic leaders have failed to forcefully condemn antisemitic voices inside their own party — and he points to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as the latest example.
During a Michigan Senate debate, El-Sayed was asked whether Iran or Israel poses a greater threat to the United States. He declined to say Iran is the bigger threat, a position Klein called alarming in a Monday interview with Fox News Digital.
Klein, speaking on behalf of himself rather than the ZOA, singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
"They're anti-Israel voices. They don't really give a damn about the Palestinians either. They just hate Jews in the Jewish state. That's my opinion."
Klein stressed that the ZOA is a 501(c)(3) organization and is legally prohibited from commenting on candidates as opposed to their positions. He then criticized what he called the failure of Democratic leaders to condemn party members who traffic in antisemitism.
"Viciously antisemitic members of Congress have not been condemned in any significant way by the Democratic Party," Klein said. "So it's disappointing to me as an American that we don't condemn people who are filled with hate and not filled with what's best for America."
Klein argued that anti-Israel rhetoric has moved from the political fringe into elected office, and he warned that the trend has pressured Israeli leaders toward what he called dangerous "appeasement." He also placed blame on Israeli and Jewish leaders themselves.
"I blame the Jewish leaders and the Israeli leaders themselves: You might find that surprising," he said. "The Israeli government over the years has not made it clear that the Hamas Charter has two clauses that say, murder every Jew on earth, destroy Israel."
Klein's remarks come as Israeli elections are set to take place in roughly two weeks, according to Fox News Digital, and as anti-Zionist voices gain influence in American politics. The debate exchange with El-Sayed — in which he would not rank Iran as a greater threat than Israel — is the specific flashpoint Klein cited.
El-Sayed, a former Detroit health department director and progressive activist, has not publicly responded to Klein's characterization. The broader question of whether Democratic leaders will publicly condemn antisemitism within their ranks is one the party has faced repeatedly since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.
The ZOA's criticism lands as Republicans, including the Trump-Vance administration, have sought to frame Democrats as tolerant of antisemitism within their coalition. Klein's interview adds a prominent pro-Israel voice to that argument, though he was careful to note he was speaking for himself and not in his official capacity as ZOA president.
For Michigan voters, the Senate race now includes a foreign-policy litmus test: whether a candidate will state plainly that Iran — a state sponsor of terrorism and Israel's most committed enemy — represents a greater threat to the United States than Israel does. El-Sayed's refusal to answer that question directly is the fact Klein is pointing to.
Our Take
There is no moral equivalence between Iran and Israel. One is a theocratic regime that chants "Death to America," funds Hamas and Hezbollah, and threatens to wipe a U.S. ally off the map. The other is a democratic ally and the only country in the Middle East where Jews, Christians and Muslims vote, worship and live under the rule of law.
So when a major-party Senate nominee in Michigan cannot bring himself to say Iran is the bigger threat, that is not nuance. It is a tell. And when Democratic leaders look the other way at Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and their allies, they are telling American Jews exactly where they stand — and it is not with them.
Klein is right that the condemnations are missing. The question now is whether Michigan voters will demand an answer to a simple question: which country would you rather have as America's ally? Patriot readers should press every candidate on that question before November.
