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<\/a><\/p>\nMichigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed addresses the state’s Jewish Democratic Caucus during the party’s nominating convention in Lansing, Mich., Aug. 29, 2026. (Andrew Lapin\/JTA)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Democratic nominee told the room that his remarks following the attempted targeting of the West Bloomfield synagogue preschool, in which he had said, in part, \u201cHurt people hurt people,\u201d were intended to provide \u201ccontext.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reflecting on them, he said on Saturday, \u201cI made a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my statement caused pain, I\u2019m sorry. It was not what I intended to do,\u201d El-Sayed continued. Referencing the first of two statements he had made about the attack, he added, \u201cWe issued a statement, of course, condemning it, and that just should have been it, full stop.\u201d <\/p>\n
El-Sayed\u2019s initial Temple Israel comments, which many Jews interpreted as justifying the attack, have alienated Jewish voters in the state. After an initial statement condemning the attack, El-Sayed then followed up with one referencing Israel\u2019s war in Lebanon, where the attacker had lost family in an Israel airstrike. <\/p>\n
On Saturday, El-Sayed, a former county health director, insisted that his push for \u201ccontext\u201d to the attack was broadly appropriate, but not at that moment, explaining that such \u201cconversations\u201d could happen \u201cin the fullness of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you can\u2019t really see context in the moment of acuity or pain,\u201d he said. \u201cThe intention for me was not to trample that pain. It was not to discount it. It was not at all to justify any sort of domestic terrorism. That\u2019s wrong, full stop.\u201d <\/p>\n
El-Sayed\u2019s apology, which was in response to a question posed to him by a Jewish Democrat in attendance, came amid a new round of outreach efforts he has been making with Jewish voters since he won Michigan\u2019s Democratic senate primary earlier this month. He also plans to attend a Sunday Jewish caucus gathering honoring state Attorney General Dana Nessel with congressional nominee Jeremy Moss in attendance, both of whom the candidate has publicly been at ideological odds with over Jewish issues. <\/p>\n
In recent days El-Sayed has also minimized some of his harsh critiques of Israel in his stump speeches and issued a statement distancing himself from onetime campaign ally Hasan Piker, the left-wing anti-Israel streamer. <\/p>\n
His nomination acceptance speech later that day made only one, oblique, reference to American support for Israel: \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be this hard to pay your taxes and know that that money\u2019s going to be spent on you, and your kids, and your schools, instead of being dropped in the form of a bomb on somebody else, and their kids, and their school.\u201d<\/p>\n
But skepticism was still palpable among the 30 or so Jewish Democrats in the room, a crowd that included one delegate who said his daughter and grandson had been inside Temple Israel when it was attacked. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur safety as Jews in America relies on, I think, what\u2019s said by public figures, and how they present themselves in public, and how they advocate for Jews in public,\u201d he said just prior to El-Sayed\u2019s apology.<\/p>\n
Not all of El-Sayed\u2019s answers pleased the room. Fielding another question about whether he would support the longstanding Democratic platform of a two-state solution in the Middle East if elected senator, the candidate pivoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incoherent to start with a solution and say, \u2018Figure out how to work here,\u2019\u201d El-Sayed said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s about starting with a process and saying, \u2018How do we dignify equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinian people and Jewish Israelis alike?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
He added, as he has in other interviews, that he was open to the possibility of a two-state solution \u201cif that\u2019s what a free Palestinian and free Jewish Israeli people decide.\u201d But, he qualified, \u201cOur country, under the guise of a two-state solution, has been aiding, arming, and abetting a government that wants to foreclose on the possibility of a second state.\u201d<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t sit well with some in attendance, even as El-Sayed\u2019s apology for his other comments was broadly appreciated. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really liked him apologizing for misspeaking. We\u2019ve all made comments that we regret later on,\u201d Rebecca Kasen, a Lansing-area Michigan Jewish Democrat in attendance, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cI was less comfortable with what he said about not supporting a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, Kasen said, her opinion of El-Sayed had improved after the Jewish caucus meeting as a result of his apology. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably a more reluctant voter for him\u201d beforehand, she said. That had changed: \u201cInstead of just going to vote now, I am going to be enthusiastically voting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n