Did you miss the recent “Jews for Abdul” event last week in Pontiac, Michigan? Too bad.
You wouldn’t have had trouble finding a seat. Only a relative handful of Jewish supporters of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, showed up (and one woman admitted to a reporter that she wasn’t Jewish).
Mr. El-Sayed is rightly controversial. He has appeared in public alongside the loathsome Hasan Piker (he who has shared anti-Semitic sentiments and support for terrorism; and gleefully declared that the “American empire is ‘fading fast’ and will ‘inevitably fall’). Mr. El-Sayed has also answered a reporter’s question, “Do you think [Israel is] just as evil as Hamas?” with a “Yes.”
On a recording made at the recent event, obtained by Jewish Insider, Mr. El-Sayed responded to a questioner who asked him whether he believes in Israel’s right to exist. He said: “I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,’ which, to me, forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means.”
“I need folks,” he continued, “who want to ask me that question [to explain] what it is that they mean by that, and how that is consistent with any form of liberal values that we say we believe in here in the United States.”
Well, let’s try to unpack things for the candidate—and ask a question of our own.
Israel defined itself as a Jewish state when it declared its independence in 1948; the following year, it was formally admitted as an official member nation of the United Nations.
The “Jewish” in Israel’s self-definition meant that it would be a homeland for the Jewish people, and that Jews worldwide would have an automatic right to citizenship. Anyone, though, can become a citizen, through a normative naturalization process or by marrying an Israeli citizen.
Israel’s “Jewish” identity also informs its laws and culture—its work calendar respects the Jewish Sabbath and holidays; and kosher food is served at government functions and in the military, for instances—but it is by no sane measure anything approaching a theocracy.
There is an official state rabbinate, but what it oversees are issues like personal religious status, marriage, divorce and burial.
The very same autonomy and authority are granted to Christian and Muslim religious communities in the state. (The only religious groups that do not enjoy official recognition in Israel are claimants to the mantle of “Judaism” like the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Humanistic movements, which have diverged from the Judaism of the ages.)
There is unfettered freedom of religion in the country—for all citizens. Including Jews, some 45% of them who self-identify as “secular.” They can violate Jewish religious laws without legal repercussions.
Israel maintains the institutions of a liberal democracy, including regular and competitive elections, a free press and an independent judiciary. Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote, to run for office, and to serve in the Knesset and as judges, even on the state’s highest court.
So, does that, Mr. El-Sayed, answer your question? We hope so.
Now, though, allow us one of our own: What is your feeling about countries whose constitutions explicitly name Islam as the state religion? Like Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates? And Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. And let’s not leave out Mauritania and Djibouti.
Do you feel that the countries listed above have a right to exist as Muslim states?
You have not, at least publicly, expressed any angst, like that which you express with regard to Israel, about any of those officially Muslim countries—and their embrace of Islam is considerably more consequential than Israel’s of Judaism.
Is there some reason why, among all those religion-identified countries, only Israel, with its relatively mild connection to Judaism, bothers you so?
You are silent about nations that identify with one religion, your own.
Now, why would that be?
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