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Over the weekend a new political ad tied to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El‑Sayed landed like a hand grenade in a grocery aisle. The spot pushes a simple, ugly claim: Americans can’t afford food because the federal government sends money to Israel. That claim didn’t just cross the line — it ran a victory lap on it. The ad is stirring outrage, and rightly so, because it traffics in classic antisemitic tropes while pretending to be populist anger about grocery prices.
The ad’s message: blame Israel, blame the Jews
The ad shows two downbeat shoppers complaining about high prices and then points a finger at foreign policy spending — specifically saying money goes to Israel. That message is simple and poisonous. It takes a real problem, rising grocery costs, and smears an entire people by suggesting they control our politics and our wallets. Calling out government policy is one thing. Turning that into “Jews are to blame” is another. This ad slides from critique into prejudice, and anyone with a moral compass should say so.
How this plays into old, hateful narratives
There’s nothing new about blaming an entire group for complex problems. That’s the playbook of bigotry. The ad leans on the oldest version of it by implying that Jewish people — or “Israel” as shorthand — are the puppet masters of our economy. That’s not policy debate. That’s a scapegoat. Smart politics and honest journalism call out bad policy without importing centuries of hate. The people who made and promoted this ad ignored that basic line.
Political fallout — and what it means for the Michigan race
For a Senate race already tight, this is self-inflicted damage. Voters worried about pocketbook issues don’t need conspiracies; they need plans that tackle supply chains, energy costs, and inflation. When a campaign or its backers resort to ethnic scapegoating, it hands the opposition moral clarity and media headlines they don’t want. If supporters of Abdul El‑Sayed don’t repudiate the ad and explain its withdrawal, the candidate will have to answer whether his campaign tolerates this kind of rhetoric — or whether he stands apart from it.
In the end, politics should be about solutions, not slurs. If you want to win in Michigan, talk about real fixes for grocery prices and everyday pain. If you want to poison the well with age‑old hatred, expect pushback — and rightly so. Campaigns that trade on grievance and bigotry might score cheap attention for a day, but they lose credibility and voters for a lot longer.
