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This Week:

• What El-Sayed Doesn't Want MI Voters to Know
• RJC Victory Fund Slams Bob "Holiday" Harvie in New Ad in PA-01

• RJC in the News

• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

What El-Sayed Doesn't Want MI Voters to Know

There is a lot of information about Democratic Michigan candidate for US Senate Abdul El-Sayed that he doesn't want Michigan voters to know. Facts like these are driving voters - including Democrats – to support Republican Mike Rogers.

• On July 11, El-Sayed attended a fundraiser in Chesterfield, MI, hosted by the Palestinian activist Huwaida Araf, the co-founder of the Free Gaza movement, which launched several "sea voyages" to challenge what she describes as Israel's "illegal blockade."

• El-Sayed headlined the June 6 grand opening of Imam Hassan Qazwini's mosque, calling it "an honor and a privilege." Weeks later, Qazwini urged his congregation to "deal the Zionists a bigger blow."

• El-Sayed campaigned three times with Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi -- a former ideological officer in the Iranian Navy who blamed "Mossad and Israel" for 9/11.

• Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit—a mosque attended by El-Sayed—referred to Zionists as "the cockroaches of history" in a 2024 sermon and urged congregants to oppose them.

• Abdul El-Sayed said he drew inspiration from the "excellent" works of Tariq Ramadan, a disgraced Oxford professor—and grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna—best known for his diatribes against "Jewish intellectuals" and for being sentenced to 18 years in French prison for raping three women.

• Abdul El-Sayed told a group of Jewish voters at a Detroit synagogue in 2018 that he views the Israeli military "the same way" that he views Hamas, according to video obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

• Abdul El-Sayed said in an interview that Israel is not a friend or ally of the United States, escalating comments he's made repeatedly this month characterizing Israel as a threat comparable to Iran.

• At least six men who joined Abdul El-Sayed in signing a notorious 2012 letter calling for a Muslim Brotherhood "purge" of the media and police have also donated handsomely to his two runs for office, mostly to his current Senate campaign.

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she would give $1 million from her political war chest to help elect Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. The Republican Jewish Coalition has referred to El-Sayed as "the most antisemitic US Senate candidate in America."

RJC spokesman Sam Markstein talked to Heartlander News about the recent debate between Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed:

"Once again, Abdul El-Sayed was exposed as a complete and total fraud. El-Sayed has lied about being a physician, lied about being a citizen of Egypt, has taken campaign funding from groups and individuals associated with radical Islamic jihadists and he's bought and paid for by Chuck Schumer, who is pouring $35 million into Michigan."

RJC Victory Fund Slams Bob "Holiday" Harvie in New Ad in PA-01

The Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund released a new attack ad in Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District, slamming Democrat Bob "Holiday" Harvie for his hypocrisy and votes to raise taxes on hardworking American families. The RJC VF's $400,000 ad campaign will run on digital and streaming services throughout PA-01.

RJC CEO Matt Brooks said:

With the holidays approaching, it's Bob "Holiday" Harvie's favorite time of year. Why? Because it's time for Bob Harvie's annual property tax hike: last December, Harvie voted for an 8% increase, and two years ago, it was a 7.9% increase. Meanwhile, Bob Harvie voted to give himself a big pay raise. The bottom line: a pay raise for Bob Harvie, and holiday gloom for the rest of Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional district. We cannot allow that to happen.

Bob Harvie's abysmal record stands in stark contrast to Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, whom the Republican Jewish Coalition has proudly supported in every one of his congressional runs.

We stand with Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick because he continues to deliver results for the hardworking people of Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District.

Read more here. Watch the ad here.

And check out the Jewish Insider coverage of the ad: RJC drops $400,000 to boost Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania swing district

"For the Jewish community in particular, Fitzpatrick takes the rise of antisemitism seriously as a threat to American Jews, and he has been among the most reliable allies in the House of Representatives in support of the US-Israel relationship," [RJC CEO Matt] Brooks said. "Brian Fitzpatrick has earned the trust and support of Pennsylvania voters."

RJC in the News

Fox News: Hasan Piker rips New York Jewish voters' shift away from Democrats, blames Israel

[Hasan] Piker faced backlash over his assertion that the shift was solely about Israel, with Republican Jewish Coalition communications director Sam Markstein telling Fox News Digital that the streamer's accusation was rooted in an antisemitic trope.

"Hasan Piker's statement that American Jews' voting preferences are all about Middle East policy plays directly into the oldest antisemitic trope of dual loyalty. He is flat out wrong and is trivializing the very real spike in Jew hatred which directly threatens our community's safety," Markstein said.

"Let's be clear: American Jews are fleeing the Democratic Party because its leadership continues to elevate, embrace and appease the most radicalized elements of their anti-America extremist party base. The sad irony is that antisemitic bigot Hasan Piker, who said 'America deserved 9/11,' and who has been elevated by national Democrats, including campaigning with Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, is Exhibit A," he added.

WSJ: Democrats Are Losing the Jewish Vote (gift link)

Sam Markstein of the Republican Jewish Coalition told me that a focus on national numbers belies the trend: "Look at places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Florida and Ohio, the states that really matter in presidential elections," he said. "Republicans are getting almost to parity with the Democrats, which would've been unheard of just a few decades ago."

Mr. Markstein argued that groups like Ms. [Halie] Soifer's make the mistake of relying on broad national polling numbers. "You have these Jewish communal organizations on the Democratic side . . . who will scream into the wind that the Jewish vote hasn't moved, it'll never move, it's been the same forever." Those claims, he said, are generally based on exit polls. "They do that every cycle, and then I have to point out that the raw vote total data doesn't care about your feelings."

By that, Mr. Markstein meant the totals show an increase in Jewish votes for Republicans. In 2024, for instance, Donald Trump won every New York City precinct where Jews made up 50% or more of the population, according to RJC data Mr. Markstein shared. There are plenty of Haredi Jews in those precincts, but not in Michigan, he said, where "places like West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills and Southfield in Oakland County" moved about 10 points toward Mr. Trump between 2020 and 2024.

RJC's Sam Markstein on "Made in America with Elizabeth Pipko"

"I think on election night you're going to see Mike Rogers win the Jewish vote in Michigan, which even just a couple of years ago would have been unprecedented, unheard of. The RJC Victory Fund is actively running ads in Michigan targeting tens of thousands of lifelong Jewish Democrats and independents who have never supported a Republican before. Those ads feature those same lifelong Jewish Michiganders who are saying they cannot vote for Abdul El-Sayed because of his rhetoric, but not just rhetoric, but also because of what he does. You are what you do, not just what you say.

"…If you look at the fundraising as well, over 75% of [Democratic primary candidate] Haley Stevens' donors have actually contributed to Mike Rogers. And that should tell you a lot about where this is moving."

Short Takes

Wiesel: Obama's Dangerous Mideast Words (gift link)

Last week former President Barack Obama was awarded an honorary degree from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. During a talk that followed, Mr. Obama said of the Jewish people that after millennia of persecution, "they took land of people, and they were expelled. And those people understandably said, 'This is injustice and I want my land back.'"

… What does "understandably" demanding one's land back look like? Understanding Palestinian grievances isn't the same as excusing Hamas, and Mr. Obama knows the difference. But words have consequences. The partition of India in 1947 uprooted more than 10 million people, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike. No American president would tell a crowd that the grandchildren of those who were displaced "understandably" want those homes back, because everyone knows where that leads. We saw where it leads on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas's leaders have since vowed to do it again and again until Israel is gone. There can and should be no understanding of those ambitions.

The deeper problem is the story itself. In Mr. Obama's telling, Jews were oppressed in Europe and then arrived somewhere else and took too much. Jewish history in the land disappears. My father [Elie Wiesel] drew a line when he wrote in the New York Times in 2001: "To compromise on territory might seem, under certain conditions, imperative. . . . But to compromise on history is impossible." That is the line Mr. Obama crossed in Belfast.

The timing of his remarks matters. This week he will rally in Detroit for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan's Democratic US Senate nominee, who has accused Israel of "genocide" and "apartheid," called it "bloodthirsty" and a "rogue state," and, when asked three times on CNN whether Israel has a right to exist, refused to say yes. Mr. Obama is free to campaign for whomever he chooses. But when he, the most trusted voice in the Democratic Party, misrepresents Jewish history and then shares a stage with Mr. El-Sayed, Jewish Americans can be forgiven for hearing one message.

White House: How President Trump Ended the Border Invasion and Restored American Sovereignty

President Donald J. Trump was returned to office with a clear mandate to end the invasion that Democrats allowed to overwhelm communities, drain public resources, and endanger public safety. In less than two years, the Trump Administration has delivered the largest reduction in the illegal alien population in modern history, driven illegal crossings to an all-time low, and enacted sweeping reforms that finally put American citizens first.

Rubio: Iran, not Palestinian issue, main obstacle to Mideast peace

Iran, rather than the Palestinian issue, is the principal obstacle to peace in the Middle East, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, arguing that the Trump administration has exposed Tehran's central role in regional instability.

"Traditionally, the American political class thought that peace in the Middle East, the core central issue, is the Palestinian question," Rubio told the Breitbart news site in his first in-person interview since his public address at the Acropolis in Athens.

But "the number one driver of instability and war and conflict and the number one obstacle to peace in the Middle East is the Islamic regime in Tehran," he continued.

Rubio cited Iran's support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, terrorist militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as Tehran's direct attacks on regional countries.

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