Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed apologized for his response to an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this year, acknowledging that he should have unequivocally condemned the incident rather than attempting to place the violence in a broader context.
“I made a mistake,” El-Sayed said during an appearance before the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at the state party’s convention in Lansing on Shabbos. “I should have issued a statement, of course condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop.”
El-Sayed was addressing the controversy surrounding comments he made following the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Authorities said a man deliberately drove a truck into the synagogue and injured a security guard in an attack intended to target Jews.
In his original reaction to the incident, El-Sayed said there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people,” while also declaring that “violence is a cycle,” and using the phrase “hurt people hurt people.”
Authorities have said that the alleged attacker, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon, had lost relatives in an Israeli attack in Lebanon earlier that month.
Speaking to the group of Jewish Democrats today, El-Sayed said his earlier comments were intended to provide a wider context for what had occurred, but he conceded that the immediate aftermath of the synagogue attack was the wrong time to do so.
“If my statement caused pain, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was not what I intended.”
The controversy comes as El-Sayed faces continuing questions over his positions on Israel and Gaza and his associations with political commentators who have been sharply critical of Israel.
During the Democratic primary, El-Sayed appeared on the campaign trail with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker. El-Sayed subsequently distanced himself from Piker after the commentator’s remarks about American Jews and support for Israel triggered condemnation from several Democratic lawmakers.
Piker had suggested that if American Jews continued advancing the idea that they are “singularly invested in Israel,” someone might eventually “take action” against American Jews.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) denounced Piker’s comments as “dangerous and antisemitic.”
El-Sayed, meanwhile, has said he has “no plans” to campaign with Piker during the general election as he seeks to reassure Jewish voters ahead of November.
{Matzav.com}
