Throughout history, Jews have been the scapegoat for society’s problems. From medieval blood libels and the Spanish Inquisition to pogroms and the Holocaust, the same accusations and conspiracy theories have arisen: Jews secretly control governments, corrupt politicians and murder children indiscriminately.
As author Dara Horn explained, antisemitism is not simply hatred of Jews. It is a political tool used to gain or maintain power by portraying Jews as destroying whatever a society values most. Antisemitism is less about Jews and more about the people who use lies about Jews to shift blame, rally resentment and consolidate their power.
Accusations change with the times, but the patterns remain. Now, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is importing centuries-old accusations as part of his campaign for a Michigan U.S. Senate seat. The following are four examples of how El-Sayed’s campaign rhetoric echoes longstanding antisemitic accusations, repackaging familiar patterns of scapegoating for modern Michigan politics.
For centuries, antisemitic propaganda has blamed Jews for economic hardship, portraying them as beneficiaries of others’ suffering. In medieval Europe, Jews were portrayed as greedy moneylenders, and Nazi propaganda blamed Jews for Germany’s economic distress after World War I.
When discussing nearly every economic issue in Michigan, El-Sayed mentions Israel. He points to Michigan’s struggling schools and unaffordable health care and argues that American money is being sent to Israel “instead of investing in our own kids.” The implication is clear: Michiganders are suffering because of American aid to Israel.
Yet foreign aid represents only a small fraction of federal spending, and assistance to Israel accounts for an even smaller share. Most of that assistance must be spent on American-made defense equipment and services. These expenditures cannot credibly explain Michigan’s longstanding problems with school funding and health care affordability.
Either El-Sayed fundamentally misunderstands the federal budget or deliberately exploits public ignorance of it. The reason is that replacing complicated truths with a simple culprit helps him turn public frustration into political power.
The antisemitic Russian hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alleged a Jewish plot for world domination. Nazi propaganda similarly portrayed Jews as the hidden force behind international conflict. The claim was: Your elected leaders are not really in charge. A hidden Jewish power is.
El-Sayed echoes this narrative when he attributes America’s war with Iran to Israel, suggesting that American military decisions are dictated by Israeli interests rather than independently determined by American leaders.
Think about what this accusation asks Americans to believe: The most powerful country in the world, with the world’s strongest military and intelligence agencies and an elected government, cannot make its own foreign policy decisions without being manipulated by Israel. This narrative conveniently absolves American leaders of responsibility while assigning extraordinary power to the Jewish state.
While Israel has security interests in confronting Iran, the United States has its own legitimate reasons to do so, including protecting American military personnel, maintaining regional security and concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
El-Sayed is weaponizing false accusations to gain political power.
Blaming Israel for American decisions is not an explanation of foreign policy. It is the recycling of a centuries-old conspiracy theory in the language of modern politics.
For centuries, antisemitic propaganda has portrayed “Jewish money” as a sinister force that buys politicians and corrupts governments. From medieval stereotypes to Nazi propaganda, the accusation remains the same: Jews use their wealth to purchase political power and control.
El-Sayed makes attacks on AIPAC a central theme of his Senate campaign. But AIPAC is an American pro-Israel advocacy organization whose supporters exercise the same constitutional rights to political participation as labor unions, business associations and countless other political groups.
Indeed, El-Sayed himself accepts PAC money to advance his own campaign. Yet he portrays AIPAC’s spending to support the Middle East’s only democracy as evidence of corruption. The same political activity he embraces becomes sinister when practiced by supporters of the world’s only Jewish state.
This dangerous sleight of hand turns ordinary political advocacy into a conspiracy theory of Jewish-associated money controlling American democracy. El-Sayed makes confronting that alleged corruption central to his campaign for political power.
For centuries, Jews were falsely accused of murdering innocent children, including in England in 1144 and Italy in 1475. These blood libels exploited compassion for innocent victims, transforming moral outrage into hostility toward Jews and tragically costing many innocent lives.
El-Sayed repeatedly accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The war following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre has inflicted devastating civilian suffering, compounded by Hamas’s use of civilian areas for military purposes. But civilian casualties, however tragic, do not by themselves establish genocide. That determination requires evidence of specific intent to destroy a specific group, in whole or in part.
Israel has taken extraordinary measures to protect civilian lives, including facilitating humanitarian medical assistance, leading mass vaccination campaigns and undertaking unprecedented military precautions that expose its own citizens to additional risk. These actions are relevant evidence when evaluating Israel’s intentions. How many armies in history, in the midst of war, help deliver food, medicine and vaccinations to civilians in enemy-controlled territory?
Calling a war “genocide” is among the gravest accusations imaginable. Repeating the charge does not prove it. El-Sayed is weaponizing false accusations of extraordinary cruelty to gain political power.
After the Holocaust, the world promised: “Never Again.” That promise does not just mean remembering past atrocities. It means recognizing recurring patterns of antisemitism and acting to stop them before they produce yet another tragedy.
Criticism of Israel, AIPAC and American foreign policy is not inherently antisemitic. But uniquely singling out Jews for false accusations of taking money away from Michigan’s school and healthcare systems, controlling and corrupting Michigan politics and murdering innocent people echoes dangerous patterns repeated throughout history.
The names and circumstances change, but the accusations and scapegoats remain. History shows the cost when politicians like El-Sayed exploit those accusations for their own political power.
