Abdul El-Sayed Calls for an End to the Iran War and Equal Treatment of Israel Under International Law

Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s newly elected Democratic senator, has called for an end to the U.S. war with Iran and challenged Washington’s military relationship with Israel, arguing that American foreign policy should apply the same human rights standards to every government.

“We’re selling them the equipment that they’re using to do genocide, maintain apartheid, and take us to wars we have no business fighting,” El-Sayed said, also criticizing Israel’s attempted annexation of southern Lebanon.

He rejected the suggestion that criticizing Israel’s government amounts to hostility toward Jewish people. “No, it is because I love both that Jewish Israeli child and that Palestinian child to the same degree.”

“My approach is simple: Treat the government of Israel the way you would treat any other government that did the same thing,” he said. Citing his family’s Egyptian roots, he argued that Egypt should face the same scrutiny over human rights violations and U.S. military assistance. Sharing an ethnicity with Egyptians, he said, should not make criticism of their government anti-Egyptian.

On Iran, El-Sayed accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing successive U.S. administrations toward war and influencing Trump’s decision to enter the conflict. He criticized Netanyahu’s access to the White House Situation Room and described the war as one previous presidents had avoided.

“End this stupid war. It makes no sense,” he said, arguing that Americans were paying for it through military casualties and higher gasoline prices. He called for a congressional war powers resolution to hold the administration accountable and a return to diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program.

El-Sayed has also taken aim at Trump’s trade confrontation with Canada, joking that Canadians apologize even before offending anyone. “If you’re picking a tariff war with Canada, you’re the asshole,” he said.

Addressing accusations involving the Muslim Brotherhood, he joked: “I have a brother. He’s Muslim, and he and I have a Muslim Brotherhood.”

Money in politics was another target. El-Sayed said AIPAC had spent $42 million trying to defeat him, linking the opposition he faced to his position on equal rights for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis.

“A Palestinian child and a Jewish Israeli child get to have equal rights of peace, dignity, self-determination,” he said, questioning why politicians should fear expressing that position because of potential AIPAC spending in future elections.

His victory in Michigan on November 3 made him the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. He is due to take office in January.