For those of us who are dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, watching Haley Stevens lose to Abdul El-Sayed was not easy. And now comes an even more perplexing challenge. El-Sayed will surely spend the next three months trying to convince Jews of two things: that he rejects the State of Israel but somehow still loves Jews, and that his disdain for the State of Israel and Zionism is somehow reasoned and sensible and not driven by vitriol.

Indeed, within a few hours after winning the primary, he was already dropping words like Seder and Shul to show his putative solidarity with Jews. The vast majority of his rhetoric and actions to date on this issue, however, indicate that both claims are fallacies. We are now tasked with not letting him talk (and doubletalk) his way around the barrage of Israel bashing anti-zionism that he has been shoveling since his undergraduate days and, most recently, was epitomized by his response to the attack on Temple Israel — which was, at best, ambivalent and ambiguous and, at worst, a justification for an act of terror against a synagogue thousands of miles removed from the war in Gaza: “Hurt people hurt people.” (In response to those who suggest that this sound bite has been quoted out of context, I suggest listening to El-Sayed’s remarks in their entirety and noting that most of what he said was a more elaborate way of expressing this sound bite, that is, laying ultimate responsibility for the attack on the State of Israel) 

At best, El-Sayed is the latest example of a public figure playing “Good Jews and Bad Jews” — the age-old pastime of antagonists trying to cover their tracks for reasons of expedience. In this case, Good Jews are those who reject Israel and Zionism and who buy into the propagandistic redefinition of Zionism and Zionist as bad word; Bad Jews are those of us who are and remain steadfastly and unapologetically Zionists and deeply committed to the State of Israel. At worst, El-Sayed's rhetoric and public forum will further legitimize assaults and attacks not only against Israel and Zionism but against all Jews as Zionist or Zionist-Adjacent agents. 

We know what comes next. A local rabbi or two and other Jewish intellectual lightweights will support El-Sayed and join him in his anti-zionism. He will, in turn, trot them out each time he needs to demonstrate a would-be pro-Jewish bona fides behind the pseudo-shield of having a few Jewish friends and allies. This is not a new tactic. On the contrary, it is standard procedure in the playbook of Judenhasse. It is no different than Henry Ford hiding behind the fact that he gave his friend and neighbor Rabbi Leo Franklin a new Model T every year. It is no different than Minister Louis Farrakhan (in response to Ted Koppel's question, “Are there any Jews you respect?”) dodging the question by noting that he respected the Jewish violinist Jascha Heifetz.

These Jewish allies, knowingly or otherwise, repeat past mistakes by erstwhile Jewish allies of those who view Jews with antipathy, in two respects. First, by allowing El-Sayed to distinguish his disdain for Israel and Zionism from his attitude toward Jews, these Jewish allies allow those outside the Jewish community to define what it means to be anti-Jewish. Throughout the long history of the diaspora, the vast majority of Jews worldwide have shared a deep connection to Israel and Jewish peoplehood; and for the last century or more a deep commitment to Zionism has been a pillar of Jewish identity. 

For Jews to allow an antagonist like Abdul El-Sayed to sequester Zionism from Jewish identity is to forfeit the fundamental right for us to define what we as a people and community consider to be hatred of and discrimination against Jews. 

Second, leaping at the opportunity to ally with El-Sayed repeats a much-tried, never successful Jewish mindset and political strategy: If we are better, if we do better, the haters will hate us a little less and maybe even accept us. Nearly two and a half centuries ago, Jews in revolutionary France were offered citizenship conditionally, in the words of Count de Clermont-Tonnere: “The Jews should be offered everything as individuals, nothing as a people.” The price of citizenship meant forfeiting at least some of what our forbears treasured as distinctly Jewish. 

Later, at the turn of the twentieth century, Jews who became socialists, in Russia and elsewhere, were eventually asked to join in a broader chorus condemning “Jewish capitalism.” In twentieth century America, second- and third-generation Jews were offered entree in elite (i.e. white) society on condition that they not act or seem "too Jewish."

And now, acceptance as an ally by a progressive activist like El-Sayed means repudiating Zionism and joining in a series of unsubstantiated libels against Zionism and the State of Israel. We can and must expect better of our politicians, neighbors, and allies.