Watch: El-Sayed's Last Minute '60 Minutes' Mess - Just Can't Say Israel Has Right to Exist Full Stop
Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed refused on Sunday to state unequivocally that Israel has a right to exist.
Appearing on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” El-Sayed was asked point-blank whether Israel has the right to exist, according to The Jerusalem Post.
In response, El-Sayed sought to flip the question by complaining that he’s never asked by reporters whether “Palestine” has the right to exist.
This prompted interviewer Ross Douthat to ask him whether “Palestine” does indeed have a right to exist, to which El-Sayed quickly answered, “Yes.”
Abdul El-Sayed said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that Palestine has a right to exist but offered conditions when asked if the same is true of Israel. https://t.co/Mxgp07aycI
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) November 2, 2026
Yet when Douthat followed up with another question asking whether Israel also boasts the same unequivocal right to exist, El-Sayed demurred.
“Yes … if there is a shared understanding,” he began before being cut off by Douthat, who was confused over why his answer had conditions.
“Wait, you said–” Douthat tried noting before being cut off himself.
“Let me just, let me just, let me just, just understand — I believe, and this is the problem with this debate, we start from where we sit rather than start from principles,” El-Sayed continued. “I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike.”
“If the Palestinian people decide and the Israeli people decide that they want two states for two people, and they decide that on equal terms, I’m for it,” he added. “If they decide that they want one state shared in a different way, I’m for that.”
The fact that he offered two notably distinct answers when asked whether each people deserves to have their own homeland has not sat well with observers and critics.
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National Review contributor Dr. Pradheep Shanker noted in a social media post that El-Sayed “always has conditions when it comes to Jews.”
Fox News host Harris Faulkner added that “Abdul El-Sayed has told and continues to tell us who he is.”
This isn’t the first time El-Sayed has demurred when pressed about Israel’s right to exist. When asked the same question by a CNN host in July, he complained that the host was playing a “gotcha game” with him.
CNN: “You say [Israel] exists, but does it have a right to?”
EL-SAYED: “I’m not going to play this gotcha game about whether or not it has a right to exist.”
CNN: “So you’re not going to play the ‘gotcha game’ but you’re not going to say Israel has the right to exist…” https://t.co/QndYuXecak
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 3, 2026
Something similar happened in May when, during a “Jews for Abdul” event in Michigan, El-Sayed admitted that he “often” wrestles with the issue of whether Israel should exist.
“I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state,’ which, to me, forces the question of a definition of what a Jewish state means,” he said.
SCOOP | Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat, said at an event with Jewish supporters last week that he struggles to answer questions about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.
“I often struggle with the question that people ask in this particular scenario, because what they now ask is, ‘Do you believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state…’”
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) May 27, 2026
Zionists have long argued that a Jewish state is simply a safe, secure homeland for the Jewish people, who have faced centuries of persecution.
Despite his inconsistent views on Israel, El-Sayed vowed during his Sunday “60 Minutes” interview that he’ll be “there” for Jewish Americans if elected to the Senate.
“Wherever our disagreements are when it comes to Israel, there are a lot more things that we agree on here,” he said, according to Jewish Insider. “When it comes to standing up for Jewish Americans, I will be right there.”
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