{"id":2700450,"date":"2026-11-06T15:47:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abdul-el-sayed-taps-egyptian-american-attorney-who-accused-zionists-of-controlling-american-politics-as-transition-director\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T15:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:49:35","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-taps-egyptian-american-attorney-who-accused-zionists-of-controlling-american-politics-as-transition-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abdul-el-sayed-taps-egyptian-american-attorney-who-accused-zionists-of-controlling-american-politics-as-transition-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed Taps Egyptian-American Attorney Who Accused &#8216;Zionists&#8217; of &#8216;Controlling&#8217; American Politics as Transition Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fabdul-el-sayed-taps-egyptian-american-attorney-who-accused-zionists-of-controlling-american-politics-as-transition-director%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2700450&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed appointed Brenda Abdelall-an Egyptian\u2011American lawyer, former Department of Homeland Security official and former director of Arab and Muslim outreach for Kamala Harris-as his transition director. Abdelall previously said &#8220;Zionists&#8221; had a strong voice in American politics and accused Israel of &#8220;ethnic cleansing,&#8221; remarks her past employers say she no longer endorses.She taught a course on Islamophobia and worked with Muslim advocacy groups.The hire spotlights El\u2011Sayed\u2019s contentious record on Israel and ties to critics accused of antisemitism. His office did not respond to requests for comment.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<section id=\"article\">\n<article data-post-title=\"Abdul El-Sayed Taps Egyptian-American Attorney Who Accused 'Zionists' of 'Controlling' American Politics as Transition Director\" data-post-slug=\"http:\/\/soros-groups-orchestrated-china-funded-scheme-to-harass-seattle-data-center-developers-and-workers-lawsuit\" data-post-url id=\"print-2171918\">\n<div>\n<p><h2>Brenda Abdelall has also accused Israel of &#8216;ethnic cleansing&#8217; and &#8216;terrorism&#8217;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tBrenda Abdelall (dhs.gov), Abdul El-Sayed (Sarah Rice\/Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed&#8217;s first hire as senator-elect has accused Zionists of &#8220;controlling&#8221; American politics, echoing an antisemitic trope that suggests Jews control geopolitical affairs.<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed tapped Brenda Abdelall to serve as director of his transition team, <em>Politico<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2026\/11\/06\/clyburns-digits-are-out-for-2028-01153523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> Friday. Abdelall, an Egyptian-American professor, attorney, and former lobbyist, also served in the Biden Department of Homeland Security and as director of the Kamala Harris campaign&#8217;s outreach to Arabs and Muslims in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The hiring could indicate that El-Sayed plans to focus more on Israel and the Middle East at the expense of his campaign trail mantra of &#8220;money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all.&#8221; El-Sayed often bristled at questions about Israel and his affiliations with anti-Israel activists, calling it a distraction from voters&#8217; concerns about health care and the cost of living.<\/p>\n<p>But Abdelall, who created a course called &#8220;Islamophobia and the Law&#8221; at the University of Michigan, promoted conspiracy theories about Jewish control of world affairs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics,&#8221; Abdelall <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/ZIONISTS-ARE-DESTROYING-AMERICA__removed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the <em>New York Sun<\/em> at a conference for the American Muslim Council in 2002. &#8220;I would say they&#8217;re controlling a lot of it.&#8221; The <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/kamala-harriss-new-arab-outreach-director-said-zionists-are-controlling-american-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> on the comments when the Harris campaign hired Abdelall; the campaign said they no longer reflected Abdelall&#8217;s views. Abdelall has also accused Israel of &#8220;ethnic cleansing&#8221; and &#8220;terrorism,&#8221; <em>Newsweek<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/kamala-harris-campaign-aide-israel-palestine-1955820\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. The Harris campaign said Abdelall no longer agreed with those remarks, as well.<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed, who defeated Republican Mike Rogers by 7 points in Tuesday&#8217;s blue-wave election, has echoed similar sentiments on the campaign trail about Israeli influence on U.S. policy. El-Sayed asserted that President Donald Trump went to war against Iran due to pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and argued that Israel is not an ally of the United States, saying that &#8220;an ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn&#8217;t be fighting is not an ally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the <em>Sun<\/em>, Abdelall said in the 2002 interview that the defeat that year of then-Alabama congressman Earl Hilliard (D.) in his primary showed the extent of Jewish influence in politics. Pro-Israel groups spent heavily against Hilliard for opposing a bill that condemned Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Abdelall&#8217;s mother Mona Abdelall told the <em>Sun<\/em> she agreed with her daughter&#8217;s remarks. &#8220;Just listen to President Bush&#8217;s speech,&#8221; said the elder Abdelall. &#8220;He&#8217;s just blindly supporting [then-Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The elder Abdelall has worked in Michigan with El-Sayed&#8217;s father Mohamed, a part-time imam and engineering professor. After the 9\/11 attacks, Mona Abdelall invited the elder El-Sayed to speak to Ford factory workers as part of an &#8220;Islam 101&#8221; seminar to dispel concerns about Muslims after the terrorist attacks, the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/11\/19\/business\/nation-challenged-islam-ford-motor-workers-get-job-training-religious-tolerance.html?partner=slack&#038;smid=sl-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in November 2001.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda Abdelall has worked for other Islamic advocacy groups, including Muslim Advocates, a nonprofit funded by George Soros and other liberal billionaires to &#8220;halt bigotry in its tracks.&#8221; Her mother founded the Ann Arbor branch of the American Muslim Council. The group attracted intense criticism from congressional Democrats, <a href=\"https:\/\/nadler.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=392161\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">including New York congressman Jerry Nadler<\/a>, for claiming that the 2003 Space Shuttle <em>Columbia<\/em> disaster &#8220;was an act of divine retribution against Israel, and attributable to the presence of the first Israeli astronaut on the mission.&#8221; Hillary Clinton returned donations from the group while running for Senate in the 2000 election cycle after an American Muslim Council board member declared support for Hamas, the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/10\/26\/nyregion\/mrs-clinton-says-she-will-return-money-raised-by-a-muslim-group.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both Abdul El-Sayed and Brenda Abdelall have cast the 9\/11 attacks in terms of the backlash against Muslims, rather than the effect of the attacks themselves.        <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When 9\/11 happened, there was no longer a choice about whether you could be politically aware and politically savvy,&#8221; Abdelall <a href=\"https:\/\/quadrangle.michigan.law.umich.edu\/class-notes\/brenda-abdelall-05-newsweeks-cover-front-lines-social-justice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in 2017. &#8220;We all, especially as American Muslims, had a responsibility to be informed, engaged citizens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a 9\/11 anniversary post, El-Sayed <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/in-deleted-social-media-posts-michigan-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed-repeatedly-drew-equivalence-between-9-11-and-the-us-response\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> that while he mourned those killed on September 11, he would, the following day, &#8220;mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, &#038; infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country.&#8221; And in an anniversary essay for CNN, El-Sayed <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/abdul-el-sayed-promoted-infamous-hijab-hate-crime-hoax-despite-warnings-from-police\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">asserted<\/a> that &#8220;the health of Muslims and Arabs&#8221; was &#8220;another victim of 9\/11,&#8221; claiming that American Muslims experienced poorer health because of discrimination they faced after the attacks.<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed faced scrutiny during the campaign over his affiliations with activists and community leaders who pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories and have praised terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. He campaigned multiple times with socialist influencer Hasan Piker, who said that &#8220;America deserved 9\/11&#8221; and that Israel is &#8220;worse than&#8221; Hamas. El-Sayed appeared at three recent campaign events with Osama Siblani, a Dearborn-based community leader who calls Hezbollah and Hamas &#8220;freedom fighters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed&#8217;s sister, Eman Abdelhadi, called Hamas&#8217;s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel &#8220;a blessing.&#8221; Abdelhadi has also claimed that her and El-Sayed&#8217;s mother and relatives in Egypt have &#8220;long been&#8221; members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/abdul-el-sayeds-family-has-long-been-in-egyptian-muslim-brotherhood-senate-candidates-sister-said-in-unearthed-social-media-posts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. El-Sayed repeatedly claimed he had dual citizenship in the United States and Egypt, though his campaign said he never was a dual citizen, the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/exclusive-video-shows-abdul-el-sayed-stating-he-has-dual-citizenship-in-egypt-and-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed&#8217;s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdelall: Israel ethnic cleansing; El-Sayed hires her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":2700451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/MixCollage-06-Nov-2026-02-56-PM-7307.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548,544],"tags":[83330,33567,87572,87571,87573],"class_list":["post-2700450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","category-the-free-beacon","tag-abdul-el-sayed-2","tag-american-politics","tag-egyptian-american-attorney","tag-transition-director","tag-zionists"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/MixCollage-06-Nov-2026-02-56-PM-7307.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2700450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700453,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2700450\/revisions\/2700453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2700451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2700450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2700450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}