Associate Director of Foreign Policy @JINSADC University of Michigan and King's College London grad. Views are my own. RT/Like ≠ endorsement
Washington, DC
Joined September 2009
- Tweets7.5K
- Following814
- Followers700
- Likes4.3K
Pinned Tweet
Iran’s military losses alone will not stop the regime from surviving and rebuilding. I explain in this @jinsadc insight how the U.S. and Israel should keep pressure on the tools the regime uses to control, surveil, imprison, and kill the Iranian people. jinsa.org/jinsa_report/finis…
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Hasan Piker's latest online rant targeting Michiganders in West Bloomfield Township, comparing the community to the KKK, should be condemned loudly. It is anti-semitic, divisive and deeply offensive.
I get that this is what he does for attention. But flippantly attacking a proud, diverse community — not to mention a political organizer doing the most American of things in our democratic process — reveals how misguided and uninformed he actually is about Michigan.
El-Sayed had the opportunity for a last ditch effort at attracting Jewish Michiganders who would normally be eager to support a Democrat. Instead, he seems hellbent on driving them away.
BREAKING @jewishinsider via @marcrod97: "El-Sayed rejects Haley Stevens’ calls for apology over antisemitic ads"
"Stevens had conditioned a joint appearance on Sunday with El-Sayed on whether he would speak out against antisemitism tied to his campaign"
jewishinsider.com/2026/10/el…
Ari Cicurel retweeted
I'm glad El-Sayed said this -- but this is why you don't campaign with a Leninist who thinks all Zionists should be treated like Nazis nitter.gq/JoshKraushaar/status/2…
SCOOP @jewishinsider via @marcrod97: Abdul El-Sayed condemns Piker's antisemitic comments about the Jewish community of West Bloomfield, Mich. (home to Temple Israel, the synagogue a terrorist attacked in March) — but declined to speak out against Hasan Piker himself.
Abdul Sayed, to @jewishinsider: "I grew up in the town over from West Bloomfield. Comparing Jewish Michiganders to the Ku Klux Klan is utterly inappropriate and flat out wrong.
From day one, my campaign has been focused on rallying Michiganders of all stripes together into a movement that will bridge divides, not separate us more. Our canvassers will continue to knock doors and have important conversations with voters in every corner of the state.”
Comparing West Bloomfield to a Klan neighborhood is the kind of idiotic and depraved talk that has incited violence against Jews. El-Sayed went to high school next door in Bloomfield Hills. He knows better and should condemn it. Sadly, Piker fits the campaign he’s run.
🚨🚨 Abdul El-Sayed surrogate Hasan Piker crashes out over El-Sayed’s canvassers knocking doors in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Piker compares it to “going to that like Klan KKK neighborhood to stump for like a Black candidate.”
“It’s racial supremacy. It’s Jewish supremacy. What do you think it is? Yeah, clip it and post it.”
Piker, a dual citizen who grew up in Turkey, then rages at a Jewish Democrat in Oakland County who says she is voting for Mike Rogers: “If it’s so dangerous, go live in Israel… You fucking idiot. You fucking moron… You fucking psycho.”
Ari Cicurel retweeted
🚨🚨🚨 The entire clergy team of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, the synagogue that was targeted in a Hezbollah-inspired terrorist attack earlier this year, responds to the antisemitic pro-El Sayed ad:
"Ads like this create an environment that fosters the next violent threat...
Neither El-Sayed nor his campaign has clarified that the message is false and dangerous, which is especially relevant because El-Sayed himself has suggested that money spent supporting Israel is why Michiganians lack healthcare, good schools and infrastructure...
If El-Sayed does indeed object to this ad, he should condemn it clearly. Refusing to do so also sends a message.
With only days left for Michiganians to cast votes, the public deserves to know where El-Sayed stands."
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Piker has chosen to besmirch my entire community of West Bloomfield for one simple reason: we, in all of our ethnic, racial, and religious diversity, are a rebuke to the putrid, hate-filled, and extremist politics he seeks to promote. West Bloomfield is a bulwark against his hate
🚨🚨 Abdul El-Sayed surrogate Hasan Piker crashes out over El-Sayed’s canvassers knocking doors in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Piker compares it to “going to that like Klan KKK neighborhood to stump for like a Black candidate.”
“It’s racial supremacy. It’s Jewish supremacy. What do you think it is? Yeah, clip it and post it.”
Piker, a dual citizen who grew up in Turkey, then rages at a Jewish Democrat in Oakland County who says she is voting for Mike Rogers: “If it’s so dangerous, go live in Israel… You fucking idiot. You fucking moron… You fucking psycho.”
Ari Cicurel retweeted
This kind of insane, unhinged, repugnant and hateful rhetoric threatens every single one of us in West Bloomfield. It is this kind of rhetoric that radicalizes people and incites them to violence.
🚨🚨 Abdul El-Sayed surrogate Hasan Piker crashes out over El-Sayed’s canvassers knocking doors in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Piker compares it to “going to that like Klan KKK neighborhood to stump for like a Black candidate.”
“It’s racial supremacy. It’s Jewish supremacy. What do you think it is? Yeah, clip it and post it.”
Piker, a dual citizen who grew up in Turkey, then rages at a Jewish Democrat in Oakland County who says she is voting for Mike Rogers: “If it’s so dangerous, go live in Israel… You fucking idiot. You fucking moron… You fucking psycho.”
Ari Cicurel retweeted
BREAKING @jewishinsider via @marcrod97: "Haley Stevens conditions support for El-Sayed to his condemnation of antisemitic ads"
jewishinsider.com/2026/10/ha…
The sheer audacity of telling Jews they have a moral obligation to vote for El-Sayed is staggering. Jews owe him nothing, and he has done nothing to earn their votes. Lovett is in no position to lecture anyone after going to bat for a candidate with a Nazi tattoo.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
If @AbdulElSayed truly means what he says about treating the Jewish community as he would treat his own children, then he would immediately condemn this dangerous ad as outrageously antisemitic and demand that it be taken down.
If not, then he’s full of shit.
New low for normalized Jew-hate in the American Democratic Party. Very sad:
Painting your political opponents as puppets of Jews, as this El-Sayed ad does, and as crazed baby-killers and money-grubbing villains who are the root cause of every bad thing not just in the world, but in your life—from wars to the price of eggs to the reason you can’t have free healthcare—is not just low-grade Jew-hate. It’s pure Third Reich stuff, translated directly from the original German.
Do you remember when Jewish Democrats in Michigan explained that they would vote for El-Sayed despite his open disdain for Jews, since there are many other important issues they need him to fight for? That anything was worth it to “defeat MAGA”?
Well, here’s El-Sayed’s answer to them: Don’t worry, all those issues we agree on, like healthcare, inflation, and climate change, I’m going to make them about Jews too! I will tell the public that the Jews are the reason they can’t have those things.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
This type of fearmongering about Israel is wrong. It is not a winning strategy for any state. It does nothing to help Michigan Democrats win up and down the ballot in eight days. Do we need to lower costs by building more homes, securing people’s health care, and creating a fairer federal tax code? Yes, we do!! How we do so is not by blaming the high costs of our goods on the only Jewish homeland in the world. I want to see Democrats succeed at every level, and that means keeping our focus on lowering costs for Michigan families and reining in this out-of-control President.
New @RebellionPac ad dropping in Michigan. We have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars. That’s why they buy politicians like Mike Rogers. He promised to serve Israel “unconditionally,” but never made that promise to you.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Nonnegotiable Michigan, a coalition of Michigan rabbis and Jewish Dems, responds to El-Sayed's pledge:
"You cannot fight antisemitism without naming and condemning the kind of anti-Jewish bigotry rooted in the Jewish people’s inextricable connection to the land, people and State of Israel." nonnegotiable.org/media
#MISen El-Sayed in letter to Jewish voters:
"I care deeply about the threat of antisemitism to our communities, and I am committed to protecting all Michigan Jews against hatred and injustice."
Ari Cicurel retweeted
As in the past, the longtime organization to combat antisemitism makes no mention of Trump using the term at a campaign rally last night.
The term “Shylock” is rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype. Regardless of intent, its use can reinforce harmful tropes about Jews and normalize language that has long been used to target the Jewish community.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The term was used (for at least the second intent in as many years) by President Trump.
forbes.com/sites/siladity…
Important context to point out the user of the term regardless of intent.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Netanyahu has been waiting for this, but it’s not going to make a difference. The blocs are as hardened as they will be, Trump isn’t as popular with Israelis as he was, and the “Different League” argument from 2019 is harder when Israel is in a multi front diplomatic crisis
🇺🇸🇮🇱Trump endorses Netanyahu 9 days before Israel election. My report on @axios
axios.com/2026/10/18/trump-e…
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Just days before Israel’s October 27 election, President Trump has unequivocally endorsed Prime Minister Netanyahu.
In one fell swoop, Trump has broken with the longstanding U.S. practice of avoiding explicit endorsements in Israeli elections—and gone further, warning that the U.S. would not join Israel in confronting Iran if Israelis choose anyone but Netanyahu. It is up to the Israeli people to choose their own leader and threatening that the US will walk away from the conflict with Iran is beyond stunning.
Moreover, Hungary demonstrated that a Trump endorsement is no electoral guarantee. Despite Trump’s backing and VP Vance campaigning in Budapest, Viktor Orbán lost by nearly 15 points, ending 16 years in power.
Nor have Netanyahu’s popular military successes against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s Ali Khamenei appreciably moved the electoral needle. Likud won 32 seats in 2022; polls now routinely put it at just 20–22.
The ultimate test is assembling a 61-seat Knesset majority. Yet Netanyahu appears more focused on preventing an Eisenkot-led coalition from reaching that threshold than on demonstrating a viable path to 61 seats himself.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
This is so digustingly demeaning to my neighbors who have real serious concerns--not about Israel policy, but about the ability of one of these candidates for Senate to take our concerns seriously and allow us to define for ourselves what safety and security means.
I have talked to many of my neighbors about #MISen, and almost none of them bring up Israel policy if they choose to vote for Mike Rogers.
Almost all of them bring up Temple Israel, and I think you should ask yourself why that is, Leslie.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
The attack on Temple Israel wasn’t motivated because the terrorist didn’t like how we pray. He attacked us because we are a proudly Zionist congregation. Abdul can’t bring himself to speak to the violent antisemitism that stems from blind, burning hatred of Israel. I wonder why?
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Today marks another year since the horrific terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, a day of unimaginable loss that forever changed the lives of so many families in Israel and around the world.
A month and a half ago, I traveled to Israel, and had the profound opportunity to sit down with survivors and hear their stories firsthand. I listened as they shared what they endured, the loved ones they lost, and how they have found the strength to say they want peace.
Their stories have stayed with me.
I made this documentary because these voices deserve to be heard and remembered. At a moment when the pain of October 7 can too easily become reduced to headlines, arguments, and statistics, I wanted people to hear directly from those who lived through it, to see their humanity, their grief, and their resilience.
On this anniversary, I am remembering the lives that were taken, standing with the survivors and families who continue to carry this trauma, and recommitting myself to the work of combating terrorism, antisemitism and pursuing a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live with safety, dignity, and lasting peace.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch and hear their stories.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
I wonder if Yoram Hazony can even see what he’s created.
Americans, on the right especially, are exhausted by efforts to use the Holocaust as a moral obligation to support Israel.
They are unmoved by accusations of anti-Semitism and any hardline approaches to disavow and shame Israel's critics.
— @L0m3z at NatCon Jerusalem.
Ari Cicurel retweeted
Breaking: "As retired senior military leaders and legal experts, on this, the third anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023 brutal attack on Israel, we reject claims that Israel committed genocide in Gaza." @jinsadc
I am honored to be a part of 76 retired U.S. officers (including 13 Generals, 27 Lieutenant Generals, 19 Major Generals, 5 Brigadier Generals) Refuting the Genocide Allegation Against Israel.
jinsa.org/wp-content/uploads…
"The precedent established today regarding Israel will shape the conditions under which American forces fight tomorrow. Protecting civilians and preserving the ability of our nation to defend itself requires us to defend the truth when the laws of war are being distorted to make false charges of genocide."
