Abdul el Sayed, A Fierce Critic Of Israel Running For Power In USA

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

His importance is that he is a young progressive Democrat, El-Sayed defeated U.S. representative Haley Stevens in the 2026 Michigan Democratic Senate primary.  Dr. Abdulrahman Mohamed "Abdul" El-Sayed  born October 31, 1984) is an American epidemiologist, public health administrator, academic and politician who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan.  He faces Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the general election. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim member of the U.S. Senate. Born and raised in southeast Michigan, El-Sayed graduated from the University of Michigan and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he earned a doctorate in public health. He then earned his medical degree from Columbia University and became an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He was the executive director of the Detroit Health Department from 2015 to 2017, and from 2023 to 2025 he served as director of the Wayne County Department of Health, Human & Veterans Services.

In 2026, El-Sayed said the US should not fund foreign militaries at all, and in particular he identified Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

 Does he have a good chance?  

 The more mature Michael Joseph Rogers (born June 2, 1963) is an American politician and former FBI agent who served from 2001 to 2015 as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 8th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2011 to 2015.  Rogers is a longtime supporter of Israel and was aligned with AIPAC during his congressional tenure. In August 2025, he defended Israel's right to defend itself and criticized opposition to its conduct in the Gaza war. Rogers has longstanding ties to pro-Israel lobbying groups, including AIPAC, and attended four AIPAC-hosted fundraisers in Los Angeles in August 2026 while his allies explored ways for the organization and its donors to support his campaign without publicly highlighting AIPAC's involvement.

Israel

In 2026, El-Sayed was widely described as "a fierce critic of Israel". He has criticized US military funding to Israel, AIPAC, and Israeli influence in US politics. El-Sayed has said that his criticism of Israel should not be conflated with hostility toward Judaism or the Jewish people, whom he "love[s] and revere[s]" based on his experience with Jews in Michigan.

On a January 2024 podcast, El-Sayed called the war in the Gaza Strip a genocide and called for a ceasefire. In a May 2026 TIME interview, he asked: "If you can't call it what it is, which is a genocide, then how are you going to stand up to Donald Trump? How are you going to stand up to pharma CEOs?" In April 2026, El-Sayed said in a CNN interview: "Killing tens of thousands of people makes you pretty damn evil. It's not how evil is this one versus that one. Hamas: evil. Israeli government: evil. We can say both."

El-Sayed has said he recognizes Israel's right to exist, but not its right to be an explicitly Jewish state. He has called Israel an ethnostate, saying, "I don't believe in ethnostates, and I certainly don't believe that our country is responsible to sustain ethnostates."El-Sayed supports "self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike".

^{Jews have gone through art least 3,000 years of distrust of those around us who were not Monotheist, but Poly-}

^{They would not accept us as full citizens, putting us in the 2nd class or worse.} 

                                                                          Iran war

El-Sayed has attributed the 2026 Iran war to AIPAC's influence in US politics. AIPAAC stands for American-Israel-Public Affairs -Committee. Jews here and in Israel are like those long ago living in Babylon and Palestine at the same time;  we have this Jewish connection;  like our navel.  Call one a name and it hurts all of us.  He called Israel a "rogue state" and said the U.S. should "stop funding the Israeli military unilateral blank checks".

In October 2026, El-Sayed discussed the war in interviews with Fox News and NBC News. He called the war illegal and said it did not increase American security and had prevented the U.S. from transporting oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz. El-Sayed also said that Israel had dragged the U.S. into a war aimed at expanding Israel's borders. He said the U.S. had paid $2.8 billion to buy 2,000-pound bombs for a foreign government in September and that he would prefer to spend the money on American schools and infrastructure.

El-Sayed was born and raised in southeast Michigan, and lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Sarah Jukaku, whom he married in 2006, and their two daughters. He is Muslim. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, is a nephrologist, and is tied for the top individual donor to the main PAC supporting El-Sayed's Senate campaign, having given $300,000; according to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Tayeb Jukaku served as president of Michigan's chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) and he remains on its board of directors as of 2026,

Profile On Nada Bashir by Nada Goldfoot

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

                                          Nada Bashir

Here it is January 1st, 2026 and being a 91 year old early 5am riser, turned on my TV to CNN, the only working station at this hour, and lo and behold, saw a Nada speaking;  a reporter with her hair covered, by the name of Nada Bashir.  

                     Me, taken not too many years ago by my son
                                                

     Finding out about another Nada !!  Amazing !!!

My nickname since birth has always been Nada.  Only a few years ago did I learn that it is "nothing" in Spanish.  My mother really should have called me Nadia, give me a more Russian flair to my name.  Here at the Assisted Living quarters, I am known and write on my menu request, Nada. I am Jewish.  Nada Bashir is wearing a Hijab over her hair, telling me she is a Muslim. This is ironic to me.   So I am very curious about her:

Nada Bashir (born 17 December 1995) age 31, is a British journalist and international correspondent for CNN based in London. Her reporting focuses primarily on the Middle East, just as mine, an unknown neighborhood reporter, is also of the Middle East, particularly Israel.  In 2024, Bashir was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list.

Bashir was born in Brighton, England to Libyan parents, her father an aircraft engineer and her mother a preschool teacher. The family later moved to West Kensington, London.

I note that she was editor of UCL's student newspaper. ( Yes, UCL stands for University College London, a major public research university located in the heart of London, England, known globally as a leading multidisciplinary institution with a diverse student body and extensive research impact.)  While at UCL, Bashir was an active member of the university's official student news outlet, Pi Media. She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of PiTV in her final year.  In 2020, Bashir graduated with a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Bashir joined CNN in 2018 as an intern. She went on to continue working with the network as a freelance producer before taking on a staff producer position in 2020.  She has worked in Kurdistan, Turkey, Yemen, Lebanon, and In 2019,she was later named International Correspondent in March 2024.

Following the October 7 attacks, Bashir has travelled frequently across the Middle East to report on the Gaza war and the broader regional fallout.

In the early months of the war, Bashir spent several weeks in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, (note-not Judea and Samaria, of course, not being Jewish) and here is what she, sees with her eyes as she tells it:  " reporting on the surge in violence against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories'" not a word of the Palestinians hitting the Jewish homes first) , as well as the humanitarian crisis inside Gaza (seeing what we know of how the Palestinians will not give up their weapons and continue to shoot at Israelis )..  

She also played a key role in covering the short-lived truce between Israel and Hamas in November 2023, reporting from Ramallah on the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as part of a hostage exchange agreement. 

Me:  (During recent hostage exchange deals, Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails (primarily Ofer Prison, which is near Ramallah in the West Bank), not from jails within Ramallah itself. Israel does not generally hold Palestinian prisoners in Palestinian Authority-controlled jails in Ramallah; it holds them in its own prisons. )

Me:   (Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons in exchange. The 20 remaining living hostages were released as part of the Gaza peace plan on 13 October 2025. The body of one deceased hostage has yet to be returned to Israel.)

In 2024, Bashir gained access to a field hospital established off the coast of Al-Arish in North Sinai, where she met with and interviewed wounded Palestinians recently evacuated from the Gaza Strip. 

 She later reported from Lebanon on growing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along the country's southern border, and was one of the first international correspondents at the scene following the "assassination" of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.  

Me:   (Al-Arouri was considered one of the architects of the October 7 attack on Israel, and was also known for his role in expanding Hamas' activities in the West Bank.  The U.S,A .which designated him as a terrorist in 2015,  and had also put a $5 million bounty on his head. 

He was assassinated in 2024 during the Gaza war by an Israeli strike.  Al-Arouri was succeeded by Zaher Jabarin as Hamas's leader in the West Bank. (I wouldn't use assassinate, as it can  mean a willful killing of the famous person.  Willful implies an immoral or illegal attack,)  This is war, Israel is at war with all terrorists, for Pete's sake.  Do people not understand this?  THIS IS HAPPING DURING THE WAR OF REVIVAL, our new term for this war started by Hamas on October 7, 2023.) 

Nada  has also covered ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, traveling frequently to Cairo to follow meetings between diplomatic delegations involved in the talks. 

 I wonder if Nada could talk Hamas into giving up their weapons and abiding by the peace negotiations she helped to bring to fruition as they had actually signed the agreement since this is a breach of contract or a violation of the agreement.  

Well, Nada could also be working for al Jazeera !  I see her reporting as being very slanted.  CNN, who else does reporting around there?  Don't you see the difference?  I suppose a scientist could say that you see what you want to see, that it's colored by your background.  So it certainly is in this case.  Nada is so young, a young 31 compared to my 91 years, and my ability to remember the past is better than the last hour, you know.  I know how to find facts to back up my personal knowledge.  I know how to trust sources or not. I'm not surprised at what Nada writes with her slant on life;  not at all, just her name.  

So this is my last tidbit:  "It's impossible to know the exact number of women named Nada globally, but it's a popular female name, especially in Croatia, where over 30,000 women share the name and it was once a top name, and in Arabic-speaking countries like Egypt and Lebanon, with significant numbers there too. While less common in the U.S., it's still used, ranking around #2700 for girls on The Bump and #4428 in U.S. births recently, indicating thousands of bearers worldwide."Wow!  I didn't know!!! 

 I'm the Nada that is an Israeli and an American, named for my paternalgrandfather, Nathan; Nadene officially but Nada to the family and our dining room.  I write about the Middle East, too, but in blogs, have been ever since 2004. It's rare, maybe only me with Jewish females except:

• Historical Usage: Historical records from the Damascus Shariah Courts between the 16th and 20th centuries show that "Nada" was used as a female given name by Jewish women in that specific community, indicating some limited historical use in certain Sephardic or Mizrahi contexts. This suggests a small, specific cultural crossover rather than widespread use.

Resource 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_Bashir 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups#:~:text=Religious%20demographics,-Further%20information:%20List&text=One%20way%20to%20define%20a,best%20source(s)%22.

The Unknown Ayatollah Claiming Gaza Belongs To Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

• A Muslim Cleric made a statement that I read on YouTube that I haven't forgotten that I read about 2 weeks ago.  He was speaking to everyone, especially Muslims, that Gaza had no history as far as Islam was concerned.  It lay west of the Jordan River, and it was the land east of the Jordan River that they were claiming to become Islamic. Therefore, it was land belonging to Israel.
• However, the British held the land after WWI.  The Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2, 1917. It set out British support for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. 

  But when the Balfour Declaration was signed, the British had already promised Palestine to Arabs as an independent state and promised the French government that it would be an internationally administered zone.The date for the British decision to create Transjordan (modern-day Jordan) east of the Jordan River was March 25, 1921.  The Arabian prince was to become King Abdullah of Transjordan--later Jordan.  

  Even then, most of the land was still under Ottoman control. So why did Britain make these three conflicting promises? How did it try to resolve them? And how did Britain’s strategy in the Middle East help to cause a century of conflict?

I was so surprised at who the writer claimed to be, sent with a picture, mind you, that I had no time to grab a pencil and paper and write this down.  Since then, I figure it's best he remains unknown.  If found out, he would be killed.

Map of the Gaza Strip in May 2005, a few months prior to the Israeli disengagement, with major settlement blocs denoted by the blue-shaded regions.

What he said is true.  Israel had decided that peace would be possible if they invited Palestinian Arabs to live on the land of Gaza, after regaining it in the 1967 war.  It meant a great sacrifice to the Israelis already living there for they had to out, with all their possessions, leaving all their businesses they had developed for the Palestinians.  Not all were willing.  The army had to enforce the decision. 

 Israel moved all of its military forces and Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip in September 2005, ending its 38-year occupation. 

• The Disengagement Plan: The withdrawal, known as the "disengagement," was ordered by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and approved by the Israeli Knesset.
• Evacuation of settlements: Between August and September 2005, Israel dismantled all 21 of its settlements within the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank, removing roughly 8,000 settlers.
• Transfer of authority: Israel transferred control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority (PA).The Gaza Strip contained 21 civilian Israeli settlements and the area evacuated in the West Bank contained four.
• Continued control: Despite the withdrawal, Israel maintained control over Gaza's airspace, maritime access, and borders, and restricted the flow of people and goods.
• Aftermath: Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007 effectively pushed the PA out of the territory. This led Israel and Egypt to impose a blockade, further isolating the area. 

It was Obama who pushed way way too soon for people that had never experienced the freedom of voting intelligently (and I wonder if our people do that as well-intelligently, that is) to vote for the first time in their lives.  They voted in the bullies; Hamas tough guys, the terrorists who know no other way of solving their problems.  At the time, Egypt was fighting against the power of the Muslim Brotherhood.  For all we know, Hamas could have been holding a gun to a voter's head when he voted.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_the_Gaza_Strip

https://www.npr.org/series/4797062/israel-s-withdrawal-from-gaza#:~:text=On%20September%2012%2C%202005%2C%20the%20last%20Israeli,*%20**New%20talk%20about%20a%20Palestinian%20economy**

Our Dietary Laws of Kashrut and Why It's Part Of Our Education-Big Time

Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Trying to follow Kashrut today can be difficult for many Jews, especially Seniors living alone on social security or those in assisted living.  Here are some highlights important to know when trying to do your best under your circumstances since Kosher meats are more expensive than the daily norm.  The hardest to accomplish is to separate meat and dairy and not eat them both in the same meal.  In other words, no hamburger and chocolate milkshake.  You can have a hamburger and a coke or water drink or a milkshake alone later, but not together.  Be sure to read to the very end of this article.  

It goes without saying that the animal used must be healthy.  Jewish law requires that animals be healthy and free from any defects or diseases before they can be considered kosher. When choosing kosher, you're guaranteed to consume only the finest, healthiest meats.  Kosher is often associated with Jewish dietary laws, but its benefits go far beyond religious observance. Of the meat slaughtered for kosher use, only 20% of beef and around 12.5%-14% of chicken in the US meet the standards of health and quality to be labeled kosher. For this reason, kosher has become an indication of exceptional quality and a healthier lifestyle that anyone can embrace. 

 Judaism emphasizes treating animals with compassion and respect. This includes ensuring that animals are raised in comfortable conditions and slaughtered as humanely as possible.  In large meat packing houses today, this is almost impossible.  Original qualifications call for cutting the neck for an immediate death.  Many places today call for shooting them in the head as they walk up the ramp to the site, and that is not the kosher way.  

Judaism forbids the mixing of meat and milk, a practice called "basar bechalav," because the Torah commands it three times: "Do not cook a kid in its mother's milk". This commandment serves to highlight the sacredness of life and the distinct roles of physical nourishment (meat) and spiritual sustenance (milk), separating them to prevent the blurring of life and death, or the physical and spiritual. While some interpret it as a reminder of the mother-child bond, leading to a compassionate view of avoiding cruel treatment of animals, the primary reason remains divine instruction. 

In the book To Be a Jew, Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin suggests that kashrut laws are designed as a call to holiness. The ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil, pure and defiled, the sacred and the profane, is very important in Judaism. Imposing rules on what you can and cannot eat ingrains that kind of self control. In addition, it elevates the simple act of eating into a religious ritual. The Jewish dinner table is often compared to the Temple altar in rabbinic literature. If you obtain self control in your eating habits, you will probably have developed your own self control over your life and even think before you act.  Here's another point.  The quality of an animal’s feed plays a significant role in the taste, texture, and nutritional value of the meat it produces. Kosher guidelines stipulate that animals should be fed a clean, natural diet free from harmful additives.   Many animals are fed special diets in order to gain weight they may have lost, which would mean a loss in costs.  Dedication to these principles ensures that our meats not only taste great but also provide the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The Fundamental Rules of Kashrut

Although the details of kashrut are extensive, the laws all derive from a few fairly simple, straightforward rules:

1. Certain animals may not be eaten at all. This restriction includes the flesh, organs, eggs and milk of the forbidden animals.
2. Of the animals that may be eaten, the birds and mammals must be killed in accordance with Jewish law.
3. All blood must be drained from the meat or broiled out of it before it is eaten.
4. Certain parts of permitted animals may not be eaten.
5. Meat (the flesh of birds and mammals) cannot be eaten with dairy. Fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables and grains can be eaten with either meat or dairy. (According to some views, fish may not be eaten with meat).
6. Judaism prohibits eating meat and dairy together because it is a commandment found in the Torah, specifically the verse "Do not cook a kid in its mother's milk" which is repeated three times. Sages explain that the repetition implies that it is forbidden to cook, eat, or derive benefit from the mixture of any meat with any milk. While the Torah doesn't explain the reason why it's forbidden, interpretations include it being an act of compassion for the mother animal, a symbolic act of separating life and death, or a way to distance from ancient idolatrous practices.
7. Utensils that have come into contact with meat may not be used with dairy, and vice versa. Utensils that have come into contact with non-kosher food may not be used with kosher food. This applies only where the contact occurred while the food was hot.
8. Grape products made by non-Jews may not be eaten.

Of the "beasts of the earth" (which basically refers to land mammals with the exception of swarming rodents), you may eat any animal that has cloven hooves and chews its cud. Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:6. Any land mammal that does not have both of these qualities is forbidden. The Torah specifies that the camel, the rock badger, the hare (rabbit) and the pig are not kosher because each lacks one of these two qualifications. Sheep, cattle (bull and cows), goats and deer are kosher.

Of the things that are in the waters, you may eat anything that has fins and scales. Lev. 11:9; Deut. 14:9. Thus, shellfish such as lobsters, oysters, shrimp, clams and crabs are all forbidden. Fish like tuna, carp, salmon and herring are all permitted.

For birds, the criteria is less clear. The Torah lists forbidden birds (Lev. 11:13-19; Deut. 14:11-18), but does not specify why these particular birds are forbidden. All of the birds on the list are birds of prey or scavengers, thus the rabbis inferred that this was the basis for the distinction. Other birds are permitted, such as chicken, geese, ducks and turkeys.

Of the "winged swarming things" (winged insects), a few are specifically permitted (Lev. 11:22), but the Sages are no longer certain which ones they are, so all have been forbidden.

Rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and insects (except as mentioned above) are all forbidden. Lev. 11:29-30, 42-43.

As mentioned above, any product derived from these forbidden animals, such as their milk, eggs, fat, or organs, also cannot be eaten. Rennet, an enzyme used to harden cheese, is often obtained from non-kosher animals, thus kosher hard cheese can be difficult to find.

Are we expected to give up if we can't follow all these obligations?  Heck no!  We try to do as much as we can of them.  It's something to hold onto.  Too many might just throw the towel in and give up completely.  I've seen that happen and then the person winds up in denial of who they are.  

I'm going to tell you something that happened to me on the 1st day of Passover this year.  In trying to do the minimum in my non-Jewish assisted living center, a new chef added some very small pieces of diced ham into the morning's entree of scrambled eggs with veggies, a new addition to the usual eggs of which I had always ordered fried.  There was no writing including the ham on the menu we receive each day.  I dug in and took a bite and tasted the ham.  I have been following kashrut the best I can under these circumstances, and usually wind up with a lot of cottage cheese!!  I hit the ceiling.  At 90 1/2 I was dangerous to that chef.  I could have killed him!  This was on the 1st day of Passover, yet.  I stormed out of the dining room and went back with my matzo for the morning (my own ---and imported from Israel, too, and tried to bring down my high, very high blood pressure causing my shaking.  

Yesterday, I was still thinking about it as I filled out my order for fried eggs, and saw one of our new young med techs with a scarf over her head indicating she was a Muslim.  I hadn't met her before, and I called out to her, asking if I could ask her a personal question.  She complied.  

   "Are you Muslim?" I asked, and she said "Yes."  I ask because...and I told her my story. 

 She looked at me and told me she had had the same experiences, too, and we both wound up hugging each other.!  I felt so relieved and so good, you can't imagine!  Two women facing the same problem of trying to keep to our faith and running into such brick walls!  Here I am, THE JEWISH BUBBA of Portland, Oregon holding dual citizenship with Israel, writing daily defending Jews and Israel, writing of our daily happenings of Israel at the moment, our ancient history, of Passover, etc, and I just found a new special friend, a Muslim!!!  And at the end days of my life, this should happen.  It's special.  I'm not one who continued beating the drums for a 2-state solution!  I've been against that ever since getting into our history and affairs and events of our people and knowing it wouldn't happen in my day, anyway -The Gazans were not ready.  Maybe in the next 100 years.  Not now.

I don't know what will happen, but now I have some hope.  If I can have this experience, anything can happen.  Something must bring people together to share a connection, and right now .....there is just unbridled hatred.  Israel needs all the love it can get at this time when the world has quickly turned against her without knowing facts.  I'll continue trying to share what I can in defense of her.   And besides all that, this is the first time I've felt that really, things do happen for a reason.  

Resource:

To Be a Jew, Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin