Van Jones calls El-Sayed's total Israel arms embargo 'insane,' cites Obama legacy on defense
Abdul El-Sayed's call for a total and complete arms embargo against Israel, including the interceptors used to stop incoming rockets, is an "insane" position, Van Jones said on the "Ask Haviv Anything" podcast in late August. Jones, a CNN host and former advisor to President Barack Obama, questioned whether El-Sayed believed he held superior foreign policy judgment to Obama's. El-Sayed, a Michigan Democratic Senate candidate and former CNN commentator, has been a vocal critic of Israel.
Key takeaways
- Van Jones called Abdul El-Sayed's demand for a total arms embargo against Israel, including rocket interceptors, an 'insane' position on the 'Ask Haviv Anything' podcast in late August.
- Jones, a CNN host and former Obama advisor, argued the embargo would deny Israel the ability to defend its population from rockets fired by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
- Jones grounded his criticism in Obama's record, noting Obama helped create the Iron Dome and its interceptors, and challenged El-Sayed by asking if he thought he was 'smarter than Barack Obama.'
- El-Sayed, a Michigan Democratic Senate candidate and former CNN commentator, lost three-quarters of the African American vote to his more mainstream opponent in the state's Democratic primary.
- Democratic consultant Julian Epstein and others agreed with Jones, while commentators framed the dispute as reflecting a wider fracture within the Democratic coalition.
Abdul El-Sayed's call for a total and complete arms embargo against Israel, including the interceptors used to stop incoming rockets, is an "insane" position, Van Jones said on the "Ask Haviv Anything" podcast in late August. Jones, a CNN host and former advisor to President Barack Obama, questioned whether El-Sayed believed he held superior foreign policy judgment to Obama's. El-Sayed, a Michigan Democratic Senate candidate and former CNN commentator, has been a vocal critic of Israel.
Jones appeared on the podcast to discuss the alliance between Black and Jewish Americans. He separated El-Sayed's position from stances he called defensible for Democrats: conditioning military aid, or ending it outright. An embargo covering interceptors used to knock down rockets from Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, Jones said, would deny Israel the ability to defend its population.
He grounded the criticism in Obama's record. Obama helped create the Iron Dome and its interceptors, Jones said, because he believed Israel needed the means to knock down incoming rockets. "So you're telling me you're smarter than Barack Obama?" Jones said on the podcast. He said he found it alarming that others were having difficulty rejecting the stance outright.
Julian Epstein, a Democratic consultant and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital he agreed with Jones and said El-Sayed has a long pattern of positions he found concerning.
Jesse Arm, a Manhattan Institute vice president and pollster born in Michigan, said Jones's frustration reflects a wider fracture inside the party. Black Democrats, he argued, are being pushed aside as the coalition shifts. El-Sayed lost three-quarters of the African American vote to his more mainstream opponent in Michigan's Democratic primary, Arm noted. He also cited El-Sayed's use of left-wing livestreamer Hasan Piker as a campaign surrogate.
Theo Wold, former assistant attorney general and former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under President Donald Trump, described El-Sayed as part of a generation of immigrants whose foreign policy views he said are more aligned with the global south than with American tradition.
El-Sayed's campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.