Our leaders have told us, again and again, that we are a nation of immigrants.
Reagan said it in 1984, at Fudan University: “We call ourselves a nation of immigrants, and that’s truly what we are.”
Bush said it in 2006: “We’re a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants.”
Obama said it in 2014: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants.”
Clinton said it in 2016: “I think we are both a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws.”
Fine. I’m one of those immigrants.
So let me ask the question none of them ever had to ask out loud:
Immigrants to what?
Because Thursday night in Michigan, a man who wants to be a United States Senator got a simple question.
And he couldn’t answer it.
What was asked. What was said.
October 8, 2026. WOOD TV8 studio, Grand Rapids. Michigan U.S. Senate debate. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers. Moderator Rick Albin. [1][2][10][11]
The question: which country is the greater threat to the United States, Israel or Iran? [1][2]
El-Sayed: “And again, Rick, I’m just going to say that that’s a ridiculous hypothetical.” [1]
He talked about Israel lobbying us into war. About Iran “bombing all kinds of countries in the Middle East and then choking off the world’s energy supply.” [1][2]
“I don’t want to be pushed into war by Israel, and I don’t want to be in a war with Iran.” [1]
Albin pressed him: “I’ll ask one last time. Israel or Iran?” [3]
El-Sayed: “That’s, again, a ridiculous question. I think both of them have proven dangerous in their own way. One, at risk of attacking us. One, getting us into wars we have no business fighting.” [1][3]
And then: “I don’t consider an ally a country that takes us to wars we don’t need to fight.” [1]
Three chances. Zero answers.
I know what he didn’t say.
I’m not a foreign-policy expert. I’m a grateful immigrant who reads the record.
Here’s the record on Iran.
November 4, 1979. Revolutionary Iranian students, backed by Khomeini’s government, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. 52 Americans were held until January 20, 1981. 444 days. [4]
October 23, 1983. Beirut. The Marine barracks bombing killed 241 American service members. [5] In 2003 a U.S. federal judge found Iran and its intelligence ministry liable. The court found an Iranian MOIS operative detonated the bomb, with Hezbollah’s help. [6]
Iraq. In 2019 the Pentagon said at least 603 U.S. personnel deaths in Iraq were the result of Iran-backed militants. EFPs. Roadside bombs. Rockets. Snipers. [7]
January 28, 2024. Tower 22, Jordan. A drone killed three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers: Sgt. William Rivers, Spc. Kennedy Sanders, Spc. Breonna Moffett. The Pentagon: “We know that Iran is behind it.” [8]
“Death to America” is not my phrase. It’s theirs. In 2019 Iran’s Supreme Leader defended the chant. [12]
Now put Israel next to that list. Read it again. Ask yourself which column scares you.
That’s not a “ridiculous hypothetical.” That’s the scoreboard.
One country’s record is written in American blood. The other is an ally we signed a 10-year, $38 billion security agreement with, covering 2019 to 2028, that Congress funds year by year. [9]
And a man who wants a Senate seat called the question “ridiculous.”
So here is my reading, and it is mine: he knows the answer. He couldn’t say it out loud. Because saying it would cost him with people he needs.
If anyone has evidence that’s not why, show me. I’ll look at it.
“Lobbied us”?
El-Sayed said Israel “has pushed us to go to war in Iran.” [1]
What, we don’t have our own agency?
We can’t make up our own minds?
The country that was instrumental in winning World War I and World War II can’t decide on its own?
That line treats America like a child. Talked into things. No will of its own.
That’s not analysis. That’s an excuse.
Which country do we have more in common with?
Freedom House, 2025: Israel, 73 out of 100, “Free.” Iran, 11 out of 100, “Not Free.” [15][16]
In 2022 Khaled Kabub was sworn in as the first Muslim justice on Israel’s Supreme Court. [17] In 2021 the Islamist Ra’am party joined Israel’s governing coalition. [18]
In 2023 hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets against their own prime minister’s judicial overhaul. [19]
In 2022 Mahsa Amini, 22, was arrested by Iran’s morality police over her hijab. She died in custody. A UN fact-finding mission found her death “was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities.” [20]
In Tel Aviv, organizers counted about 100,000 people at the 2021 Pride parade. [21] In Iran, sodomy between men is punishable by death under the penal code. [22]
UN experts say Iran’s treatment of the Baha’i “bears all the signs of a policy of systematic persecution.” [23]
Open. Self-criticizing. Respectful of other faiths and other ways of living.
Which column is that? You already know.
Which brings me to the real question.
What kind of constituents does a state have when a candidate can’t even say out loud that Iran is simply more of a threat than Israel ever will be?
That is, if we accept that Israel is even a threat.
That’s not a question about one man. That’s a question about us.
About our immigration policy.
About the fact that we stopped requiring assimilation to our culture, and started apologizing for it.
We let people in. Good. I’m one of them.
But we stopped asking the one thing that matters: whose side are you on?
Here’s what I hear. Israel as the puppeteer. America as the puppet. To my ear, El-Sayed and his ilk sound eerily more like our enemies, and Israel’s enemies, in their rhetoric.
That’s my read, from his own words. If you’ve got evidence it means something else, show me.
Coddling is as pernicious as laziness.
We tell newcomers they don’t have to choose. Keep the old grudges. Keep the old enemies. America will just make room.
That’s not kindness. That’s coddling.
And coddling rots a people the same way laziness does. Slowly. Then all at once.
Gratitude is the opposite.
Gratitude is spine. It’s agency. It’s standing up and saying: this country took me in, and I will defend it, out loud, even when it costs me.
The Three A’s.
Accountability. Own what you say. And what you dodge.
Assimilation. You came here. This is home now. America’s enemies are your enemies.
Allegiance. When someone asks who the bigger threat to America is, you answer for America. First time. No hedging.
That’s stewardship. You don’t just live in this house. You guard it. For the ones who come after.
A Senate candidate should be able to clear that bar without breaking a sweat.
He couldn’t.
Grateful, or Ungrateful?
Spine, not knees.
LIVE GRATEFUL.
Sources
- The Jerusalem Post, “El-Sayed says Israel, Iran have both proven ‘dangerous’ to US.” https://www.jpost.com/international/article-911134
- New York Post, Ryan King, Oct. 8, 2026. https://nypost.com/2026/10/08/us-news/el-sayed-wont-say-whether-iran-is-more-a-threat-than-israel-in-michigan-senate-debate/
- JNS, “In Michigan Senate debate, El-Sayed won’t say Iran worse than Israel…” https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/in-michigan-senate-debate-el-sayed-declines-to-say-iran-worse-than-israel
- National Archives, “444 Days: Selected Records Concerning the Iran Hostage Crisis 1979-1981.” https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/iran-hostage-crisis
- U.S. Marine Corps, Marines TV, Beirut remembrance (241 service members: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, 3 soldiers). https://www.marines.mil/News/Marines-TV/videoid/634642/dvpTag/Beirut/
- Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 264 F. Supp. 2d 46 (D.D.C. May 30, 2003). https://www.leagle.com/decision/2002310264fsupp2d461305 ; see also UPI, May 30, 2003. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2003/05/30/Judge-rules-against-Iran-in-1983-bombing/28221054319705/
- Military Times, “Iran killed more US troops in Iraq than previously known, Pentagon says,” April 4, 2019. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/04/iran-killed-more-us-troops-in-iraq-than-previously-known-pentagon-says/
- U.S. Department of Defense, “3 U.S. Service Members Killed, Others Injured in Jordan Following Drone Attack,” Jan. 2024. https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/3659809/3-us-service-members-killed-others-injured-in-jordan-following-drone-attack/
- White House fact sheet, “Memorandum of Understanding Reached with Israel,” Sept. 14, 2016. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel ; CRS, “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel.” https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL33222.html
- WOOD TV8, full debate video, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.woodtv.com/video/michigan-u-s-senate-candidates-abdul-el-sayed-and-mike-rogers-debate-at-wood-tv8/12250853/
- Detroit Free Press, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/10/08/abdul-el-sayed-mike-rogers-u-s-senate-debate/92162055007/
- Reuters, “‘Death to America’ aimed at Trump, not American nation, Iran leader says,” Feb. 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/death-to-america-aimed-at-trump-not-american-nation-iran-leader-says-idUSKCN1PX0T7/
- Washington Examiner, Oct. 8, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4760420/el-sayed-dodges-israel-iran-greater-threat-us/
- JTA, Oct. 9, 2026. https://www.jta.org/2026/10/09/politics/is-israel-or-iran-a-bigger-threat-to-the-us-michigans-abdul-el-sayed-wont-say
- Freedom House, Israel: Freedom in the World 2025. https://freedomhouse.org/country/israel/freedom-world/2025
- Freedom House, Iran: Freedom in the World 2025. https://freedomhouse.org/country/iran/freedom-world/2025
- The Times of Israel, “Khaled Kabub sworn in as Israeli Supreme Court’s first Muslim justice,” May 9, 2022. https://www.timesofisrael.com/khaled-kabub-sworn-in-as-supreme-courts-first-muslim-justice/
- The Times of Israel, on Ra’am joining the coalition, June 2021. https://www.timesofisrael.com/meretz-says-coalition-deal-includes-push-for-lgbt-rights-raam-vows-to-oppose/
- Reuters, “What is happening in Israel? Judicial overhaul protests explained,” March 27, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uproar-over-israeli-judicial-changes-whats-it-all-about-2023-03-27/
- Reuters, “Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran custody was ‘unlawful,’ says UN mission,” March 18, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/mahsa-aminis-death-iran-custody-was-unlawful-says-un-mission-2024-03-18/
- AP via ClickOrlando, “Tens of thousands attend Pride parade in Israel’s Tel Aviv,” June 25, 2021. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/world/2021/06/25/thousands-attend-tel-avivs-first-post-lockdown-pride-parade/
- Human Rights Watch, “Iran: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities,” Dec. 15, 2010. https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/15/iran-discrimination-and-violence-against-sexual-minorities
- UN News, “Rights experts urge Iran to end ‘systematic persecution’ of religious minorities,” Aug. 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1125162
