Is the Jewish State To Blame for the Price of Eggs in Michigan?

“Jewish safety depends on a real multiracial democracy, and Abdul is the one fighting to protect it.” So says actor Mandy Patinkin in a posting that endorses the Democratic senate candidate from the state of Michigan. What, then, to make of a TV ad backing Abdul El-Sayed that borrows from generations-old tropes to denigrate the Jewish state? The ad, which the candidate has disavowed, seems to appeal to some of the darkest sentiments of Dr. El-Sayed’s supporters. “Honey, you have to put those eggs back” because “we have to set those $7 aside for killing Palestinians,” an actress playing a shopper tells her male companion as they examine prices of groceries in a supermarket. “Don’t we give Israel $4 billion a year, anyways?” the man says. “Yeah,” she answers, “and now we’re giving them another $26 billion. Do you know how much that is per American taxpayer?” It comes to $161 per person, she claims. A debate over military aid to Israel aside, the idea that America’s investment in a Mideast alliance is responsible for the rising price of eggs is a fallacy. To begin with, eggs are a poor measure of rising grocery costs. The average price for a dozen Grade-A eggs is $2.27, down from $4.95 when President Trump took office. Still, why should we “give” money to Israel, while the average American is forced to choose between eggs and bananas?America’s military aid to Israel in 2025 amounted to $3.31 billion. A year earlier, at the height of war, Congress approved a $26 billion supplement, out of which $17 billion was allocated to humanitarian aid for Gazans. That last item was designed to help finance trucks filled with food, medicine, and the staples, rather than for “killing Palestinians.” Yet doesn’t our alliance with the Jewish state indeed hit American individuals in the pocketbook?A feature of the military aid to Israel is that it must be spent in America. Arms purchases, thus, come back to our side of the ocean, contributing to state coffers and lowering unemployment. Michigan’s defense industry, for one, contributes $31 billion in overall economic activity through 155,000 defense-related jobs and 17 commands and installations throughout the state. If arms exports shrink, Michiganders lose.So could this ad, from Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC,be about something other than Dr. Abdul’s GOP rival, Representative Mike Rogers, ignoring “you” in favor of Israel? America’s aid for Ukraine in 2025, at $6.75 billion, more than doubles aid to Israel. Yet the ad blames only the Jewish state for the allegedly high costs of eggs. From pogroms in Tsarist Russia on, Jews were blamed for food shortages. Unlike Mr. Patinkin, we suspect “Jewish safety” is far from Dr. El-Sayed’s mind. _________Correction: Cenk Uygur’s Rebellion PAC is responsible for the TV advertisement blaming Israel for the price of eggs. An earlier version misstated who was responsible for the ad.

Is the Jewish State To Blame for the Price of Eggs in Michigan?

Is the Jewish State To Blame for the Price of Eggs in Michigan?

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