Ad Backing Michigan Democrat El-Sayed Blames Israel for $7 Eggs. Federal Data Says $2.27

A super PAC backing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's U.S. Senate race is running an ad that tells voters the reason their groceries cost so much is Israel. The group is Rebellion PAC, and the man selling the ad is Cenk Uygur, founder of the left-wing network The Young Turks. Eight days before the Nov. 3 election, Jewish leaders, a Democratic congresswoman and even the PAC's own cofounder are calling it antisemitic.

Uygur posted the 71-second spot Friday night. "New @RebellionPac ad dropping in Michigan," he wrote. "We have to suffer here at home, so Israel can get all its wars. That's why they buy politicians like Mike Rogers." Rogers is the Republican in the race, a former congressman and FBI agent who chaired the House Intelligence Committee. As of Monday afternoon, the post had been seen about 5.9 million times.

What the ad says

It's a skit. A couple stands in a grocery aisle. "Honey, you're going to have to put those eggs back," the woman says. "They like eggs, but we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians." The man asks if America doesn't already give Israel $4 billion a year. She says yes, "and now we're giving them another $26 billion." Israel's universal health care comes up too: "We're paying for that, too, probably."

Then comes the closer, lifted from a famous 2024 Trump ad about Kamala Harris. Over photos of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, a narrator says: "Mike Rogers is for they/them. Abdul El-Sayed is for you." The on-screen disclaimer says the ad was paid for by Rebellion PAC and not authorized by any candidate.

The receipt doesn't add up

Start with the eggs. The ad's $7 dozen doesn't exist in the government's own numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the national average price every month. Eggs peaked at $6.23 in March 2025, during the worst bird flu outbreak in U.S. history, when farmers had to kill millions of laying hens. Flocks recovered, and the price fell. In September 2026 it was $2.27, down 64% from the peak and below where it started 2024.

Bananas are an even stranger choice. They averaged 65 cents a pound in January and 66 cents in September, according to the same BLS data. That's flat. Whatever is squeezing Michigan families, it isn't a banana spike, and it isn't Israel.

The aid numbers need context too. Under a 10-year deal signed in 2016 under President Obama, the U.S. gives Israel $3.8 billion a year, $3.3 billion in military financing and $500 million for missile defense. The ad's "$26 billion" appears to be the 2024 Israel security supplemental, which ran about $26 billion and included billions in humanitarian aid, some of it for Gaza. CNBC anchor Sara Eisen wrote Monday that aid to Israel is about 0.05% of federal spending, and that most of the military aid is spent buying weapons and services from American defense contractors. None of it pays for Israeli health care. Israel funds that with its own health tax and general revenue.

Think of it like blaming your neighbor's new fence for your electric bill. You might not like the fence. It still isn't on your bill.

Who's condemning it

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called the ad "a case study in antisemitism" on Sunday. "You want to know what desperate looks like?" he wrote. "Blaming the price of bananas on Israel. Consider this PAC ad just another example of scapegoating the Jewish state."

The criticism didn't come only from the right. Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El-Sayed, broke ranks Monday. "This type of fearmongering about Israel is wrong," she wrote. "How we do so is not by blaming the high costs of our goods on the only Jewish homeland in the world."

Daniel Shapiro, Obama's ambassador to Israel, wrote that it's "entirely possible to oppose aid to Israel" without "promoting the fiction that such aid, or Israel itself, is responsible for what Americans pay for their groceries." Jonah Goldberg, editor of The Dispatch, called it "dumb and bigoted at scale" and "innumerate."

The sharpest cut may have come from inside the PAC's own history. Brianna Wu, a former Democratic House candidate who founded Rebellion PAC and once ran it, wrote on Monday: "I didn't have anything to do with producing this ad. I've not worked with Rebellion for years. I would have quit as executive director rather than produce this." She added: "I find this message as awful as you do."

Uygur doubles down, El-Sayed steps back

Uygur isn't backing off. "If you think this ad is antisemitic, you're in a cult and don't know it," he posted Monday. He has also posted at least seven times asking for donations "to help us run this ad more in Michigan." He told the New York Post the ad is "saying we're giving too much money to a foreign nation, and they're misusing it."

El-Sayed's campaign told the Post the ad "is not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign," and that "No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign." Notice what that statement doesn't say. It doesn't call the ad wrong, and it doesn't ask Uygur to pull it. As of Monday afternoon, El-Sayed's own posts on X hadn't mentioned it. Rogers' campaign posts hadn't either; he spent the day on a bus tour with Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno.

That silence stands out because El-Sayed hasn't been shy about his allies. Former President Obama rallied with him this weekend, the same weekend the ad spread, and El-Sayed posted that he was "humbled to have the 44th president with us." A candidate who can tweet about who stands with him on stage can tweet about an ad running on his behalf.

The money behind it

Federal Election Commission filings show Rebellion PAC is a small operation with a loud megaphone. It raised about $381,600 this cycle through Oct. 14, mostly in small donations, and had about $49,200 in the bank. Its treasurer is Kara Eastman, a former Nebraska House candidate. In October it reported spending $11,000 against Rogers: $10,000 on text messages on Oct. 15 and $1,000 on digital ads on Oct. 22. Earlier this year it paid The Young Turks for ads and Rad Ads, an ad shop, for production on other races.

In other words, the ad's reach is coming mostly from free attention on social media, not from a big TV buy. That's the play: say something outrageous, let the fight spread it, then pass the hat.

What happens next

Michigan votes Nov. 3 for the open seat left by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, and the race is close. The question for El-Sayed is simple: does he want this ad running for him in the final week, or not? His campaign has said who the ad doesn't belong to. It hasn't said whether he thinks it's true.