BHATKAL: US Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, whose family ties connect him to the coastal Karnataka town of Bhatkal, has questioned Washington’s policy of providing military assistance to countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. He has argued that American taxpayers’ money should be spent on healthcare, education and infrastructure at home rather than subsidising foreign militaries.
El-Sayed, 42, is married to Dr Sarah Jukaku, whose family traces its roots to Bhatkal. She is the granddaughter of Jukaku Shamshuddin, a prominent lawyer and former Deputy Minister for Finance in the erstwhile Mysore State government under then Chief Minister B.D. Jatti. Her father, Dr Tayeb Jukaku, a nephrologist, studied medicine in Bengaluru before moving to the United States in the 1980s. El-Sayed has visited Bhatkal twice before his election victory, which has drawn attention to his family’s connection with the town.
In an interview with ABC News, El-Sayed said the United States should examine its own conduct in ensuring compliance with international law. He stressed that the principle should not apply only to Israel, but equally to other countries receiving American assistance, specifically naming Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan. He said that if a country uses American funds to violate international law, that should be a starting point for reconsidering the assistance it receives.
In a separate interview with NPR following his election victory, El-Sayed also questioned US military assistance to Pakistan and several other countries. “Whether it’s Israel or Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Pakistan, I don’t think any of us pay our tax dollars to subsidise foreign militaries,” he said.
He argued that Americans wanted better healthcare, childcare, schools and infrastructure rather than more wars and weapons for foreign governments. Billions of dollars spent on overseas military assistance, he said, could instead be invested in meeting domestic needs.
El-Sayed has also criticised US military assistance to Israel and supported stopping the sale of American weapons that, in his view, are used in actions amounting to genocide and apartheid in Gaza. He has advocated equal rights, peace, dignity and self-determination for both Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, maintaining that no country should be shielded from accountability for violations of international law.
El-Sayed defeated Republican candidate Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate election on November 3, becoming the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. A former public health official, he is expected to take office in January 2027.