Michigan’s Democratic Party Chose Terror Praise Over a Jewish Incumbent

Michigan Democrats made a choice this weekend, and it wasn’t subtle. They gathered at their state convention and decided that a trial lawyer who praised Hezbollah leaders as martyrs was a better fit for the University of Michigan Board of Regents than the Jewish incumbent already doing the job. Let that sink in for a moment.

Jordan Acker, the sitting regent who happens to be Jewish, got ousted. His replacement? Amir Makled, whose social media history includes sharing posts that lionized Hassan Nasrallah and Abu Ali Khalil. Both men were Hezbollah leaders. Both were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Both were dubbed martyrs in the posts Makled shared before quietly deleting them once the Detroit News came calling more than a week before the convention.

You know what strikes me most about this story? It’s not just the antisemitism, though that’s bad enough. It’s the brazenness. This wasn’t some obscure county committee meeting in a church basement. This was the state Democratic convention, with party leaders present, votes counted, and everyone watching. They knew about Makled’s posts. The reporting was out there. And they chose him anyway.

The word martyr carries weight. It’s not neutral. When you call a Hezbollah commander a martyr, you’re not just acknowledging his death. You’re celebrating his cause, elevating his mission, sanctifying his violence. Hezbollah isn’t some misunderstood resistance movement. It’s a designated terrorist organization that has killed Americans, threatens Israel’s existence daily, and operates as Iran’s proxy army. Calling its dead leaders martyrs isn’t a cultural misunderstanding. It’s a statement of values.

Michigan’s Democratic Party used to understand these distinctions. There was a time when supporting terrorist organizations, even implicitly, would disqualify you from consideration for any position of influence. Now it apparently qualifies you to oversee one of America’s premier public universities. The institution that’s supposed to foster critical thinking and democratic values will have a regent who thinks Hezbollah commanders deserve reverence.

Even former Democratic leaders in Michigan have spoken out, which tells you something. When your own party veterans are raising alarm bells, you’ve wandered pretty far from the mainstream. But here’s the thing about the modern progressive movement. It’s developed this strange moral calculus where traditional antisemitism gets a pass if it’s wrapped in anti-Zionist rhetoric or third world solidarity language.

Individual liberty means protecting everyone’s right to hold unpopular views, sure. But it doesn’t mean elevating those views to positions of authority over young minds. There’s a difference between tolerating speech and endorsing the speaker for leadership. Michigan Democrats just erased that line.

The university setting makes this particularly galling. College campuses have become hotbeds of antisemitic activity disguised as political activism. Jewish students face harassment, intimidation, and exclusion. Now they’ll have a regent who thought Hezbollah leaders were worth praising. How exactly are Jewish students supposed to feel safe bringing concerns to a board that includes someone with that track record?

This isn’t about Republican versus Democrat. This is about basic decency versus capitulation to the worst instincts of activist pressure groups. Michigan Democrats had a choice between a qualified Jewish incumbent and a candidate who praised terrorists. They chose the latter. That choice reveals everything about where the party’s priorities actually lie, and it should terrify anyone who believes in fighting genuine hatred rather than performing selective outrage.

Related: DOJ Investigates SPLC Over Paid Informant Program That Infiltrated Extremist Groups