As the heated Democratic Senate primary in Michigan enters its final stretch, far-left candidate Abdul El-Sayed told CNN this week that he does not believe that a politician’s support for Israel could be about anything other than money.

“Not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights,” El-Sayed told CNN when asked about such a distinction. 

Asked whether it was possible to be a Zionist and be a progressive, El-Sayed said, “Every definition of a Jewish state ends up in some articulation of illiberal values, every single one.”

El-Sayed is facing off against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Aug. 4 primary, following state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s departure from the race on Sunday. 

Stevens, a moderate lawmaker who has been supported by AIPAC and pro-Israel donors throughout her career, has drawn a contrast between herself and El-Sayed on the issue.

“There is a difference between me and Abdul,” she said in an MS NOW interview on Monday. “I believe in a two-state solution. I want to see the people of Palestine and in Gaza live peacefully, side by side, with the people of Israel. He cannot qualify Israel’s right to exist.”