Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday that Palestine has a right to exist but offered conditions when asked if the same is true of Israel.

Asked by journalist Ross Douthat whether Israel has a right to exist, El-Sayed countered with his usual response — “I don’t ever get the question of, ‘does Palestine have a right to exist?’”

Douthat followed up, asking him that question, to which El-Sayed offered an unequivocal “yes.” But when Douthat followed up again to ask if El-Sayed believes Israel has a right to exist, the Democratic nominee offered caveats.

“Yes — if there is a shared understanding,” he said. “I believe — and this is the problem with this debate — we start from where we sit, rather than start from principles. I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike. If the Palestinian people decide, and the Israeli people decide that they want two states for two people, and they decide that on equal terms, I’m for it. If they decide that they want one state shared in a different way, I’m for that.”

El-Sayed had repeatedly dodged questions on the subject during the campaign, and said earlier in the campaign that he struggles with the concept and called a Jewish state inconsistent with American liberal values.

Asked whether he thinks he’s done enough to reassure Jewish Michiganders who typically support Democrats, El-Sayed responded, “Wherever our disagreements are when it comes to Israel, there are a lot more things that we agree on here. When it comes to standing up for Jewish Americans, I will be right there.”

El-Sayed argued that the U.S.’ support for a two-state solution is “incoherent” when it is arming “the very people who are trying to foreclose on the possibility of a second state,” that he doesn’t support sending arms abroad generally and that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza.