Joel Anabilah-Azumah
Asked in a candidate questionnaire whether "The United States should help defend Israel from attack by its enemies", Anabilah-Azumah answered "Neutral". He answered the same on boycott and divestment. No position located on U.S. weapons or funding.
Anabilah-Azumah is the Republican and Conservative Party candidate in New York’s 9th District in central Brooklyn. He owns a transit company and coaches men’s volleyball at Brooklyn College, and he has run for this seat before, including in 2018 and 2020.
He was asked directly, and the answer is on the record. A candidate questionnaire for this race puts the statement "The United States should help defend Israel from attack by its enemies" to him, and his answer is "Neutral". A second form asks about boycott and divestment measures and his answer there is "Neutral" as well. He is not a candidate who skipped the questions: on the first form he gave six "Strongly Agree" and seven "Strongly Disagree" answers, so declining to take a side on Israel is a choice he made among answers he was willing to give.
What that answer is not is a position on money or weapons. Neither form asks about aid packages, arms transfers or humanitarian funding, and nothing else located takes a view on them.
Beyond the questionnaire he has a general non-interventionist framing rather than a position on this conflict. His 2026 platform puts it as a spending choice: "We want investment in American infrastructure such as the Utica Avenue Subway instead of war." In a 2026 Ballotpedia survey he wrote that "Current foreign policy benefits everyone else but normal Americans", and in a 2018 interview he said he wanted to "reel in the foreign policy expansion that’s been going on for the last 20 years", adding that "Our troops are in way too many places doing way too many things that do not benefit the American population."
That is a blanket position. It would include Israel without being aimed at Israel, and reading it as a position on U.S. military aid to the Israeli government would overstate him.
Research
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
- 2026 [Current position; card-leading; VERIFIED]: The iVoterGuide questionnaire for this race carries the statement "The United States should help defend Israel from attack by its enemies." **His answer is "Neutral"**, which is also what the first search reported.
⚠ **A READING FAILURE OF OURS, CORRECTED 2026-08-11.** This card previously said the answer could not be aligned to the question and refused to state it. That was our extraction, not the page. iVoterGuide closes each question and each answer in its own block element; collapsing the HTML to a single line, as the first two probes did, destroyed the pairing and left the adjacent token looking like "Agree" from the preceding item. Converting `</p>`, `</div>`, `</td>`, `</tr>`, `</li>` and `</h1>`-`</h6>` to newlines before extracting restores it, and the answer sits directly after the question. A volunteer read the page in a browser and reported the answer as a one-word "Neutral"; re-extracted here, it is.
- Undated [Current position; blanket, not aimed at Israel]: His campaign platform and candidate comparison profiles frame foreign military spending as a domestic trade-off: "We want investment in American infrastructure such as the Utica Avenue Subway instead of war." A candidate profile published 2026-05-21 is among the sources.
- The first search’s own verdict: beyond that framework and the questionnaire answer, he has made no detailed public statement on U.S. military aid packages or weapons transfers to Israel. Nothing located on funding amounts, arms sales or conditions.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
- Nothing located. No statement on UNRWA, Gaza humanitarian funding or the aid pipeline. Neither questionnaire asks about it.
Characterization of the conflict
- 2026 [Current position; VERIFIED; named out of scope for cards]: A second questionnaire carries the statement "I support BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanction) against Israel if they refuse to allow the creation of a Palestinian state." **His answer is "Neutral".** Boycott and divestment measures are named out of scope by the content rule, so this is recorded rather than built on; it is noted on the card only because it is the same answer to a second Israel question. That form carries three "Neutral" answers and no agree or disagree responses at all.
- 2026 [Current position]: In Ballotpedia survey responses he wrote that "Current foreign policy benefits everyone else but normal Americans" (his Ballotpedia page).
- 2018-03-02 [Earlier record]: In an interview during an earlier run he said he wanted to "reel in the foreign policy expansion that's been going on for the last 20 years" and that "Our troops are in way too many places doing way too many things that do not benefit the American population." Predates 2023-10-07 and is about troop deployments rather than aid.
- The first search’s own verdict: beyond these, no detailed characterization of the conflict itself.
Rhetoric and lobbying
- The first search’s own verdict: no public records or reported statements addressing Israel-related lobbying organisations.
Safety and antisemitism
- Undated [Context only]: His platform's "Safe Communities" section reads: "We want our communities to be safe and full of people who are invested in the health of our neighborhoods." Domestic and general; nothing located on antisemitism specifically.
How to read a "Neutral"
He answered the form and used the full range elsewhere on it: six "Strongly Agree" and seven "Strongly Disagree" on the first questionnaire. So "Neutral" on defending Israel is a position he selected, not a question he skipped. What it is not is a view on money or weapons, which neither form asks about.
Sources consulted and read
- Two iVoterGuide questionnaires for this race, both read.
- His Ballotpedia page, listed three times.
- A candidate profile (published 2026-05-21).
- A 2018 interview.
- His Brooklyn College coaching profile, biography only.
Consulted, could not be reached
- A New York State election results page would not open.
- Two localcandidates.org pages, including a head-to-head comparison with the incumbent. That host returns 200 and renders its body client-side, so a browser can read it and our open cannot; the comparison page is worth a human look.
Not found
- No position located on U.S. weapons, arms sales or military funding for the government of Israel.
- No position located on U.S. aid to Palestinians.
- This is a record of what was checked on 2026-08-11, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.
Also in this race: Yvette D. Clarke (Democrat) · All New York candidates.
See the full record →But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open the interactive card for votes, funding and contact details.