One senator out of the 100 who will fill the upper chamber of the 120th Congress was elected to his seat on a loud campaign promise to end to U.S. complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
asserted
who → fill → Gaza
Abdul El-Sayed will walk into a newfound Democratic majority after animating his base with pro-Palestine pledges seldom heard from a U.S. Senate contender.
asserted
Sayed → walk → contender
As a first-term senator, he’ll lack seniority on the committees to which he’s assigned.
asserted
he → lack → which
And although his critiques of the U.S. relationship with Israel have proven overwhelmingly popular in public opinion surveys and among voters at the polls, the same can’t be said for most of his soon-to-be colleagues.
asserted
same → prove → colleagues
“It’s going to be a fight,” said Beth Miller, political advocacy director for Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which supported El-Sayed’s campaign.
asserted
which → go → campaign
“The Democratic establishment, when it’s in control, has not taken measures in support of Palestine in the past.
asserted
it → ’ → past
And so this is about making sure that now they finally start listening to what the overwhelming majority of their bases say.”
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majority → make → bases
El-Sayed’s run marked the first time the Jewish-led, anti-Zionist group backed a Senate campaign.
asserted
group → mark → campaign
Pro-Palestine lobbying groups like JVP Action have been pushing for legislation to block weapons transfers to Israel for years, aligning themselves with a small but growing number of left-leaning House members.
asserted
groups → push → members
The group helped author the Block the Bombs Act, introduced by Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., which netted 82 co-sponsors and became a pro-Palestine litmus test in some Democratic primary campaigns.
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which → author → campaigns
Building consensus around a single bill in the Senate is harder, but the upper chamber offers stronger levers to pull.
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chamber → build → levers
Senators can force votes called Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that would block foreign security assistance, such as weapons sales to Israel.
asserted
that → force → Israel
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has exercised this option repeatedly throughout the genocide in Gaza to try and block the sale of certain bombs, firearms, and other military equipment to Israel.
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Sanders → exercise → Israel
While his resolutions failed in the Republican-controlled Senate, the most recent ones drew support from wide majorities of Democrats — soon to be the party in power.
asserted
ones → fail → power
Yet with the looming threat that Democrats might actually be able to pass legislation, El-Sayed would find himself under pressure from the likely Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, who has long maintained the support of the pro-Israel lobby, to fall in line with party priorities.
uncertain
who → loom → priorities
“The question is, ‘Who does he want to be?’ Does he want to be someone like Bernie, who is willing to sometimes stand up to leadership?” said Hamid Bendaas, communications director for the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, which also backed El-Sayed’s run.
asserted
which → want → run
“It’s hard to do that as a freshman and someone who’s just getting in there.”
asserted
who → ’ → freshman
Bendaas expressed confidence that the Michigan senator would be a champion of pro-Palestine legislation, but he noted that El-Sayed would have to balance his priorities, especially after running a campaign focused on economic populism and providing universal healthcare through Medicare for All.
asserted
Sayed → express → All
There is a tension revealed by the dilemma facing Sen.-elect El-Sayed: While a growing share of Americans — and an overwhelming majority of Democrats — disapprove of the U.S. spending billions of dollars on aid to Israel, voters’ clear No. 1 concern in the 2026 election cycle was the cost of living and their own economic precarity.
asserted
concern → be → living
Some pundits have encouraged pro-Palestine candidates like El-Sayed to put their anti-genocide principles aside, arguing that more moderate Democrats performed better on Tuesday night.
asserted
Democrats → encourage → night
They compare El-Sayed’s 7-percentage-point defeat of Mike Rogers to James Talarico’s 12-point win over Ken Paxton in Texas — and some have already asked Talarico to defy his new colleague.
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some → compare → colleague
But on the campaign trail, El-Sayed often connected the issues of a high cost of living and outsized U.S. spending on aid to Israel.
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Sayed → connect → Israel
“We ought to be spending our money here, to build schools and provide healthcare and child care here, rather than sending our money abroad to a foreign government that’s done terrible things with our money,” he said in a September interview with Bloomberg TV.
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he → spend → TV
El-Sayed’s approach made him the target of nearly $40 million in outside spending from the super PAC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supported widespread anti-Arab and Islamophobic attacks and accusations of antisemitism in an attempt to keep a vocal critic of Israel out of the Senate.
asserted
which → make → Senate
“None of it mattered,” said Yousef Munayyer, a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington D.C. who likened the gravity of El-Sayed’s win to that of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
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who → matter → Mamdani
A lot of taboos here have been shattered, and people are going to learn from this and be emboldened now.”
asserted
people → shatter → this
In addition to bringing joint resolutions to block future weapons transfers — like the Trump administration’s planned sale of $2.8 billion in 2,000-pound bombs to Israel — El-Sayed could introduce resolutions citing the Foreign Assistance Act; Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., used one to demand a State Department report on Israeli detention of Palestinian children and Israeli military and settler killings of American citizens in the West Bank.
uncertain
Hollen → bring → Bank
He would also be able to introduce amendments to the Pentagon’s annual spending bill that carves out billions of dollars in joint U.S.–Israel weapons research.
asserted
that → introduce → research
(The Senate is currently sitting on this year’s $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act, which would even more deeply enmesh Israeli technology within the Pentagon’s programs and supply chain.)
asserted
which → sit → programs
Munayyer, the former head of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, said that despite the uncertainty over whether moderate Democrats will be willing to link arms with progressives next session, El-Sayed’s win creates an environment ripe for accountability over Israel.
asserted
win → say → Israel
“You have a climate now where there’s going to be a lot less intimidation felt by people who had previously been hesitant to speak out on these issues because they thought it was political suicide,” he said.
asserted
he → have → issues
Even Republicans are beginning to feel the shifting winds.
asserted
Republicans → begin → winds
On the morning of Election Day, President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Fox News that the U.S. would halt the annual $4 billion in military aid to Israel.
asserted
U.S. → make → Israel
The move would only cut off one path for Israel to get weapons from the U.S. — still allowing direct weapons sales to Israel from U.S. companies and weapons development and sharing with the Pentagon — and Trump said it was made in agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been previewing it for months.
asserted
who → cut → months
Tactically, Trump said the goal was to take a “talking point” away from Democrats.
asserted
goal → say → Democrats
He cited El-Sayed by name.
asserted
He → cite → name
While ballots were still being counted on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance, an expected 2028 presidential contender, posted on X an early post-mortem of the massive GOP losses across the country.
asserted
Vance → count → country
He wrote that the party could bring back “voters who had abandoned us” if they “End the war” in Iran and “Change our relationship to Israel.”
uncertain
they → write → Israel
Such recognition from the Trump White House is new territory for U.S. politics, Munayyer said.
asserted
Munayyer → say → politics
“We are about to witness, in my view, something we have never seen before in American politics,” Munayyer said.
asserted
Munayyer → witness → politics
…and 28 more, not listed.
The Aporia
