“You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates,” Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit crowd on Wednesday, declaring victory in Michigan’s hard-fought, often ugly, Senate race.
asserted
Sayed → take → race
In what was predicted to be a squeaker, the Democrat beat his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, by a healthy seven points.
asserted
Democrat → predict → points
At 34, in his first Congressional run, he set his sights almost cockily on a US Senate seat.
asserted
he → set → seat
He ran on what has become an uncontroversial affordability platform but also championed the socialist-adjacent Medicare for All.
asserted
what → run → All
But what was generally believed to qualify him as an unlikely candidate – and an even unlikelier winner – was his uncompromising criticism of Israel’s policies toward Palestine and Palestinians.
asserted
believed → believe → Palestine
The assumption that El-Sayed’s Israel politics would doom his chances shaped the campaigns of his pro-Zionist Democratic primary rival, Haley Stevens, and the pro-Israel Rogers.
asserted
politics → doom → rival
It was certainly the wager that the rightwing American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, placed when it wasted nearly $30m – its biggest investment ever in a single race – trying to defeat El-Sayed.
asserted
it → place → Sayed
We don’t know yet, but his strong criticism of Israel may have put El-Sayed, and other Democrats, over the top.
uncertain
criticism → know → top
And like the Republicans, Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took a beating in the US midterms.
asserted
Israel → take → midterms
Six candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, a prominent antagonist to rightwing Zionism, won Congressional races in part by foregrounding their primary opponents’ links to Aipac and their own refusal to take its funds.
asserted
candidates → endorse → funds
They all were running in bright-blue districts where the winner of the Democratic primary is the winner of the general election.
asserted
winner → run → election
In Colorado, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer, handily beat primary rival Diana DeGette, the 15-term incumbent backed by a Super Pac with Aipac links.
asserted
Kiros → beat → links
In a New York district comprising portions of upper Manhattan and the Bronx, Darializa Avila Chevalier took down the once invincible Adriano Espaillat, who also had help from a Super Pac with ties to the group.
asserted
who → comprise → group
The publication City and State New York predicted that Chevalier, a graduate student leader in Columbia University’s anti-Gaza war encampments, would be “the most pro-Palestine member of Congress”.
asserted
Chevalier → predict → Congress
Where there was no sunlight between the candidates on the Israel question, some candidates used artificial light.
asserted
candidates → be → light
In Brooklyn’s “commie corridor”, the victory of former state assembly member and artist Claire Valdez over the principled progressive Antonio Reynoso was tainted by her unsubstantiated charges that a mysterious Pac supporting him was funded by Aipac.
asserted
Pac → taint → Aipac
It was in fact funded by one of New York’s teachers’ unions.
asserted
It → fund → unions
The Times of Israel noted pointedly that Pennsylvania’s Chris Rabb had the endorsement of the “far-left online streamer Hasan Piker”, whose support plagued El-Sayed in Michigan.
asserted
support → note → Michigan
But Rabb’s support did not come only from the extremes.
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support → come → extremes
Along with the DSA, the Maryland representative Jaimie Raskin, a Jew, endorsed Rabb, as did the respectable, radical Jewish Voice for Peace.
asserted
Voice → endorse → Peace
Rabb won without pulling any political punches.
asserted
Rabb → win → punches
Last week he posted on X: “The Nakba never ended,” referring to the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians to establish a Jewish state on their land.
asserted
Nakba → post → land
In Michigan, Donavan McKinney defiantly labeled the last section of his plank “Palestine”.
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McKinney → label → plank
In Ohio, both Democrat Sherrod Brown, the winner, and Republican John Husted got help from pro-Israel organizations, but with different politics.
asserted
Brown → get → politics
The liberal Zionist J Street, which backed Brown, is critical of Israeli government policies and supports a two-state solution.
asserted
which → back → solution
Aipac stood with Husted.
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Aipac → stand → Husted
In Georgia, the Jewish Democratic senator Jon Ossoff mapped a position that must have nettled voters on both sides.
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that → map → sides
Expressing a commitment to Israel’s security and also to valuing “the lives of innocent Palestinians”, he voted in the Senate for some US military aid to Israel while opposing certain weapons transfers.
asserted
he → express → transfers
That said, the choice was probably uncomplicated for Georgia’s Jews.
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choice → say → Jews
Mike Collins, the Republican whom Ossoff trounced 59% to 41%, has ties to promoters of white nationalism and antisemitism.
asserted
Ossoff → trounce → nationalism
Brad Lander, a lifer in New York City left-Democratic politics, has maintained his Jewish and progressive bona fides by displaying sympathy for both Israeli Jews and Palestinians.
asserted
Lander → maintain → Jews
He launched his primary campaign by vowing he would not be “doing Aipac’s bidding” and challenging the incumbent Dan Goldman, an unwavering Zionist and recipient of Aipac funds, to do what he had refused to do: call the Gaza war genocide and support the Block the Bombs Act, which would limit arms sales to Israel.
asserted
which → launch → Israel
Still, Lander quit the DSA after 30 years of membership when it publicized a patently pro-Hamas rally the day after the Hamas-led massacre of Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023.
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it → quit → October
He picked up the endorsement of the Working Families party.
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He → pick → party
Their politics run from radical to liberal.
asserted
politics → run → liberal
In many places, Israel probably had little effect on the elections.
asserted
Israel → have → elections
While its military continues to commit what the UN calls crimes against humanity in the occupied territories, Israel is off the front pages of US newspapers.
asserted
Israel → continue → newspapers
Voters in poll after poll placed foreign policy way down their lists of concerns.
asserted
Voters → place → concerns
Trump may be wrong that “people agree with what [he’s] doing in Iran”, but he might be right that it’s the consequent high gas prices that trouble them most.
uncertain
that → agree → them
In the president’s cold heart, Israel still has a place, and he believes the feeling is mutual.
asserted
feeling → have → place
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
