WASHINGTON — It’s a new day in Washington for the AIPAC — American Israel Public Affairs Committee — faithful like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).
Even before Fetterman infuriated Democrats for cutting a video that aired during President Donald Trump’s midterm GOP convention in Texas, Pennsylvania’s senior senator frustrated his party colleagues for his numerous appearances on Fox News, where he regularly defends Israel and rips progressive Democrats.
But the GOP’s crushing defeat dealt a crushing blow to him, a congressman warned.
“Last night’s big loser was John Fetterman,” former Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) told Raw Story. “And the things that he represents being less of consequence, because Chuck [Schumer] doesn’t need John Fetterman anymore.”
With a historic seven Muslim lawmakers winning their elections in this year’s midterms, AIPAC critics sense upheaval of the longtime Washington status quo afoot.
To win Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed had to endure accusations of being a terrorist with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“See, they try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars, if you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination,” El-Sayed said. “That’s not hate. It’s love.”
Opposition to him was also flooded with outside spending, as El-Sayed noted in his victory speech.
“To the super PACs and special interests who tried to beat us: we are coming for your system of politics. To AIPAC, who spent $42 million against us, thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice,” El-Sayed said, giving a nod to the roughly $30 million AIPAC dropped against him in his Democratic primary.
“Michiganders, we want our taxes spent here, for schools here, and health care here, and infrastructure here. We don’t want our money sent to do apartheid or genocide or war.”
El-Sayed promised his voters that he’s bringing his message to the marble halls of the U.S. Capitol.
“Y’all, Michigan, we built something bigger than a bank account. We built a movement: government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We showed that in a battle between the money and the many, the many really can win.”
El-Sayed’s far from alone
When the new Senate’s seated in January, El-Sayed will have some allies.
While Senator-elect James Talarico (D-TX) didn’t highlight the plight of Palestinians in his victory speech, throughout his long-shot campaign he stood out by standing up for Gaza.
“I believe that Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend its people,” Talarico said during a CNN town hall. “But I don’t believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has a right to wage war against civilians or use collective punishment or restrict aid to civilians.”
Talarico’s stance is a tad nuanced, as he acknowledges the horror of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks — “the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” the candidate told the town hall audience — he also tried to keep his criticisms aimed at “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not the Israeli people.
Throughout his campaign, Talarico stopped short of labeling Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” but that wasn’t the case up in Maine where Troy Jackson (D-ME) unseated longtime Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who was backed by AIPAC.
“I believe what’s happening in Gaza is genocide,” Jackson said in a statement during the campaign. “And I also understand that word carries particular weight for many Jewish families given the Holocaust — the genocide of six million Jews.”
It’s not just the Senate. At least eight pro-Palestinian candidates also won their races, including former Columbia University Gaza encampment activist Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York and volunteer Gaza medical worker Adam Hamawy in New Jersey.
Other Israeli critics also won House seats in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan and Texas.
Ahead of Election Day, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) turned heads for crossing the proverbial aisle and endorsing El-Sayed’s opponent, which may have backfired.
“I think Haley’s decision to support Mike Rogers awakened even more people, even more voters, and activated them to turn out to vote,” Iman Abid, Political Director at U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action, told Raw Story.
To Abid, Haley and Pennsylvania Sen. Fetterman appear to be relics of a bygone era.
“So my hope is that at this point, Fetterman and Haley are old news,” Abid said. “And I think it’s important to really recognize that and acknowledge the fact that we have an opportunity to move way further to the left than we ever have before.”
Abid says another thing that’s new is “this feeling of war, this feeling of genocide is impacting the money that’s kept in their pockets.”
“People are feeling it extremely heavily right now,” Abid said. “They recognize for the first time that if we continue to do this, this is not just about some sort of issue around Palestine, Israel — this is actually an issue that is relative to us and not only in regards to, you know, the complicity.”
“The fact that we are spending so much money on these forever wars that people don’t want us engaging in. And at the same time, it’s causing us to have to pay more in fuel and, you know, in groceries and all these sorts of things. And people are not reaping the benefits of any of it. If anything, it’s making us more unsafe.”
As for whether that message will reach congressional leaders? Abid says the writing’s on the wall.
“Either Chuck Schumer can wake up,” Abid told Raw Story. “Or if he doesn’t wake up in the next couple of years, I think people are going to pay attention to that and ask themselves, ‘Is this person actually truly representing my values or do I need to, you know, put someone else in position?’”
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