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It’s Official: Palestine Has Changed US Politics Forever

The epic results in New York confirmed it: Support for Palestinian rights is driving an unprecedented political transformation—and there’s no going back. 

Congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, and Darializa Avila Chevalier join Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a rally in Brooklyn on June 18, 2026.

As a Palestinian and Lebanese American, I have had to watch for decades as our nation’s Congress, with barely any dissent, funded the Israeli military to the tune of billions of dollars per year. The idea that supporting Israel no matter what was all but necessary if you wanted to hold national office in this country was perhaps the most enduring rule in politics, even as that support resulted in the continued killing, displacement, and oppression of millions of people, including my relatives.

But the days of blank checks and blanket immunity for Israel are over. They’re never coming back. Anyone who doubted that undeniable reality need only look at Tuesday night’s elections in New York City, which saw pro-Palestinian candidates sweep to victory across the five boroughs. There were many factors behind these historic results, but one thing they confirmed without question is that support for Palestinian rights is driving unprecedented political change—and that nothing in American politics will ever be the same.

From almost the minute the polls closed at 9 pm on Tuesday, it was clear that a pro-Palestinian wave was crashing over New York City. The first person to experience the scale of this juggernaut was incumbent Representative Dan Goldman, who was trying to fend off a challenge to his left from former New York City comptroller Brad Lander. Goldman has been a vocal supporter of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians his entire political career, a position he maintained up to the end of this campaign. He refused to recognize Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, denied the genocide in Gaza, and even admitted to not voting for New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani, in last year’s city elections—undoubtedly because Mamdani was willing to reflect the views of the vast majority of New York City residents by standing up for Palestinian rights. When Goldman’s constituents were demanding relief from rising prices, their representative in Washington was unapologetically sending billions of dollars to fund Israel’s military, and even voted for Republican-led legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court to shield Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from arrest.

In years past, those votes might have solidified his reelection. This year, they became the top attack line against him—one that no amount of big-dollar donations could overcome. It took all of four minutes after the polls........

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