The sheer size and geographic scope of the Republican wipeout Tuesday makes it hard to read anything definitive into the results beyond a nationwide repudiation of President Donald Trump (and his candidate selections). But whether or not any other factors were at play in the GOP bloodbath, the fallout will have a range of reverberations. Here are 6 takeaways that point to what comes next.

1. A significantly weakened Donald Trump doesn’t bode well for Netanyahu

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has been a longshot bet that keeps on paying off. It’s hard to overstate how significant Trump’s improbable wins in 2016 and 2024 were in bolstering Netanyahu’s domestic standing and giving him space to advance his regional agenda. Trump also served as a security blanket, leaving Netanyahu and his allies with a sense for many years that they didn’t need to worry too much about skyrocketing Democratic and international anger with Israel. 

In fact, there was even a hope in Bibi world that The Donald’s support could save Netanyahu from political defeat at home (and, to be fair, his 11th-hour endorsement may have). Whether Netanyahu holds on or chief rival Gadi Eisenkot succeeds in replacing him, Israel is entering uncharted territory. There is little chance that the combination of a weakened Trump and an emboldened Democratic Congress produces similar levels of support for aggressive action against Iran and its proxies, and other policies that a wide spectrum of Israelis see as crucial to their security.

2. Jeffries and Schumer have a massive headache coming their way

With Tuesday night’s Democratic wave, Hakeem Jeffries is on track to become Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and Chuck Schumer will likely get a second shot as U.S. Senate Majority Leader. These New Yorkers have longstanding ties to the pro-Israel community and are among their party’s strongest Israel supporters – putting them at odds with the growing number of congressional Democrats who want their party to take a much harder line against Israel. It won’t be long before members in each caucus are demanding concrete action, including meaningful limits on U.S. military sales.

Both Democratic leaders have ratcheted up their criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government in the wake of its war on Hamas in Gaza, but they have ultimately voted against various legislative attempts to punish Israel. This past April, Schumer was one of only seven Senate Democrats to vote against a pair of resolutions that together would have blocked the sale of D-9 bulldozers, widely used in military operations, and 1,000-pound bombs to Israel. In July, Jeffries voted against ending U.S. military aid to Israel, but the measure was supported by almost half of the Democratic caucus. As leaders of their respective chambers, Jeffries and Schumer will likely face immense pressure to bring more anti-Israel legislation to the floor and face much tougher scrutiny from the party base over continued support for Israel.

3. The impact of the anti-Israel vote was diluted

On the other hand, the massive Democratic victory dilutes the power of the anti-Israel lawmakers in Congress. Their numbers will grow, causing problems for party leaders trying to keep anti-Israel measures off the agenda. But they will remain a relatively small subset within a much larger Democratic majority that includes many moderates and Israel supporters.

Not only will anti-Israel lawmakers have less leverage over Democratic leaders, but their electoral victories will be harder to interpret as evidence of growing opposition to Israel when Democrats across the political spectrum benefited from the same wave.

4. John Fetterman just lost his juice

Just as the sizable Democratic House majority makes Jeffries less dependent on anti-Israel lawmakers in his caucus, the next Senate Majority Leader won’t need to rely on Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. For years, Fetterman has been driving fellow Democrats crazy with his cozying up to Republicans, with progressives especially upset over his die-hard support for Israel. Fetterman has even said that the one thing that could cause him to leave the Democratic Senate caucus would be his party turning decisively against Israel.

Had things broken differently, with Democrats grabbing a narrow 51-49 majority, Fetterman’s influence would have been hypercharged. Now, not so much. The Democrats no longer need him to keep control of the chamber. So Schumer, should he regain the majority leader role, will have to worry much less about keeping the party’s top pro-Israel cheerleader happy. In 2028, he’ll be up for reelection and highly unlikely to survive the Democratic primary.

5. AIPAC has not found a formula for success

A few years back, the leading pro-Israel lobby decided the best way to counter the initial anti-Israel rumblings in Congress was to jump deep into the campaign fundraising business. Hundreds of millions of dollars later, the number of Israel critics in Congress – especially on the Democratic side of the aisle – has grown, with a fresh batch on the way. Moreover, in many races, anti-Israel candidates and AIPAC critics managed to turn the lobby’s backing into a liability. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s seemingly impromptu announcement Tuesday that his administration would end aid to Israel after this year suggests that Republican backing for such support is dropping alongside Democrats’. And Tuesday’s results suggest AIPAC’s strong support for the U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran is out of step with the American public and many incoming lawmakers.

For all its money and political muscle, AIPAC has yet to find an effective response to the growing backlash against Israel across American politics.

6. It was a great night for Jewish presidential hopefuls

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff says he isn’t running for president in 2028. But that won’t stop the speculation from skyrocketing after his impressive reelection in Georgia – Georgia?! – with nearly 60% of the vote. More importantly, he probably just grabbed frontrunner status in the race to become America’s first Jewish president. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also registered a similarly sized reelection victory in a state that Trump won just two years ago, but Ossoff – a fierce Trump antagonist and, increasingly, a critic of Israel’s military actions – cemented his rock star status among Democrats this cycle and has demonstrated an ability to bridge the gap between younger progressives and more traditional liberals. 

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also cruised to reelection. Meanwhile in Michigan, moderate Elissa Slotkin – another senator and possible presidential hopeful (of course, which senator isn’t a presidential hopeful?) – may have at least propped open the door to some progressive support by campaigning hard for Abdul El-Sayed. All four have been highly critical of Netanyahu, with both Ossoff and Slotkin joining most of their fellow Democratic senators in voting in April for a curb on various weapons sales. Both senators have declined to label Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

Ami Eden is the CEO and executive editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s parent company, 70 Faces Media.

The haters, antizionists, antisemites, the intimidating protesters —  they are all driven crazy by the existence of the State of Israel. In London, Paris, New York, Toronto, in the entire diaspora. 

From 2015 to the present, the U.N. General Assembly has passed 187 resolutions against Israel and 90 resolutions against all other countries combined. 

Why “crazy”? Because for 2,000 years, almost all Jews lived in countries during golden ages where they were loyal and productive, but those times always ended. They thought they were home, only to discover that they were no longer welcome. They were uprooted and left to find a safe haven until it, too, was no longer safe. Others would decide the Jews’ fate. Always at the mercy of others. 

And now, there is a Jewish state. Jews prayed for 2,000 years for a return to their homeland, a place where Jews belong. After a Holocaust! After all the fevered efforts to erase Jews from the Earth. 

The Jews are back! And not just back. With a rebirth, on their ancestral soil, speaking the language of their forefathers and mothers, praying the same prayers: it’s a nightmare for those who were taught to hate and to believe the Jews were inferior and destined to disappear.  

Not just that: the Jews have an army, an air force, a navy and an intelligence service that is actually intelligent. And a thriving economy: Start-Up Nation. The Jews have created a thriving democracy in an area of the world where no other democracy exists. This is intolerable! It can drive an antisemite insane. It does drive them insane. No wonder there is vilification, demonization, fabrications about genocide and floods of malignant lies everywhere.  

The Jews have created a thriving democracy in an area of the world where no other democracy exists. This is intolerable! It can drive an antisemite insane. It does drive them insane. No wonder there is vilification, demonization, fabrications about genocide and floods of malignant lies everywhere.

The very existence of this thriving, successful, dynamic Jewish country must be delegitimized so that Jews can again become vulnerable and wander the Earth, begging for asylum as in the past.  That is why the rhetoric keeps getting more deliriously fevered. According to those committed to putting the Jews in their place, reducing them to dependents again, there never was a Holocaust. They deny the real genocide, documented and verified historically – the Holocaust – and, to add insult to injury, they accuse the Jews of committing a genocide in Gaza, a complete fabrication. According to the haters, the Jews weren’t persecuted throughout history, they are an apartheid state persecuting others. Reality is lost; history is denied; facts don’t matter. Whatever it takes to portray the Jewish State as illegitimate and unworthy of existence.

As Kathleen Hayes wrote in the Jewish Journal, the Trotskyites she knew, and later disavowed, rejected truth that did not support their claim and instead invoked a “higher truth” which fit their fixed narrative. This corrupted thinking is morally bankrupt, intellectually dishonest and loathsome but it soothes the conscience of the self-righteous and has been adopted by antisemitic woke culture. 

If Christianity and Islam are supremacist religions that have attempted to leave Judaism behind in the dust of history as an obsolete relic, Israel’s rebirth and success undermines their claim and challenges their view.

The persistence of Jew-hatred is no mystery. In her book “As a Jew,” Sarah Hurwitz reminds us that Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire, converted to Christianity, and it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity was not only a religion but a state power. The Jews’ position became greatly compromised. 

St. Augustine, in the first years of the Common Era, proposed that the Jews become subservient rather than killed. The Jews’ “Old Testament” would be interpreted as the basis for a superior “New Testament” and the Jews’ suffering and misery “would indicate that God is punishing them for rejecting Christianity.”  

Hurwitz also quotes the enlightened Christian theologian Gregory Baum, who wrote that “the church made the Jewish people a symbol of unredeemed humanity; it painted a picture of the Jews as a blind, stubborn, carnal and perverse people.” Author and historian James Carroll adds: “However modern Nazism was, it planted its roots in the soil of age-old Church attitudes and a nearly unbroken chain of Church-sponsored acts of Jew Hatred.” 

The Jews’ subsequent field of nightmares was well prepared long before the rise of Islam and Islamists. A thousand years of received thinking and official, sanctioned hatred will not disappear. 

Jew-hatred, of course, is not limited to Israel. In the final analysis, it is about Judaism and Jews wherever they live. 

Whether in the Diaspora or in Israel, Jews have become an obstacle to Christianity’s and Islam’s claim to preeminence.  It did not need to be. They could have understood that Judaism is the rock, the foundation on which their beliefs are founded, rather than competition in a zero-sum game. Except for those exceptional individuals whose great humanity saw in the Jew a common bond of humankind, the past 2,000 years were a tragic failure of western civilization.  

Whether in the diaspora or in Israel, Jews have become an obstacle to Christianity’s and Islam’s claim to preeminence.  It did not need to be. They could have understood that Judaism is the rock, the foundation on which their beliefs are founded, rather than competition in a zero-sum game.

Is there no remedy? Well, we still live in democracies. We do have friends who accept and even love their Jewish fellow citizens. We have agency and are far from powerless even in the Diaspora. We are not alone. Ironically, the largest pro-Zionist organization in the U.S. is Christians United for Israel. 

But we cannot afford to wait for the woke to awaken. Montreal, an epicenter of out-of-control antisemitism, has taken effective action, according to a writer in Canada’s National Post: “The Quebec government acted decisively by strengthening its secularism laws and making it clear that intimidation would not dictate public policy” as well as adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Jewish organizations took university administrations to court. In addition, they built alliances with Italian, Greek, Filipino, Hindu, Armenian and other communities. There are still serious challenges, but Montreal Jews are actively involved in change for the better. 

There are many organizations doing important work on behalf of the Jewish community. StandWithUs has launched a new legal program to support Jewish students; the Legal Forum for Israel will be training students to assist organizations and individuals fighting antisemitism around the world; the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF) informs and hosts many speakers and writers in person and online. These and other organizations, like EndJewHatred, need our support.

In addition, write letters to the editor, write and phone politicians. Take action. 

In the Diaspora and in Israel, we cannot turn back the clock and undo the harm that was done to us. But we can shape our own future. Israel is strong and resolute. So must we be.

Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Waterloo.

It was a big night for the Democrats and a very, very bad night for U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. But amid the wreckage left by the blue wave that flipped control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, members of the GOP aren’t the only big losers. Supporters of the U.S.-Israel alliance and those who worry about the surge of antisemitism that has swept across the globe over the past three years should be equally worried about the implications of the Democrats’ midterm victory.

The consequences of the Democrats’ return to power on Capitol Hill will be primarily directed at the Trump administration. But whatever that will mean for Trump’s ability to govern effectively in his final two years in office, control of Congress by a party that is now largely dominated by its intersectional left-wing will have a serious impact on the U.S.-Israel relationship as well as the battle against Jew-hatred.

Jews in denial

That will not be the message we hear from most Jewish Democrats. They will point to the exit polls that show Democrats winning their usual two-thirds of the Jewish vote, though we don’t know for sure yet whether that was also true in states like Michigan where their candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is an open antisemite.

They will also say that the leadership of the Democratic Party in both the House and Senate will remain in the hands of relative moderates like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who both speak of themselves as supporters of Israel. Though, especially in the case of Schumer, his longtime pose as the shomer or “guardian” of Israel in Congress has been largely conditional with the senator backing up efforts by his fellow Democrats to attack the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hamstring its efforts to defeat Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran and even downplaying the threat of antisemitism.

But as we saw throughout 2026, the moderates are no longer in control of the Democratic Party, especially where Israel is concerned.

As a result of primary wins across the nation, the composition of both the House and Senate Democratic caucuses has been materially altered. Progressives, including members of the Democratic Socialists of America and their left-wing allies will now be sitting in seats that were once held by traditional liberals.

Progressives dominate

That doesn’t just mean that the ranks of the far-left congressional “Squad,” which had already grown since its first four members were elected in 2018, will be increased. The swing to the left is being felt across the country amid a midterm election where Democrats made gains at every level of government.

What will this mean?

During the campaign, the primary theme of the Democrats largely centered on the economy. The rise in gas prices as a result of the ongoing conflict with Iran has hit voters across the board, but most of the pain is felt by those working-class voters who largely supported Trump and the GOP in 2024. Their defection to the Democrats seems to have gone well beyond the usual backlash against the party in power two years after it won the presidency and Congress.

But while dissatisfaction with the economy as well as a sense that Trump had not improved the lives of voters during the past two years may have won them the midterms, the winners will have other priorities once they are sworn into office in January.

As the primaries demonstrated, the two issues that are the main motivating factors for the party’s activists and their candidates are only tangentially connected to what enabled them to win. The organizing principles of the Democratic Party and its base are now opposition to enforcement of immigration laws and hostility towards Israel.

Trump has effectively ended the flood of millions of illegal immigrants that entered the United States during the Biden administration. That will likely remain the case even with a Democratic Congress. But we can expect them to try to use their control of Congress and government funding to end the deportations of illegals.

And it’s equally true that their priority will be to confront Trump.

That will mean attempts at impeachment of the president and members of his cabinet that will likely fail. But it will tie the administration up in knots, as was the case during the Democrats’ efforts to undermine Trump during the last two years of his first term. Even more important, control of congressional committees will give the ability to launch investigations of every department as well as members of the president’s family. Yet whether any of it leads to any tangible consequences for those put in their crosshairs, it will materially influence Trump’s ability to govern effectively or get anything done.

Targeting Israel

But along with that, the large number of anti-Israel Democrats elected by voters who have accepted lies about the war in Gaza will be trying to sever the relationship with Israel.

Democrats who were long considered “moderates” or even pro-Israel have been signaling over the course of the last year that they can no longer be relied upon to back a Jewish state under assault by Iran and its terrorist proxies. The reason is that they can read the polls that indicate those who identify as Democrats have turned upon Israel as well as the primary results that are sending anti-Israel leftists to Washington.

Rather than try to resist the base of their party and find themselves out of power, figures like Schumer are going along with the progressives.

During the campaign, that meant backing an open antisemite like El-Sayed. They feared being targeted by angry leftists. And now that the Michigan Democrat with links to the Muslim Brotherhood appears poised to join Schumer on the Senate floor while others with similar views enter the House, the same dynamic will be in play.

We already know that will lead to measures that will fundamentally alter the alliance with the Jewish state. That will mean sanctions on Israelis in Judea and Samaria — an effort that will be driven by acceptance of the false narrative about “settler violence.”

Military aid to Israel will also be targeted by the Democrats.

Trump may have thought he could forestall such efforts by announcing this week that the aid will now wind down by the end of the year and be replaced with a partnership rooted in joint efforts to research and develop weaponry.

In the long run, that is, as Netanyahu has actually been saying for decades, exactly what Israel needs. Doing so will enable the Jewish state to be less dependent on the United States and remove a major talking point employed by Israel-bashers. That’s in spite of the fact that almost all of it was spent in the United States and was as much of an aid package for American arms manufacturers as the Israelis. It’s also true that the amount spent on assistance to Israel is actually dwarfed by the aid that Europe gets via American participation in NATO that is part of the Pentagon budget rather than called “aid.”

Still, making this change abruptly rather than gradually, as Israelis who desire this shift wanted, will create a strain on their military at a time of war when it is already hard-pressed.

Mainstreaming antisemitism

What Trump and whoever winds up leading the next Israeli government need to realize is that the anti-Israel progressives are not really focused so much on ending aid so much as they are interested in severing the relationship altogether.

For one thing, that will likely mean efforts to stop the transition from aid to partnership. But the impact of congressional majorities that are overwhelmingly hostile to Israel will transcend the ongoing debate about the aid package.

It’s been clear for years that the Democrats have not only rejected any idea of a bipartisan consensus about the alliance but have been transitioning to being an anti-Israel party. But the 2026 results have produced more than just majorities that don’t want to aid Israel’s efforts to defend itself.

With the victories of figures like El-Sayed and others who were willing to spread blood libels about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza and who sought to anathematize the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby, we’ve gone well beyond arguments about military assistance.

A public square in which the sort of antisemitism that they spout is normalized is one that can fundamentally change the way that Jews interact with society. El-Sayed’s focus on AIPAC, which was echoed in other campaigns around the country, employed classic tropes of Jew-hatred. This will make it even harder for the dwindling numbers of pro-Israel Democrats to be heard or influence policy.

But it will also impact Republicans.

The majority of Republicans remain supportive of Israel and opposed to the left’s antisemitism that is driven by their acceptance of the toxic doctrines of the left about race such as critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism.

It won’t only be the antisemitic extremists of the far right who are influenced by podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens who will be speaking of the conflict with Iran as being the primary reason for the GOP defeat. There were other causes for the Republican catastrophe including Trump’s failure to adequately explain his decision to the American people, choosing terrible candidates in several states and general disillusionment with the administration.

But rather than just blaming Trump for his correct decision to go to war against an Islamist regime that is a threat to America, some will likely blame it on Israel.

That will likely undermine Republican efforts to resist the Democrats’ push to target the Jewish state. It will make it more difficult for them to join in efforts to push back against a tsunami of antisemitism that is making itself felt in every sector of society including academia, popular culture and the arts, as Trump has attempted to do.

The pendulum swings

Nothing is permanent in politics and the Democrats celebrating now should remember that. In the 21st century, the two parties have exchanged control of both Capitol Hill and the White House with increasing frequency. There is no telling now which side will be in a better position to win in 2028. The more the currently triumphant Democrats overplay their hand with their harassment of Trump and even their measures against Israel, the less likely it will be that they will win the presidency, especially if they nominate one of the increasingly dominant progressives who will be running.

The one thing that is certain is that the pendulum of American politics is always swinging.

Some Jewish liberals who appear deaf, dumb and blind to the way they are being marginalized along with the rest of the community may try to deny this or focus solely on their hatred for Trump. But there can be no disguising the fact that the midterms have delivered a devastating blow to supporters of Israel and a victory to those who wish to eradicate the Jewish state. That will make it all the more necessary for decent persons, whether Republican or Democrat, Jewish or non-Jewish, to redouble their efforts to fight back against the growing volume of antisemitic invective that has insinuated itself into so much of public discourse. 

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.