When the coloniser calls resistance terrorism
By Sayid Marcos Tenorio | MEMO | August 8, 2026
Throughout history, almost every national liberation struggle has been labelled “terrorism” by the powers exercising colonial rule or foreign occupation. This strategy is nothing new.
The British Empire branded IRA fighters in Ireland and EOKA guerrillas in Cyprus as terrorists. France portrayed Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) as a criminal organisation. The same happened to the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in Namibia, and even Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC).
History, however, vindicated these movements and condemned the colonial regimes that sought to perpetuate their domination.
This pattern reveals a constant: those who occupy a territory seek to strip the occupied people of any legitimacy to resist.
The dehumanisation of resistance is a colonial strategy. By labelling every resistance fighter a “terrorist”, attention is shifted away from illegal occupation, apartheid and the denial of self-determination, and redirected towards the reaction of the occupied people.
This narrative, however, encounters clear limits within international law itself.
From the United Nations Charter to Resolution 1514 (XV) on decolonisation and Resolution 2625 (XXV), which reaffirms the principle of peoples’ self-determination, the understanding has been consolidated that peoples subjected to colonial domination, foreign occupation or racist regimes have the right to struggle for their liberation.
Several subsequent resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly recognised the legitimacy of national liberation movements and acknowledged that such resistance may take the form of armed struggle, provided that it remains subject to the rules of international humanitarian law.
This is precisely why the international community has never automatically equated national liberation movements with terrorist organisations.
International humanitarian law regulates the manner in which armed conflicts must be conducted and imposes obligations on all belligerents, including resistance movements.
However, it does not eliminate the political and legal right of a people to resist occupation. Confusing these two dimensions serves only the interests of occupying powers, because it transforms a conflict of a political and legal nature into a mere policing matter.
The history of the so-called “State of Israel” itself exposes this contradiction.
Before 1948, Irgun and Lehi were regarded as terrorist organisations by the British government because of attacks such as the bombing of the King David Hotel and the assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte.
Years later, their leaders reached the highest levels of government, and Menachem Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. This demonstrates that the label “terrorist” often reflects political circumstances more than any permanent legal definition.
In the contemporary context, this debate remains highly relevant. Palestine continues to be recognised by the United Nations as a territory under occupation, while Western Sahara remains on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, awaiting the fulfilment of its people’s right to self-determination.
In this context, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which emerged during the First Intifada, and the Polisario Front, recognised by the United Nations as the representative of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara peace process, belong to the historical tradition of national liberation movements.
As with South Africa’s ANC, Algeria’s FLN, Namibia’s SWAPO, Mozambique’s FRELIMO and many other movements, both base their struggle on their peoples’ claim to the right of self-determination in the face of occupation or foreign domination.
This does not mean that every military action carried out by resistance organisations is automatically legitimate under international law.
The rules of international humanitarian law apply to all parties to a conflict and prohibit deliberate attacks against civilians, regardless of the cause being defended.
However, possible violations of these rules do not, in themselves, invalidate the legal legitimacy of the struggle for self-determination, nor do they automatically transform a national liberation movement into a terrorist organisation under international law. These are distinct questions, frequently conflated for political convenience.
There is no colonialism without resistance. There never has been.
The French Resistance against Nazi occupation, Vietnamese guerrillas, Algerian fighters, South Africans who confronted apartheid, African liberation movements, the Polisario Front and the Palestinian resistance all demonstrate that no people will indefinitely accept the loss of their land, sovereignty and dignity.
The real question, therefore, is not why resistance exists.
The question the world should be asking is why military occupations, colonial processes and regimes that deny entire peoples the right to determine their own destiny continue to exist.
As long as there is colonisation, apartheid, illegal annexation and denial of self-determination, there will be armed resistance movements.
And international law, despite political pressure and attempts to criminalise liberation movements, continues to uphold the fundamental principle that the freedom of peoples is not an act of terrorism, but a fundamental right of humanity.
Bipartisan Senate bill ties LAF funding to Hezbollah disarmament
Al Mayadeen | August 8, 2026
US Senators Jeanne Shaheen and James Lankford introduced legislation late on Thursday authorizing $1.2 billion in security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces over five years, with the funding structured around a condition that the Lebanese state actively disarms Hezbollah and enforces a state monopoly on weapons.
The bill sets an annual allocation of $240 million, including $200 million through Foreign Military Financing. Up to half of that amount would be withheld until the US Secretary of State certifies that Lebanon has met the disarmament and weapons monopoly conditions, though LAF special operations units and associated enabling forces are exempted from the freeze.
The legislation also authorizes sanctions, including asset blocks, financial restrictions and visa bans, against foreign persons who support Iran’s financing of Hezbollah or who obstruct the Lebanese state’s disarmament efforts.
A separate reconstruction fund under the bill, administered by the State Department, would rebuild government services, municipal institutions and civilian infrastructure. It explicitly bars funds from reaching the Council for South Lebanon, the state body with the most experience in building and rebuilding infrastructure in the South.
Sovereignty conditioned on US certification
Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that Lebanon has “a real chance to reclaim its sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and break free from Iran’s malign influence” with US support. Lankford said a “sovereign Lebanon protects Lebanese, Israeli, and American citizens living in the region.”
Despite its alleged aim of restoring Lebanese sovereignty, the bill gives the US Secretary of State, rather than the Lebanese government or LAF command, the authority to assess the Lebanese Armed Forces’ performance. It also leaves the definition of who qualifies as “obstructing” disarmament, and therefore subject to sanctions, to the same US determination.
Both sponsors have received financial support from pro-“Israel” PACs over their careers. OpenSecrets records $574,295 in career contributions to Shaheen and $365,560 to Lankford from PACs and individuals in its broad pro-“Israel” donor category, which spans AIPAC alongside J Street, NORPAC, Pro-Israel America and other groups; a separate tracker counts $284,002 in pro-“Israel” PAC contributions to Shaheen since 2016, more than three-quarters of it from J Street PAC.
Not a marginal movement
The bill, like the broader US disarmament push it builds on, treats Hezbollah as a foreign-directed militia to be dismantled rather than as an outgrowth of Lebanon’s own political and social fabric.
Hezbollah holds seats in parliament and remains one of Lebanon’s largest political and social organizations, with a base that extends well beyond an armed wing.
Its financial institution, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, continued paying out depositors through Lebanon’s 2019 banking collapse, when commercial banks froze accounts and locked account holders out of their own savings. The group also runs hospitals, clinics and schools concentrated in the South and Bekaa, areas that have received limited investment from the Lebanese state for decades.
Hezbollah is a symptom of both an expansionist settler-colonial project on Lebanon’s southern border and a Lebanese state that has never built a national defense strategy capable of securing the South on its own. It emerged directly from “Israel’s” 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the nearly two-decade occupation of the South that followed, and the group has framed its arsenal since as a deterrent against a state that has invaded Lebanon repeatedly and continues to occupy Lebanese territory and attack areas of the South under the current ceasefire.
A fraction of what ‘Israel’ receives
US funding to the LAF has fluctuated between roughly $200 million and $285 million annually in recent years, following a $230 million package approved in late 2025.
The pending FY2027 defense authorization draft in the Senate would cut that to $36 million, tied to a stricter recertification process every 90 days. A separate House bill, the PAGER Act, would cut off all LAF funding entirely pending eight conditions, including the delegitimization of Hezbollah, Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc and Amal as political parties; it remains stalled without a floor vote.
By comparison, the Israeli regime receives $3.8 billion annually in US military financing under its current ten-year agreement, plus $21.7 billion in supplemental funding since October 2023, with none of the equipment restrictions applied to Lebanon.
Egypt and Jordan each receive over $1 billion a year under multi-year agreements that provide budget predictability the LAF has never had.
The gap traces to the Qualitative Military Edge doctrine, codified into US law in 2008, which requires that any US arms sale to a regional state other than “Israel” include a formal determination that the sale will not erode “Israel’s” military superiority over its neighbors.
In practice, the LAF has never received air defense systems, advanced anti-tank weapons, or offensive strike platforms, regardless of the threat Lebanon faces on its southern border. The new bill does not alter that restriction.
Israel orders uprooting of trees on 316 dunums in West Bank for settlement expansion

MEMO | August 7, 2026
The Israeli military has issued eight orders to uproot trees and remove vegetation from 316 dunums of land across the occupied West Bank for settlement-related purposes, the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) said on Thursday.
A dunum is equivalent to 1,000 square metres.
In a statement issued on Thursday evening, the Palestinian government body said the orders require the removal of wild vegetation and olive trees from land identified in attached maps.
The eight orders cover a total of 316.636 dunums. Six of them target about 311 dunums in the northern governorate of Jenin, while the remaining two apply to the Nablus governorate and occupied East Jerusalem.
The commission said the vegetation clearance does not target isolated farmland but areas alongside main roads, expanding Israeli control on both sides of the roads and causing direct damage to olive trees and neighbouring agricultural land.
It warned that the Israeli authorities are using the orders to facilitate the establishment of settlements, saying the measures are intended to prepare the land for settlement infrastructure while restricting landowners’ access to and use of their property.
According to the commission, Israel has issued 59 orders since the beginning of 2026 to remove tree cover from 2,480 dunums of Palestinian-owned land. It added that around 60,000 dunums of Palestinian land have been seized during the 1,000 days of the Gaza war, which began on 8th October 2023.
Palestinians warn that such measures are paving the way for Israel to formally annex the occupied West Bank, which they say would undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state as envisaged in relevant United Nations resolutions.
Rome talks fail as Israeli artillery rains death on Lebanon
Press TV – August 7, 2026
The seventh round of US-brokered negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have concluded in Rome without any breakthrough, marked by Israeli forces unleashing their most intense artillery barrage on southern Lebanon since the signing of a controversial framework agreement in June.
As diplomats met at the US Embassy in Rome, Israeli artillery and warplanes pounded Lebanese villages with increasing ferocity.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) recorded 120 projectiles fired by Israeli forces between midnight and 4 p.m. on Thursday alone—surpassing the previous day’s total of 113 and marking the highest single-day figure observed since June 21.
UNIFIL described the escalation as the “sharpest” surge in Israeli military aggression since the announcement of the US-mediated trilateral framework in late June.
Crucially, UNIFIL reported that it did not detect any projectile launches by Hezbollah during the period, underscoring the one-sided nature of the ongoing Israeli violence.
The framework agreement signed in Washington on June 26, which the talks in Rome were ostensibly meant to implement, has been condemned by broad swathes of Lebanon’s political class as a national catastrophe that compromises Lebanese sovereignty while extracting no binding commitments from Israel.
Critics point to the agreement’s fundamental imbalance: Lebanon is required to deploy its army to “pilot zones,” dismantle resistance infrastructure, and verify disarmament—all before Israeli forces begin their gradual redeployment.
No binding timetable exists for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly presented the agreement as an achievement for Israel, a framing that has intensified the backlash in Beirut and reinforced the view that Lebanon has made outrageous concessions without securing even an immediate ceasefire.
Lebanon’s prominent Mufti, Ahmad Qabalan, declared the agreement the “worst national catastrophe” in Lebanon’s history, asserting that it effectively grants the Israeli military a form of guardianship over the Lebanese army and implicitly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over occupied areas.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has described it as “a humiliation, a disgrace and a surrender of sovereignty”.
Even the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the largest Christian parties and not traditionally aligned with Hezbollah, has warned against “surrendering to Israeli demands”.
The Rome negotiations, held over three days including two days of intensive meetings at the US Embassy, failed to produce any tangible progress.
Sources close to the negotiations said the sessions, the seventh round overall, were divided into three tracks—military, political, and legal-border—but yielded no clear results.
While negotiators talked, Israeli forces intensified their assault on southern Lebanon with devastating effect.
On Wednesday alone, Israeli forces fired 113 projectiles into southern Lebanon, with 77 of them striking the town of al-Mansuri and surrounding areas. On Thursday, the bombardment increased to 120 projectiles in just 16 hours.
The Israeli military issued urgent evacuation warnings to residents of al-Mansuri, forcing families to flee their homes.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and several injured in an explosion in the al-Mansuri area on Wednesday, reportedly after forces entered a facility ahead of a planned demolition.
UNIFIL confirmed it did not directly observe the explosion but noted the subsequent Israeli evacuation order.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that eight civilians were injured in Israeli airstrikes on the town of Burj al-Shamali near Tyre on Thursday.
Israeli warplanes also flew at low altitude over the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and the northern region of Akkar, with drones maintaining continuous flights over the capital.
Since March 2, when Israel escalated its military aggressions in Lebanon, the attacks have killed 4,333 people, injured 12,250 others, and displaced more than 1 million Lebanese citizens, according to Lebanese Health Ministry figures.
Israel’s negotiating position, as reported by sources familiar with the humiliating talks, is to preserve its military’s freedom of action as long as Hezbollah “continues to pose a threat”—a determination Israel makes unilaterally.
Israel has refused to agree to any operational restrictions until Lebanon fully implements its commitments under the framework agreement.
This position effectively grants Israel a perpetual veto over Lebanese sovereignty, with the Israeli military retaining the right to strike Lebanese territory at will, even as Lebanese forces are expected to disarm and dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure.
The Lebanese government, led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, has defended the negotiations as an assertion of independence. But critics argue that in practice, the agreement has only deepened Lebanon’s subjugation to Washington’s agenda while providing Israel with diplomatic cover for continued aggression.
The next round of talks is tentatively scheduled for September 1.
IOF obstruct Lebanese Army entry into al-Mansouri, wound soldier

Al Mayadeen | August 7, 2026
A Lebanese Army soldier was wounded on Friday as Israeli forces escalated efforts to block the army’s entry into the town of al-Mansouri in the Tyre district, attacking personnel and equipment with artillery and drone strikes, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.
The soldier was wounded when a stun grenade was dropped by an Israeli drone onto an army bulldozer as it worked to clear roads and remove rubble in the town. Israeli artillery also shelled the town on more than one occasion throughout the day.
Lebanon’s National News Agency had reported that overnight into Friday, Lebanese Army units entered al-Mansouri and began reopening roads blocked by the latest Israeli attacks, working to facilitate the return of residents displaced by the aggression.
Attacks on Tyre, Bint Jbeil districts
Elsewhere in the Tyre district, Israeli forces set fire to the Wadi al-Salouqi water station near the Shaqra junction, while IOF artillery shelled the Zibqin valley at dawn.
In the Bint Jbeil district, Israeli occupation forces carried out a controlled demolition in the town of Hadatha, continuing a pattern from the overnight hours, when occupation forces had already carried out a controlled demolition in the same town at around 3 am.
Israeli forces additionally carried out a sweep from Hadatha toward the outskirts of Aita al-Jabal, advancing military vehicles near the area before withdrawing back toward Hadatha, according to local sources.
Israeli forces separately carried out a controlled demolition in the town of Kounine, also in Bint Jbeil district.
Along the border with occupied Palestine, Israeli artillery shelled the town of Mays al-Jabal, and Israeli forces opened machine-gun fire toward the town of Beit Yahoun. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent further reported that the IOF set ablaze several houses in Houla.
“Israel” also continues to violate Lebanese airspace, whereby an Israeli drone was also seen flying over Beirut and its southern suburb.
Israeli media: Hezbollah acted independently of Iran
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, citing a senior security source, reported that Hezbollah made its own decision to rejoin the fighting, without direction from Iran, seeing it as a chance to break the pattern of Israeli assassinations and attacks against the party.
Israeli military officials told the paper that the Lebanese Resistance had been preparing to return to war, viewing the prospect of a broader war on Iran as an opening to do so.
According to the senior security official, Iran gave Hezbollah no such order; if anything, Tehran simply understood the precarious position Hezbollah found itself in. The official revealed that Hezbollah had reached its own conclusion that it could no longer keep absorbing Israeli attacks without striking back, as it had done for the 15 months since the ceasefire took effect.
Al-Mansouri under repeated attack
Friday’s events mark the latest chapter in a mounting Israeli campaign against al-Mansouri specifically.
On Wednesday, Israeli warships had targeted the town, with the sound of explosions reaching Tyre, while Israeli warplanes separately struck it in airstrikes. That escalation followed an Israeli “evacuation” order instructing al-Mansouri’s residents to move at least 1,000 meters north of the town, the first such warning issued since the ceasefire took effect in April.
The same day, Israeli drones bombed the nearby Burj al-Shamali area three times in succession, wounding eight people, and Israeli forces carried out a controlled demolition in Hadatha as artillery shelled the vicinity of the Ali al-Taher hill, Majdal Zoun, and the outskirts of al-Mansouri and Hanniyeh.
Talks continue in Rome while ‘Israel’ offers no concessions
The attacks continue as Lebanese and Israeli officials held a seventh round of direct talks in Rome, described by Al Mayadeen’s correspondent as the “most difficult round” yet.
While the US State Department called the talks “fruitful” at the technical level, the Lebanese presidency has said no response has been received from the Israeli political level on committing to the ceasefire, and has ruled out the likelihood that “Israel” will approve a proposed new “pilot zone” in the south.
The Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc condemned the continued negotiations with the Israeli regime as a policy of “submission, surrender, and humiliating negotiations,” calling for the talks to end amid the ongoing aggression.
The bloc highlighted that Lebanese officials were meeting with Israeli representatives in Rome even as occupation forces continued to “kill, shell, bulldoze, and destroy” across the south, pointing to the threats and forced evacuation of al-Mansouri’s residents as further evidence of what it called the authorities’ “miserable choices.”
Ceuta and immigration as a hybrid warfare weapon
By Raphael Machado | Strategic Culture Foundation | August 6, 2026
In the past week, images of tens of thousands of Moroccans—at least 60,000—invading the Spanish city of Ceuta, breaking through the border barriers with Morocco, took over social media. The autonomous city, which has only 80,000 inhabitants, had to deal with attempted home invasions and various other crimes by the invaders, who were then confronted by security forces and some self-organized groups of citizens.
These 60,000 invaded Ceuta all together, and some images and videos on social media show trucks dumping immigrants near the Spanish border. Photos revealed Moroccan police officers trying to prevent some invaders from returning to their own country. Still, thanks to the action of Spanish security forces and citizens, most of the invaders appear to have already returned to Morocco—and many of them did so voluntarily shortly after entering Ceuta.
The case had a great global impact, especially in Europe, with several governments reinforcing their own borders and Italy recommending that Spain be removed from the Schengen Area.
Several aspects of this event are noteworthy, however.
First, to lay the groundwork: contrary to the many “progressives” who sympathized with the invasion under the argument of “decolonizing” Ceuta, the reality is that Ceuta is not a colony. The city was conquered by Portugal in 1415, passed to Spain in 1580, and since then it has been an uninterrupted Spanish possession. But even the period before 1415 is linked to Europe. Let us recall that from the year 40 to the year 709, Ceuta was governed, in succession, by the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, and the Visigoths, until it was conquered by the Arabs—who, let us also remember, are also foreign invaders in North Africa. After that, Ceuta changed hands several times between Arab and Berber kingdoms until, as already mentioned, it was conquered by Portugal in the context of the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula after 700 years of Moorish military occupation and to put an end to Mediterranean piracy.
To speak of returning Ceuta to its “true owners,” therefore, makes no sense. If Spanish rule over Ceuta is illegitimate, then all territorial changes, expansions, conquests, and occupations on the planet over the last 600 years are illegitimate.
Nevertheless, Morocco claims Ceuta (as well as Melilla) on rather dubious grounds. First, for the reasons already pointed out. Second, because Morocco as a state is quite recent, being less than 100 years old, and has never owned Ceuta or Melilla. This is not Morocco’s only dubious territorial claim; after all, its government also claims Western Sahara, which has been fighting for its independence for decades. Western Sahara is supported by Algeria against Morocco, while Spain defends the completion of the territory’s decolonization and the granting of at least autonomy to the region.
Only two countries in the world, however, recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara unconditionally: the USA and Israel.
It is difficult, therefore, not to start connecting the dots between the recent events in Ceuta and the entire recent panorama of tensions between Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish government and the governments of the USA and Israel. Spain, under Sánchez, has been the most vocally critical country of Israel, especially during the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Furthermore, the country did not allow the U.S. to use its territory to carry out attacks against Iran. As a result, Spain earned the enmity of both countries, which have been making veiled threats for some time now.
A few years ago, even Benjamin Netanyahu’s son made a social media post recommending that Muslims take Ceuta and Melilla.
Another factor that may have influenced this crisis is the fact that in July of this year, Spain and Algeria resumed normal diplomatic relations after several years of rupture. Moreover, Spain decided to increase imports of Algerian gas, as well as putting other possible joint projects on paper. Algeria, as we have pointed out, is a geopolitical enemy of Morocco, just as Spain is.
It is necessary, however, to point out that Sánchez and the Spanish judiciary are also partially responsible for the migration chaos. A few months ago, Sánchez legalized more than 1 million illegal immigrants, in practice demonstrating that invading Spain pays off. Spain’s Supreme Court, in turn, prohibited authorities from carrying out summary expulsions of immigrants who arrived in the country by boat. For all intents and purposes, the decisions of the Executive and the Judiciary facilitated the work of agencies that promote migration.
By embracing cosmopolitanism, Sánchez and the Spanish elite have made the country an easy target for the use of migratory flows as hybrid warfare weapons—because that is what this is about. It is time to overcome the humanist naivety that sees mass immigration as a humanitarian phenomenon in which victims of imperialism flee desperately in search of a better life.
In fact, migratory flows as seen in Europe over the last 20 years are clearly artificial, and considering Israel’s role in promoting “diversity” and even the action of Israeli NGOs helping immigrants reach Europe, it is difficult to ignore the agents who wield this instrument.
60-DAY HORMUZ ARRANGEMENT CONFIRMED BY TEHRAN & OMAN — w/ Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi
Mario Nawfal | August 5, 2026
AIPAC spends $30m but fails to stop El-Sayed in Michigan
MEMO | August 5, 2026
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has suffered a major electoral defeat after Dr Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, crushing pro-Israel congresswoman Haley Stevens despite an unprecedented spending campaign on her behalf.
AIPAC’s super political action committee, the United Democracy Project, spent more than $30 million promoting Stevens and attacking El-Sayed, according to Federal Election Commission filings analysed by the New York Times. NBC News projected El-Sayed as the winner on Wednesday, dealing a major blow to the pro-Israel lobby’s efforts to determine the outcome of one of the most closely watched Democratic contests in the country.
El-Sayed campaigned against US military assistance to Israel and repeatedly highlighted AIPAC’s intervention in the race. Stevens, by contrast, received the backing of AIPAC and the Democratic Party establishment.
The result is seen as providing some of the clearest evidence yet that association with Israel and its powerful lobby groups is becoming a political liability among Democratic voters as opposition grows to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the unconditional support it receives from Washington.
A New York Times investigation published before the primary result was announced revealed the scale of AIPAC’s transformation from a traditional lobbying organisation into one of the largest spenders in US elections.
Spending by AIPAC-affiliated political action committees on campaign advertising and voter outreach has more than doubled in less than five years, rising from $29.3 million to $67.2 million. Much of the money has been directed towards Democratic primaries, where the lobby has sought to defeat candidates who criticise Israel or question US military assistance to the occupation state.
However, the investigation uncovered a striking feature of AIPAC’s campaign strategy: it rarely reveals its connection to Israel.
Between April 2022 and the end of July, AIPAC-funded groups produced 109 television and digital adverts. Only six mentioned Israel. Instead, the adverts focused on issues such as abortion rights, the economy and the cost of living, despite being financed specifically to elect politicians who support Israel.
AIPAC’s reluctance to mention Israel is seen as a reflection of a deeper political problem: open association with the Israeli government has become increasingly toxic following the mass killing, displacement and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
The lobby is effectively asking voters to support Israel’s preferred candidates without making Israel itself part of the public argument.
AIPAC has also channelled approximately $22 million into five smaller super PACs with innocuous names that make no reference to Israel. These include Elect Chicago Women, Affordable Chicago Now!, Voters for Responsive Government and Blue Wave Action.
The Michigan contest became the lobby’s largest gamble. United Democracy Project spent more than $10 million promoting Stevens and over $20 million attacking El-Sayed through advertising and voter outreach.
Nevertheless, El-Sayed prevailed.
El-Sayed’s victory is thought to be particularly significant because Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab-American populations in the US and became the centre of the “Uncommitted” movement, which challenged former President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Signs of the political backlash were already visible in April when Stevens and another AIPAC-backed politician were booed during the Michigan Democratic Party Convention. El-Sayed and his former primary rival, Mallory McMorrow, had both pledged to reject AIPAC funding.
AIPAC has previously succeeded in removing several prominent critics of Israel, spending millions of dollars to defeat former Democratic representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. It has also targeted Republicans who questioned US military support for Israel.
However, the lobby has faced a growing number of defeats. Summer Lee survived repeated AIPAC-funded attempts to remove her, while candidates in Illinois and New Jersey successfully used their opponents’ links to the lobby against them.
Polls have also documented a rapid decline in support for Israel. A majority of Americans now oppose providing economic and military assistance to Israel, while Democratic voters have become increasingly critical of both Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the influence of pro-Israel lobbying organisations.
Abdul el-Sayed defeats AIPAC-backed rival in Michigan primary, defying millions in lobby spending
The Cradle | August 5, 2026
Abdul el-Sayed, a former public health official, has won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, defeating AIPAC-backed Representative Haley Stevens in a close race, NBC News reported on 5 August.
Sayed won despite being heavily outfunded, with outside groups pouring close to $65 million into the race to stop him.
More than $30 million of the television advertising behind Stevens came from a group affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
Taken together, Stevens and her allies outspent Sayed and the groups supporting him on advertising by a factor of nine to one, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Sayed pointed to the imbalance in his closing argument, saying during a debate, “If you need a $60 million crutch, you probably can’t be elected on your own terms.”
He also went after Stevens’ support for aid to Israel, and stated outright that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a position that carries particular weight in Michigan, home to large Muslim and Arab communities.
Sayed made Stevens’ backing from AIPAC and corporate political action committees a central charge against her, attacking both the funds she accepted directly and the advertising her big-spending allies bought on her behalf.
Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, ran with the backing of the Democratic establishment, positioning her campaign squarely within the party leadership alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsed her on 24 July in a late move seen as an attempt to stifle Sayed’s rise. Outgoing Senator Gary Peters, whose seat is at stake, also endorsed her after deciding not to seek a third term.
Despite the cumulative hurdles, Sayed’s victory follows a run of defeats for AIPAC-funded candidates in Democratic primaries this cycle.
On 30 June, Democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st congressional district by nearly 10 percentage points, ending a 30-year congressional career built in part on well over $1.6 million from AIPAC.
A week earlier, in New York, Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman after attacking his refusal to call the assault on Gaza a genocide or to back restrictions on arms sales to Israel, while Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated Adriano Espaillat in a campaign centered on his acceptance of AIPAC money.
A senior House Democrat called the Colorado result a wake-up call, with support for Israel turning from an asset into a liability. Strategist Jon Paul Lupo told POLITICO that candidates opposing the war on Gaza held a massive political advantage this cycle.
Pew Research Center polling released in April found 60 percent of US citizens now view Israel unfavorably, with very unfavorable sentiment nearly tripling since 2022, while a Gallup poll in February recorded more US citizens sympathizing with Palestinians, at 41 percent, than with Israelis, at 36 percent – the first such result in US history.
El-Sayed Wins Michigan Democratic Primary for Senate

Al-Manar – August 5, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive public health advocate, has won the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, overcoming more than $60m in campaign spending, mostly from pro-Israel groups, NBC has projected.
The result on Tuesday represents an enormous blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which led the way in the effort to defeat El-Sayed, backing his opponent, US Congresswoman Haley Stevens, with more than $30m.
El-Sayed will face former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November. The race is considered one of a handful of competitive Senate contests in the November midterms and could determine which party controls the chamber for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.
If El-Sayed – who is of Egyptian descent – wins in November, he would become the first Muslim senator in US history.
Tuesday’s result in Michigan – a swing state that voted for Trump in 2024 – will have major implications for the Democrats’ policies on conflicts in the Middle East.
El-Sayed recognizes Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as a genocide and argues that money spent on conflicts that benefit ‘Israel’ should be invested in local communities in the US to address healthcare, housing and infrastructure problems.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a non-partisan advocacy group that does not endorse candidates, called El-Sayed’s victory a “big deal”.
She said voters “did not buy” the avalanche of ads that did not talk about policies and only launched negative attacks “about an Arab American Muslim man named Abdul”.
I followed up on this story, because some were sceptical and didn’t believe it was real or possible, and loudly insisted it was fake. One man who fancied himself an expert because he likes to shoot a gun now or then claimed this was fake, impossible.

Modern medicine is built around costly, narrowly approved drugs that treat (but rarely cure) specific disease franchises, with regulatory approval correlating more strongly with money spent than with real therapeutic value.