Mike Anderson

We are not backing down. This election is not over. Our team is working across Mississippi to monitor the remaining ballots and protect the integrity of the process. We will see this through to the very end!

1/The Midterms and the US–Israel alliance. The midterm results sent shockwaves through the Israeli establishment. None of the worst-case assessments delivered to Jerusalem predicted a night this decisive for the Democrats and specifically for candidtes so critical of Israel. For Israel, it all comes down to the alliance with the United States: strategic cooperation and security aid, with the current MOU ending in 2028. What worries the security establishment most is not just that many candidates with an openly hostile line on Israel won. It is how the results are being framed: as a midterm that was a referendum on the relations with Israel. Senior Israeli security officials have told me many times that Israel's first security asset is the IDF, and its second is the alliance with the United States, which has grown stronger since 1967. Antisemites from all sides claim that alliance was built on money, foreign interests and conspiracy. In reality, it was built on two simple things: the value Israel proved during the Cold War, against the Soviets and their clients in a region dominated by America's rivals, and the deep popularity of Zionism among Americans. The Cold War is long over. America has pulled back somewhat from the world, and its competition with China is not being waged mainly in the Middle East. Israel's popularity in the U.S. is collapsing, driven by the Gaza war, Netanyahu's active push for war with Iran, and deeper currents of the American society that have little to do with Israeli policies. The people Americans elect are changing with it. Paradoxically, this proves the conspiracy theorists wrong. The alliance was never about foreign influence. It reflected elected officials representing what their voters believed. A few observations.