With the Iowa caucus just days away, Democratic Majority for Israel’s PAC (DMFI) has launched a negative ad in the state targeting presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
The PAC has reportedly spent almost $700,000 to run a television spot that questions Sanders’ health (the Vermont Senator suffered a heart attack) and claiming that he’s not electable. “I do have some concerns about Bernie Sanders’s health considering the fact that he did have a heart attack,” says one person in the ad. “I like Bernie, I think he has great ideas, but in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, they’re just not going to vote for a socialist,” explains another, “I just don’t think Bernie can beat Trump.”
The ad does not mention Israel or Palestine at all.
DMFI was formed in 2019 by Democratic insiders and donors to stave off growing pro-Palestinian sentiment within the party. The organization has repeatedly attacked Sanders for alleged anti-Semitism within his campaign. If elected Sanders would become the country’s first Jewish president.
“I think for many months now, the consensus has been that he really didn’t have much of a chance at winning the nomination,” said DMFI president Mark Mellman in a recent interview, “We looked at the situation a couple of weeks ago and decided that assumption was no longer valid — that he really does have a chance to win the nomination. And we thought that would be bad for Democrats, in terms of our ability to defeat Donald Trump, and bad for the issues that we care about.”
Although DMFI has branded itself as a more liberal lobbying group than the average pro-Israel organization, it maintains close connections to to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Although members of the group have avoided talking about these links, a recent article by Alex Kane at The Nation points out that 11 of the 14 board members at DMFI have worked for, spoken at, volunteered with, or donated money to AIPAC. “It’s a rebrand for AIPAC, which has been losing progressives over the past decade,” IfNotNow national coordinator Emily Mayer told Kane.
Sanders campaign co-chair Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) sent out a tweet condemning the ad. “For a Democratic SuperPAC to attack health is beyond the pale of decency,” it read, “Imagine the outrage if a Dem group had run attack ads about FDR’s polio. Every Presidential candidate must denounce this & call for the ad to be taken down.”
For a Democratic SuperPAC to attack @BernieSanders health is beyond the pale of decency. Imagine the outrage if a Dem group had run attack ads about FDR’s polio. Every Presidential candidate must denounce this & call for the ad to be taken down. https://t.co/6BPZFbs3nT
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 29, 2020
DMFI is stacked with members of the Democratic establishment. In fact, board member Meghan Stabler was just Democratic National Convention Platform Committee by DNC Chair Tom Perez.
Congratulations to our distinguished Board Member @MeghanStabler who was appointed to the Democratic National Convention Platform Committee by Chair @TomPerez
A truly inspired choice of an inspiring woman
— Democratic Majority for Israel (@DemMaj4Israel) January 26, 2020
As the investigative reporter Alex Kotch pointed out on Twitter, DMFI co-chair Ann Lewis previously worked for Hillary Clinton and co-chair Todd Richman has been a fundraiser for Minnesota Senator (and current Sanders opponent) Amy Klobuchar, as well as the conservative West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
Co-Chair Todd Richman
-Managing Director at JP Morgan
-Fundraiser for Amy Klobuchar, Joe Manchin pic.twitter.com/wD64AfgS5Q— Alex Kotch (@alexkotch) January 28, 2020
DMFI’s concerns about the shifting views of Democratic voters are well founded. Recent polling indicates that a large majority of Democratic voters support conditioning aid to the country over its human rights abuses and that almost half of the Democratic voters who have heard of the BDS movement are supportive of it.
I don’t know if Bernie Sanders is the first Jew to run for president, or at least to be a leading candidate for president, but it’s pretty rich for people to attack Bernie Sanders because they want to support a corrupt, colonialist, explicitly racist foreign country rather than support an American co-religionist.
If Bernie Sanders won the presidency it would be one of the most inspiring, historically important moments in American history: the first Jewish president of the United States!
Not that I personally want Sanders to win–I think he’s a jerk, a crank, and too old, but those things are even more true of Biden (at least as regards the “jerk” part, in my humble opinion). But any eventual Democratic candidate who wins the presidency will be a relief after Trump’s blatant corruption. So, thanks, supporters of Israel, thanks for working to damage democratic candidates for president. If Trump wins reelection, the U.S. will go further down the tubes….
Israel’s puppets in the US, can be very vicious, will turn on their own if they do not toe the zionist line, and are willing to demonize any American leader who will criticize or stand up to, American leaders who are in the pockets of Israel’s lobbies, and the propaganda machine. This is yet another ugly display of paid for zionist propaganda. Why is Israel, an alien nation, putting out ads and interfering in America’s politics? We are not fools and we know exactly who this ad benefits. Are they afraid their aid will be cut off?
Will Americans be okay if an Iranian lobby put out such ads against Trump or a Republican?
Well, well. Any Palestinian American who has doubts about supporting Bernie Sanders should have those doubts dispelled by this news. It’s said that you can tell what a person is like by his friends – but also by his enemies!
I wonder what DMFI’s ads will say in the run-up to the general election if Sanders gets the Democratic nomination?
Many Jews are concerned that Sanders has accepted support from Congressmen Omar and Tlaib as well as Linda Sarsour.