Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) has endorsed Shontel Brown in Ohio’s 11th district congressional race. This week they sent an email out to their supporters, attacking candidate Nina Turner for being a critic of Israel.
“The stakes in this race are high,” reads the email. “One of Brown’s opponents, Nina Turner, has been labeled ‘fully anti-Zionist’ by her allies and refuses to join some 95% of House Democrats in condemning the BDS movement, whose founders believe Israel should not exist in any borders. Turner also recently endorsed placing new conditions on U.S. aid to Israel — an idea Joe Biden labeled ‘terrible’ and ‘outrageous.’ She was also a leader of the (unsuccessful) effort to move the Democratic Party platform in an anti-Israel direction.”
“What’s more, Turner literally compared voting for President Joe Biden to eating ‘half a bowl of shit!,” the email also points out.
DMFI was established by Democratic party insiders and AIPAC alumni in 2019 for the expressed purpose of stomping out growing pro-Palestine sentiment within the party. “Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel and we want to keep it that way,” DMFI president Mark Mellman told the New York Times back then. “There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem.”
Despite Mellman’s assertion, there are numerous polls showing that a majority of Democratic voters support conditioning aid to Israel over its human rights abuses. There’s even recent polling that shows the BDS movement is becoming more popular among Democrats, despite almost universal opposition from elected officials.
Rep. Marcia Fudge has served Ohio’s 11th district since 2008, but she’s expected to be confirmed as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development soon. There are currently five candidates running for the seat, and Turner has an early fundraising lead. Turner is a former Cleveland City councilwoman and an Ohio state senator who rose to prominence in recent years as a result of co-chairing Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. DMFI ran ads attacking Sanders during the primary and tried to take credit for the Vermont Senator ultimately dropping out of the race.
Turner supports conditioning aid to Israel and, although she hasn’t come out in support of the BDS movement, she also has not condemned it. “From a foundational perspective, it’s just a free speech issue for me,” she told Jewish Insider recently. “I haven’t taken it any further than that.”
In contrast to Turner, Brown opposes conditioning aid and claims that the BDS movement “uses antisemitic rhetoric.” In 2018, she toured Israel with an AIPAC-connected group. “It gives you a much greater and tangible and realistic appreciation for the vulnerability of this state,” she told Jewish Insider. “Admittedly, I was eager to go to see the holy sites,” Brown added, “but really kind of got equally enamored by the energy and the bustling democracy that was on display before me. It was really a sight to see.”
The election is expected to take place in May depending on the date of Fudge’s confirmation.
There is no doubt about it. The only way to send a strong message to Israel is to make sure they are boycotted and sanctioned. No amount of reasoning, peace talks, or condemnation, will work. They are brazen in their crimes, and shameless in their land theft. They prefer the status quo.
Shame on these Democrats or should we say Israel firsters. This is zionist supporters openly interfering in US politics, and doing what they know best – attack Americans who have the spine to stand up to their threats, harassment, and who refuse to support these criminals. It looks like the MAGA party of thugs have taken a leaf from these zionists, they also now resort to insults, attacks, and threats. I see the same vicious tactics.
Have deep respect for Nina Turner. She is not afraid of speaking the truth and takes no prisoners. Will be sending a few bucks to her campaign and encouraging as many people as I can to do the same!
Support the truth…Support Nina!
“metastasize”
Mellman compares critics of Israel to a cancer!
How can any black American endorse Israel, it would like endorsing the white rightwing Afrikaans of the old South Africa, it would be spitting in the face of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Muhammad Ali and even Gandhi. How can anyone support Apartheid, the genocide of the Palestinian people, the worlds largest concentration camp?
It is a sick and horrific joke of how the Jews are doing the same to the poor Palestinians as what the Nazis did to them 80 years ago. .‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ this is how we resist, this is how we support our brothers and sisters, how we show them they are not forgotten, we must boycott ALL who support Israel and its vile human rights abuses.
No surrender, No compromise, Until Palestinians are TOTALLY free again in the state of Palestine (From Lebanon, Syria, Jordon and Egypt, it will be.
“…the BDS movement, whose founders believe Israel should not exist in any borders.”
This talking point gets me every time. It’s shameless projection from the same organizations that don’t believe and actively prevent a state of Palestine from existing within any borders! Israel exists. It has for more than 70 years. Period! There is only one organization that doesn’t believe, and completely prevents another nation (Palestine) from existing at all within any borders and that organization is the State of Israel, with endorsement from the Congress of the United States.
These organizations are not afraid that BDS will by some miracle prevent Israel from “existing in any borders”, they’re afraid that Israel will face any and all consequences of their state-sponsored Apartheid and 70 years of human rights abuses.
If there were to be any meaningful US action or legislation that sanctioned or boycotted Israel for said abuses, these organizations would be in a world of trouble across the spectrum from financial to public relations. These pro-Israel money and influence machines aren’t afraid that BDS is an existential threat to Israel, they’re afraid that BDS is an existential threat to THEM! And there in lies their rabid attacks against BDS and those any politician open to the idea of accountability and non-violent mechanisms to pressure Israel.