U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. | AP Photo/David Zalubowski Israel-Palestine tensions ripple through Democratic Party chair races

Top Jewish fundraisers and activists in Florida have a message for the politicians who want to lead the Democratic Party: Support for the Palestinian cause at the expense of Israel is politically toxic.

In the nation’s biggest swing state — home to a diverse electorate and large Jewish community — few issues have torn at the fabric of party unity recently like the past stances on Israel taken by Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and former Miami state Sen. Dwight Bullard.


As Ellison pursues a bid for Democratic National Committee chair and Bullard seeks to lead Florida Democrats, state and local party leaders are getting increasingly nervous about tensions between two key Democratic constituencies — Jews and African-Americans. Already, the race for state party chairman is marked by behind-the-scenes threats and racially charged rhetoric; one backer of Bullard said his treatment by Jewish critics amounted to a virtual “modern-day lynching.”

Ellison, who would be the first Muslim Democratic National Committee chair if elected, has been so hamstrung by his past support for Palestinians that he began releasing statements of support from Israeli and Jewish supporters. And in a surprise move, Ellison last week endorsed Bullard’s Miami rival, Stephen Bittel, a DNC finance chair who is Jewish.

But it’s not enough to move critics who see him and Bullard as existential threats to the party and nation.

“If we elect the Dwight Bullards and we elect the Keith Ellisons to leadership rolls in our party, the Republicans are going to make significant inroads in the Jewish community,” said Michael Moskowitz, a staunch South Florida supporter of Israel who estimates he raises about $1 million every election cycle for Democrats.

“The Democratic Party will just be going in the wrong direction on this issue if we do this. And so will our nation,” Moskowitz said. “With all the turmoil in the Middle East, Israel is our only true democratic ally.”

Moskowitz and other donors say they’ll withhold support for the local, state and national parties if either man wins a leadership spot. And as Donald Trump tries to make inroads in the Jewish community by adopting a hawkish position on Israel, many Democrats say the twin candidacies of Bullard and Ellison aren’t something the party can afford.

Ellison has faced persistent criticism over controversial comments he made in the past — from once comparing former President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler to long ago defending Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan. The 53-year-old Ellison, who was a law student when he spoke favorably of Farrakhan, said he didn’t “adequately scrutinize” the religious leader’s positions.

In early December, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt released a statement saying his organization had "serious concerns" about the prospect of Ellison serving as DNC chair given his past statements. Democratic megadonor Haim Saban — owner of Spanish-language powerhouse Univision and Jewish — also called Ellison an "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel person."

In the face of the barrage against Ellison, Sen. Chuck Schumer, J-Street, MoveOn.org's Ilya Sheyman, and a member of Israel's Knesset released statements stressing Ellison’s support of Israel and a two-state solution.

Ellison’s backers say he’s the victim of a smear campaign and some privately say that, had he been a white Christian, he wouldn’t be so pilloried.

"There's not five votes to lose for having the position that Keith Ellison has had on issues related to Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East, et cetera," said James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute and a DNC member-at-large supporting Ellison. "There's just not any votes there to lose. What there is is noise to make and the perceived threat that this will cost the DNC money. But I've been down this road before. I remember when the party would not deal with Arab Americans at all."

The Democratic drama over the future DNC chair and that of the Florida Democratic Party only deepened last week when Labor Secretary Tom Perez jumped into the race last week, posing the strongest threat to Ellison’s position as the frontrunner.

With Perez in, Ellison faced a fresh round of questions about where he is on Israel and Palestine that dogged his candidacy. Ellison then endorsed Bittel in the Florida race, but Bittel has yet to return the favor.

In Florida, Bullard for months has played defense over his position on the Middle East, which became a campaign issue in his Miami-area state Senate race — a race that he lost. After that defeat, he lost a local party contest two weeks ago. And, insiders say, he’s likely to lose another local party race Tuesday to Bittel. The winner can qualify to run for state party chairman.

Bullard’s trouble began this summer when activists pointed out to reporters that he traveled to Israel with a group called the Dream Defenders, which is allied with the Black Lives Matter movement and criticizes Israel on its website for “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians in 1948. They pointed out Bullard met with Haneen Zoabi, an Israeli Knesset Member and Palestinian activist who once called Israeli soldiers “murderers.” And he sat down with Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement against Israel. Bullard, who is Christian, was one of the only state senators to vote against an anti-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions bill in the Florida Legislature before reversing his position early this year.

“A number of folks called me concerned over my committee vote,” Bullard told the Miami Herald. “For the sake of not being the thorn in anyone’s side I decided to vote for it on the floor.”

To a local TV station, NBC6-Miami, Bullard stressed that he’s “pro-Israel, but I'm also pro-Palestine in that people can co-exist. ... My position is co-existence."

Bullard won his Democratic primary, but he was quickly attacked for the trip by a political committee for Florida Senate Republicans. Fundraising was also difficult for him. And he lost his general election to Republican rival, state Sen. Frank Artiles.

A friend and ally of Bullard’s, Leslie Wimes, felt the party's treatment of Bullard was so shoddy that she penned a column last month in the conservative Sunshine State News with the title “The Lynching of Dwight Bullard.”

“OK, I get it. Some Jewish people are upset with Dwight Bullard,” wrote Wimes, who heads a group called the Democratic African American Women Caucus. “Exactly what is it that you want? Bullard hanging from a tree? Bullard tied up and whipped? What exactly will make you happy?”

When Ellison decided to endorse Bittel over Bullard, it amounted to a betrayal for Wimes and other supporters. Like both men, Wimes backed the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also Jewish. Ellison and Bullard are African-American as well.

Bittel, the establishment candidate allied with the Hillary Clinton wing of the party, is a top donor who has hosted President Barack Obama at his home and backed former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents such a heavily Jewish district in South Florida that she nearly voted against the president’s Iran deal as party chair. Bullard, running as the grassroots pick, has received the backing from the political committee that grew out of Sanders’ campaign. Sanders also supports Ellison in the DNC race.

That made Ellison’s endorsement of Bittel so surprising to so many.

“I support Stephen Bittel’s campaign because I believe that the future of the Florida Democratic Party is built on effective field campaigning, raising the resources to win down ballot and statewide races, and recruiting top flight candidates who recognize the strength of the party apparatus,” Ellison said in a statement issued by Bittel’s camp. “We need to do deep organizing to win and Stephen gets that.”

Though the issue of Israel wasn’t mentioned at all in his statement, Democrats say Ellison’s endorsement had a lot to do with his views on the Middle East.

“It was a brilliant move,” said Mitch Ceasar, a South Florida Democrat who sits on the DNC’s executive board and is undecided in the race. “In reading the things I’ve read and in hearing people talk about Israel, this came as a complete surprise.”

Fueling the Democratic tensions surrounding the twin campaigns of Ellison and Bullard, Ceasar said, was a simple fact: “We’re still angry with what happened in the election. We don’t know what happened. Many of us are in the anger stage of grief. Democrats are still in mourning.”

“We’re still sitting shiva,” Ceasar said, referring to the Jewish custom of mourning a death of a loved one.

The internal party rage, though, is taxing. Miami-Dade’s Democratic chairman, Juan Cuba, took to Facebook last week and implored his members to be civil: “Democrats, we can debate about the future of our party without demonizing one another.”

Evan Ross, a Miami-Dade Democratic Party member and consultant, said he’s not angry and has no personal animus toward Ellison and Bullard.

“But when I hear their [Bullard and Ellison] position, it’s not going to get my support or the support of the Jewish community,” Ross said. “It’s toxic in the Jewish community, which has a long history of supporting the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.”

As if the hangover of November’s loss wasn’t bad enough, bringing in the Middle East conflict is just too divisive for DNC members like Joyce Cusack. A former Florida state House member who served with Bullard’s parents in the Florida Legislature, Cusack worried that some of the opposition might be steeped in race.

“I don’t know what he has done as it relates to Jews,” said Cusack, who is African-American. “A lot of folks are bothered by an Afro-American running for chair.”