The Republican Jewish Coalition is targeting at least three members of the Democratic Party’s platform committee for having “extreme positions on Israel,” in an ad released Tuesday.
Arab-American Institute President James Zogby, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and racial justice activist Cornel West are each featured in the latest digital ads aimed at reaching voters in a handful of states between now and next month’s Democratic National Convention.
“These Democrats are attempting to hijack their own platform process and insert language that is unabashedly anti-Israel, effectively undermining official Democratic support for Israel, our closest Middle East ally,” RJC executive director Matt Brooks said in a statement. “Progressive anti-Israel Democrats are doing everything they can to destroy the pro-Israel consensus that has existed for the past 60 years.”
West and Ellison were both named members of the Democratic Party’s 26-member platform drafting committee by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders last month as part of a concession granted by the Democratic National Committee. They, along with Zogby, have been prominent critics of U.S. relations with Israel and vocal proponents of Palestinian rights.
In addition to releasing the ads, the RJC has called on Hillary Clinton to “denounce anti-Israel voices in her party” such as Zogby, West and Ellison.
“Israel must always be a bipartisan issue and sadly we’ve recently seen that historic bond between Israel and the Democratic Party erode and weaken,” Brooks said.
The ads use sound bites of West and Zogby criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and of Ellison calling Israel an apartheid state.
“Radical Democrat. Stridently anti-Israel. Hand-selected member of the Democratic platform committee,” a narrator states at the end of each ad.
