Anti-Israel antisemitic campaign rallies against Josh Shapiro

(JTA) — WASHINGTON — There are reportedly four frontrunners to be Kamala Harris’ running mate in her bid to win the presidency. Each has pro-Israel bona fides.

But only one, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, is facing a campaign to keep him off the ticket because of his stance on Israel. The stop-Shapiro push includes an article in a major left-wing publication, The New Republic, and a website and Twitter feed called “No Genocide Josh.”

Harris is set to announce her pick by Tuesday, when she will appear with her running mate in Philadelphia. The locale has fueled speculation that Shapiro could be the pick — and ramped up the effort to block him.

A victim of antisemitism?

Jewish and non-Jewish commentators, among them Democrats in Congress, say that Shapiro is being unjustly singled out because he is Jewish. That’s because all of the other candidates — Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly — also have pro-Israel records.

“There are several incredible options for vice president. The superb Governor of Pennsylvania, @JoshShapiroPA, is one of them,” tweeted Jewish California Rep. Adam Schiff, a celebrity among Democrats for his role in prosecuting impeachments and investigations of former President Donald Trump.

“Singling him out, or applying a double standard to him over the war in Gaza, is antisemitic and wrong,” said Schiff, who is comfortably leading in polls as he runs for Senate. “Don’t go there.”

Among those agitating against a Shapiro pick are the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that recently made anti-Zionism a litmus test in deciding whom to endorse. Jewish Insider also discovered that one of the organizers of the “No Genocide Josh” campaign is “Dear White Staffers,” a once-humorous social media feed that has been relentlessly critical of Israel since Oct. 7. The feed is run by a staffer for Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee, a member of the hardline left-wing “Squad” whose members are harsh Israel critics. 

Shapiro’s critics argue that even among the other contenders, he is especially outspoken in defending Israel and in decrying what he says has become a hostile environment for Jewish students on some campuses.

Shapiro “stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine,” David Klion, who is Jewish, wrote in The New Republic on July 24, in an article that helped spark the scrutiny Shapiro is facing. 

“It’s not just that he, like many Democrats, is an outspoken supporter of Israel,” Klion wrote. Shapiro has “done far more than most Democrats to attack pro-Palestine antiwar demonstrators, in ways that call into question his basic commitment to First Amendment rights.”

The people pushing against Shapiro, including Klion, insist that his Jewishness is not an issue. Some note their backing for other Jewish candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has been sharply critical of Israel. 

“It’s so fun that all criticism of him is immediately branded antisemitic, excited for years of this,” Klion tweeted sarcastically on Friday. 

He wrote a thread after the Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered an op-ed Shapiro wrote in his college paper in 1993, when he was 20, arguing that “Palestinians will not coexist peacefully” and are “too battle-minded” to make peace with Israel. Shapiro said in response that his views changed over the past three decades and that he has long supported the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. 

“The truth is left-wing Jews like me know this Type of Guy all too well, we know his whole deal, and we are not looking forward to him being the most famous Jew in politics,” Klion wrote. 

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said the issue wasn’t that Shapiro’s critics disagree with his stances but that they have attacked him personally on this issue while not directing similar fire at other like-minded candidates.

“They can criticize him on policy — that debate is healthy,” said Spitalnick, whose public policy group frequently works with progressive organizations. “But when it’s only the Jewish candidate being targeted with name-calling and personal attacks related to Israel, we need to be clear about how dangerous that is and not give cover to it.”

Yair Rosenberg, writing in The Atlantic, sought to dismantle the argument of the anti-Shapiro movement, saying that Shapiro’s positioning does not distinguish him from other contenders — all centrist white males, perceived to balance out a Black nominee who has been cast by the Trump campaign as an outspoken progressive (although Harris has, for most of her career, hewed to centrist positions, including on Israel).

“There are no viral memes against ‘Killer Kelly’ or ‘War-Crimes Walz,’” Rosenberg wrote. “Either the activists involved are extraordinarily lazy and never thought to investigate the other VP possibilities, or they think that Jews are uniquely untrustworthy.” 

Progressive activists have also taken issue with other parts of Shapiro’s record. He backed vouchers for private schools last year, and then walked his support back a degree, but has not fully regained the trust of teachers unions, a key Democratic constituency. He also brokered a deal while a state legislator to install a Republican speaker — a necessary compromise, he argued, while fellow Democrats reeled at a perceived betrayal.

Shapiro has been outspoken in blaming Hamas for the war and in advocating for a two-state solution. He has also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mishandled the war, calling him one of the worst leaders in the world. He has spoken out forcefully multiple times against campus protesters who disrupt the study of Jewish students and against pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have targeted Jewish-owned businesses, while upholding the peaceful right to protest.

Other contenders have said similar things. Kelly has favored using police to break up violent pro-Palestinian protests. He also attended and applauded Netanyahu’s speech last week to a joint meeting of Congress, when dozens of other Democrats opted to boycott or protest.  

He is a cosponsor of legislation aimed at combating antisemitism that pro-Palestinian critics say stigmatizes their activism. Kelly’s Jewish wife, Gabrielle Giffords, is a former congresswoman with longstanding ties to the pro-Israel community.

Walz flew flags in Minnesota at half mast after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres in Israel that launched the current war. He would not respond to activists who want him to divest from Israel. As a congressman, he attended conferences of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, saying he “looked forward” to them. 

“Israel is our truest and closest ally in the region, with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood,” he said in 2010.

Beshear was, in 2021, the first governor to officially adopt a definition of antisemitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and reviled by some progressives who say it conflates legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. He launched an antisemitism task force last December, and much of its focus has been on the antisemitism Jewish students say they face on campus.

Jonathan Chait, the New York Magazine columnist, wrote this week about the controversy and judged Shapiro a worthy pick — but said his record on Israel had a demerit the other contenders did not. 

Chait noted that Shapiro took a lead role in pressuring the University of Pennsylvania to force out its president, Liz Magill, after she said calls for genocide must be considered in context before deciding whether they broke school rules.

“The pile-on against Magill and her fellow presidents was ludicrous,” Chait wrote. “Shapiro jumped on the bandwagon to demand Magill’s resignation, undermining his credibility as a supporter of free speech and giving his critics legitimate grounds to question his good faith.”

What especially irks pro-Palestinian critics of Shapiro is how he has likened some pro-Palestinian activists to right-wing extremists, including the Ku Klux Klan.

“Shapiro made clear the low regard in which he holds pro-Palestine campus activists,” Klion wrote, linking to a New York Times story in which Shapiro said, “If you had a group of white supremacists camped out and yelling racial slurs every day, that would be met with a different response than antisemites camped out, yelling antisemitic tropes.” 

Shapiro has also repeatedly upheld the right to peacefully protest Israel’s actions — including in quotations in the same New York Times story — and routinely condemns Islamophobia when he criticizes antisemitism.

“It’s critically important that we remove hate from the conversation and allow people to freely express their ideas, whether I agree with their ideas or not,” he told the Times.

It’s unclear how much progressive criticism will factor into Harris’ choice. Shapiro’s proponents make the argument that as the popular governor of a must-win state, he has clear advantages. And he’s long had one constituency solidly behind him: Pennsylvania Jews.

“Of course, there’s a lot of speculation about my governor possibly being her running mate,” Democratic Rep. Susan Wild said on a virtual campaign call Friday to mobilize Jewish voters for Harris. “Who knows? I’ll be very excited if that’s the case. Although all of us in Pennsylvania will be a little bit sad to lose him as our governor. But I think he would bring a lot to the ticket, but that’s all I’m going to say.”