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February 20th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
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.
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