Dems launch a pro-Israel group

Prominent Democrats are launching a pro-Israel group to counter a drift away from Israel on the party’s left.

The Democratic Majority for Israel will be led by Mark Mellman, a longtime party pollster who has been active in the pro-Israel community. The group seeks “to strengthen the pro-Israel tradition of the Democratic Party, fight for Democratic values and work within the progressive movement to advance policies that ensure a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” Mellman said.

“Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel and we want to keep it that way,” Mellman told the New York Times. “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.”

More than half the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate has accepted the endorsement of J Street, a group that says it supports Israel’s existence but encourages robust criticism of its settlement policies.

Polls have shown declining support for Israel among younger Democrats. This year for the first time, two freshmen Democrats, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., have embraced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Leading Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have robustly criticized Israel, particularly its treatment of the Gaza Strip.

Joining Mellman in the leadership will be Jennifer Granholm, the popular former governor of Michigan; Henry Cisneros, a Housing secretary under President Bill Clinton; Ann Lewis, chief of communications under Clinton and a longtime leading supporter of Hillary Clinton; Todd Richman, a J.P. Morgan executive who is also a major donor to the party; Paul Begala, a former top Clinton adviser who has become a leading cable TV combatant for Democrats; and Shelley Berkley, a former congresswoman from Las Vegas.

The group plans to launch a political action committee to protect friendly Democrats from primary challenges; Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries,  a moderate who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives and who according to reports faces a challenge from progressives, said he welcomed the new group.