Gretchen Whitmer’s struggle shows Democrats’ Israel problem isn’t going away

Democrats have an Israel problem that isn’t going away any time soon. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer illustrated why this weekend in a CNN appearance that had her dodging the actions of her fellow partisans.

At issue is the actions of Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, who is Jewish — and who has targeted eleven campus protesters from the University of Michigan, several of whom allegedly engaged in acts of violent obstruction against police officers charged with clearing their illegal encampment.

The blowback against Nessel’s decision to charge the protesters, seven of them with felonies, led to Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan to accuse her and her office of anti-Palestine bias:

We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest. We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.

Tlaib went on to call the encampment (which she visited in support of the protesters) “inclusive” “diverse” and “very loving.” You can assess the footage from the encampment clearing for yourself on that score. 

It would seem to be an easy issue for Gretchen Whitmer, who’s repeatedly attempted to position herself as a Midwestern moderate despite her authoritarian streak during Covid, to take a pro-law and order stance and decry any suggestion that her attorney general is motivated by Jewish priorities instead of the demands of her job. Instead, asked repeatedly by Jake Tapper about the issue, Whitmer dodged again and again.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt found Whitmer’s answer totally insufficient, tweeting: “@GovWhitmer, when your attorney general prosecutes people for violating the law, harassing Jews, and attacking police officers, it’s in the interest of public safety. When a congresswoman accuses the attorney general of prosecuting protestors simply because she’s Jewish, it’s bias.” Hours later, Whitmer issued a statement attempting a clean-up, defending Nessel and condemning “hateful rhetoric.”

Whether you agree with this frame of the issue or not, as a political matter Whitmer’s inability to support her attorney general and issue even a modest disagreement with Tlaib’s comments illustrate just how toxic the discourse about Israel is within the Democratic coalition. Whether Kamala Harris wins or loses in November, the attempt to play the “both-sides-ing” game is going to be a lasting problem for the left. Paralyzed by fear of their progressive flank, with their heightened culture of victimhood and hierarchies of privilege, Democrats are wrecking the formerly bipartisan nature of Israel’s status — and they’re well on the way toward turning it into yet another issue where partisan allegiance indicates where you stand. This is bad for the country, but it’s also bad for our alliance with Israel, and the ramifications could be dire.