St. Paul Council President: No ‘Hardcore Zionist’ As Harris VP Pick

St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali warned Vice President Kamala Harris against picking a “hardcore Zionist” running mate – specifically Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro – as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president is preparing to make that announcement next week.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, is among those on Harris’ shortlist per media reports. 

Jalali wrote in the first of a series of social media posts on the platform formerly known as Twitter: “I’m just a lefty council president of a Midwest city but everyone in my world is saying Shapiro cannot be VP pick if this new POTUS candidacy wants to energize the base & win.

“Do not deflate our Democratic Party just as soon as you inflated it, by choosing a hardcore Zionist VP.”

According to an employee in the Ward 4 office, Jalali is out sick, but added that the council office would not reach out to her for comment because the posts were sent from her personal account, not her city account – despite her elected position being in both the Twitter/X bio and the post itself. Email sent to Jalali’s campaign e-mail and her city email addresses were not returned.

Her post was amplified by Minneapolis City Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury, who wrote: “Mitra said it best. Spent the weekend talking to Muslims, members of the Bengali community in MN. They’re conflicted but can be energized— if VP Kamala changes course from Biden on Gaza: clear commitments to permanent ceasefire, stop arming Israel, select VP who’ll uphold that.” 

Chowdhury, who represents Minneapolis’s 12th ward, was the author of the city’s ceasefire resolution, which passed in January. 

Shapiro was first elected to commonwealth-wide office in Pennsylvania in 2016 as attorney general, and in 2017, he helped lead the opposition to then-President Donald Trump’s “Muslim Ban.” He was elected as governor in 2022. According to recent reporting in the Forward, Shapiro’s once-close bonds with the commonwealth’s Arab community are being tested by his position on Israel.

“We can’t forget the genesis of this, but we also can’t ignore the death and the destruction that’s occurred in Gaza,” Shapiro told the Washington Post in March. “For those who are peacefully protesting, I support their right to do that and I’ll defend that, and I want to make sure they feel heard. And I think in Pennsylvania, they do feel heard.”

Three of the the mooted vice presidential candidates – Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – all have spoken publicly about their support for Israel.

According to Jewish Insider, Kelly – a retired Navy pilot and astronaut before his 2020 election – has visited Israel twice since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. On his first visit shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, he said at a press conference: “I will speak to members of Congress one by one if that’s what it takes to get Israel the munitions that you need to defend yourselves.

The report cited an NBC News appearance where Kelly said that aid to Israel could be conditioned if the country didn’t do more to protect Palestinian civilians.

Walz spoke publicly at the Oct. 10 community rally to support Israel at Beth El Synagogue, saying that there was “not an inch of space between the folks that are here tonight and their support of Israel and what’s right to be done.”

“What was evident on [Oct. 7] was the absolute lack of that humanity. The terrorism and the barbarism brought on – that’s not a geopolitical discussion. That’s murder,” Walz said. 

Walz referenced the Beth El rally in June at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas annual event. 

“Having been in that space at Beth El and just feeling trauma that could blot out the sun, there is still that sense of community, that sense of purpose,” he said. “It is important that this is a resilient community. But resiliency isn’t enough. We don’t want to have to be resilient, we’d like these things to be prevented.”

Ethan Roberts, the deputy executive director of the JCRC said that all three leading contenders have been strongly supportive of Israel’s right to self-defense, and all have publicly stood in solidarity with their respective states’ Jewish community during the current rise in antisemitism.

“All three hold positions on Israel and the Hamas War, which align with the direction set by the Biden/Harris Administration,” Roberts said. “For St. Paul Council President Mitra Jalali to claim that only Gov. Shapiro is unacceptable to be vice president is just one more example of the antisemitism which continues to infect too much of the political left.

“Apparently, it is not divisive when non-Jewish politicians such as Gov. Walz or Sen. Kelly hold mainstream pro-Zionist positions on Israel. However, when a Jewish elected official such as Gov. Shapiro holds those same mainstream pro-Zionist positions, which are also shared by most Jews, he becomes for the left the wrong kind of Jew who must be ostracized from the Democratic party and disqualified from holding national office.

“As a Jewish community, we refuse to be marginalized and tokenized by politicians who are more interested in driving mainstream Jewish voices from the public square and office, including that of the vice presidency, than bringing people together for the common good.”

(Editor’s note: On Wednesday night after this article initially published, Minneapolis City Councilmember Aisha Chughtai posted her support for Jalali’s comments on Twitter/X.)