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Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is perhaps the top contender to be Kamala Harris’s running mate. But Shapiro would be an awful selection, with a history of alienating and antagonizing core party constituencies and caving to pressure on major issues.

By Abe Asher, Jacobin

As Vice President Kamala Harris decides who will join her on the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential ticket, one man’s name continues to loom over the debate: that of Josh Shapiro, the first-term governor of Pennsylvania and the odds-on favorite to land the role.

It’s a situation that has concerned a number of progressives, starting with those who believe Israel’s conduct in Gaza is an urgent moral crisis the Democratic ticket must be prepared to address in ways Joe Biden has not been. Shapiro, who is Jewish and has strong ties to Israel, has criticized Benjamin Netanyahu — a position now safe for even the most staunchly pro-Israel Democratic politicians — but he’s cheapened that criticism by both ceaselessly supporting Netanyahu’s war effort and denigrating those in his state who have spoken out against it.

josh shapiro speaks at a podium

None of this is new for Shapiro, who has over the course of his public life (and, it turns out, before it) shown alarmingly little regard for both Palestinians and First Amendment rights where Israel and Palestine are concerned. As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro backed a push to use the state’s anti–Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) law to punish Ben & Jerry’s after the company announced it would stop selling its ice cream not even in Israel proper, but strictly in Israeli settlements in Palestine that are illegal under international law. “BDS is rooted in antisemitism,” Shapiro wrote at the time. “I expect Commonwealth agencies with jurisdiction to enforce the Act.” Given the extent to which anti-BDS laws have been used as a blueprint by right-wing forces to attack everything from so-called critical race theory to climate action, the episode raised questions not just about Shapiro’s Israel politics but also about his willingness to embrace right-wing campaigns where he finds it personally convenient.

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