During a town hall event with constituents earlier this week, Whitmer avoided answering questions about boycotts of Israel and her stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, an anti-Israel effort aimed at isolating the Jewish state and choking its economy.
Asked where she stands with respect to the BDS movement, Whitmer declined to take a stance, instead pivoting her remarks toward efforts to protect free speech. A cornerstone of BDS supporters' efforts to counter the pro-Israel community has focused on spinning these boycotts as a free speech matter.
Whitmer's reluctance to take a stand on BDS has raised concerns among some in the pro-Israel community, which has been fighting against a wave of far-left Democratic candidates who have openly criticized the Jewish state and opposed the United States' close alliance with Israel.
Questions surrounding Whitmer's stance on key pro-Israel issues have been compounded by 2009 tweets from her running mate, Garlin Gilchrist, supporting Hamas and belittling those who kiss "Israel's ass."
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Whitmer's running mate, Gilchrist, has a history of railing against the Jewish state.
In at least three separate tweets from January 2009, Gilchrist threw his support behind Hamas and accused pro-Israel supporters in the United States of "kissing Israel's ass."
"I'm suck of politicians and Evangelicals kissing Israel's ass regardless of what they do in the name of ‘defense' [sic]," he wrote in one missive.
"Obama speaking could be the signal the beginnig of a new American approach; an end to the ‘Israel-can-do-no-wrong' approach, [sic]" Gilchrist wrote in another.
"Hamas is a legitimately elected party that only rose to power b/c of Israeli aggression & Western complicity/enablement," he stated in a third tweet.
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