It’s been a tough week for Keith Ellison. Segments of the party establishment are mounting a campaign against his bid to chair the Democratic National Committee. The charges are that Ellison — a black Muslim and close ally of Bernie Sanders — is too politically radical and too critical of Israel.

Entertainment mogul Haim Saban, one of the largest individual donors to Democratic Party outfits, has gone so far as to charge that he is an anti-Semite.

Ellison’s sins? He once organized a delegation to the Million Man March and, as a law student more than two decades ago, defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and criticized Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians and alliance with apartheid South Africa. As a lawmaker, he has said that the viewpoints of Muslim and Arab-Americans, and not just those of Jewish-Americans, should shape US foreign policy in the Middle East. It was the latter comment that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) suggested was anti-Semitic.