Alan Dershowitz. Photo: Maxine Dovere.

World-renowned law professor Alan Dershowitz told The Algemeiner on Sunday that he will not be leaving the Democratic Party, as he announced he would do in the event of a victory for Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison in Saturday’s Democratic National Committee elections.

Instead, he said — in the wake of former Labor Secretary Tom Perez’s victory over Ellison —  he will “remain and fight hard for it to move toward the center and away from the anti-Israel and far-Left trends” that have become dominant of late.

Dershowitz, a long-time and fierce defender of the Jewish state — and member of the Democratic Party — called Ellison’s defeat “a good sign that we can win, though it will not be easy.”

Still, he said, “I wish Perez had not appointed Ellison as his deputy. I consider Ellison to be disqualified, due to his association with Nation of Islam leader the Reverend Louis Farakhan; his denial that Farakhan is an antisemite; and because he opposed providing the Iron Dome missile defense system to Israel.”

Calling the Democrats’ trend toward the extreme Left “self-defeating,” Dershowitz nevertheless denied the suggestion that this is what ushered President Donald Trump into the White House. Still, he added, “The party should not be responding to its loudest, most radical voices, but rather address the concerns of its centrist base.”

He said that the Democratic Party he is aiming to restore is that of the late senators Henry “Scoop” Jackson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Ted Kennedy, and former President Bill Clinton.

In an op-ed on Friday ahead of the election, Dershowitz wrote that if Ellison is victorious,

I will quit the party after 60 years of loyal association and voting. I will become an independent, continuing to vote for the best candidates, most of whom, I assume, will still be Democrats. But I will not contribute to the DNC or support it as an institution. My loyalty to my country and my principles and my heritage exceeds any loyalty to my party. I will urge other like-minded people – centrist liberals – to follow my lead and quit the Democratic Party if Ellison is elected Chairman. We will not be leaving the Democratic Party we have long supported.  The Democratic Party will be leaving us!