Sanders Calls Israel’s Govt “Racist” Over Judicial Reform Issue; Says US Must Have Strings Attached to Aid

Sanders Calls Israel’s Govt “Racist” Over Judicial Reform Issue; Says US Must Have Strings Attached to Aid

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday called Israel’s government “racist” and suggested that there should be strings attached to US aid to Israel, according to a report on the Israel National News web site.

As a member of the Independent party, Sanders, 81, has consistently aligned himself with a Socialist world view and has often publicly associated with and offered support to such anti-Semitic elected officials as Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.  During his 2020 bid for the Democratic nomination for the White House he publicly appeared with New York Socialist leaning Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and had promised her a prominent position in his administration should he have clinched the nomination and had won in the general election.

Sanders has in the past, refused invitations from AIPAC to address gatherings and has offered scathing critiques of Israel.   Positing himself as an alleged champion of Palestinian rights, his sympathy and tacit support for Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations has raised eyebrows in legislative circles. One of his most vocal backers in the last presidential race was New York City based activist, Linda Sarsour, who has taken stridently anti-Israel positions and has been described by some as harboring anti-Semitic beliefs.

Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation”, Sanders was asked by interviewer Margaret Brennan if he thinks democracy is in peril in Israel. INN also reported that Sanders, who is Jewish and hails from Brooklyn, responded by saying, “I do. I am very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people.”

INN reported that he added, “And let me tell you something, I mean, I haven’t said this publicly. But I think the United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel. And I think we’ve got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can’t do it and then come to America and ask for money.”

When Brennan noted that the Biden administration has been very careful about criticism of the Netanyahu government, Sanders replied, “Well, I am not careful about it. I’m embarrassed that- that in Israel, you have a government of that nature right now.”

“You cannot give- if you have a, you know, whether it’s Saudi Arabia or other authoritarian societies, if a government is acting in a racist way, and they want billions of dollars from the taxpayers of the United States, I think you say, ‘Sorry, but it’s not acceptable. You want our money? Fine. This is what you got to do to get it,'” he continued, according to the INN report.

The report further indicated that Sanders had some choice worlds for AIPAC and said it “is not even just a pro-Israel group. This is a corporate PAC, sometimes getting money from Republicans, sometimes supporting extreme right-wing Republicans. So what really upset me very much is that in many of these primaries, we had great candidates, young people, often people of color, and yet AIPAC and other super PACs spending millions of dollars trying to defeat them. And as you may know, I tried to get the Democratic Party to pass a resolution that in Democratic primaries, super PAC money should not be allowed to be used.”

This is certainly not the first time that Sanders has excoriated Israel and falsely charged it with racism.

In May 2021, Sanders charged that the Israeli government has “overt racists” and once again said that the US administration should change its approach towards Israel.

Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” at that time, Sanders was asked about an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times in which he said the US must stop being an apologist for the Netanyahu government. The interviewer, John Dickerson, asked Sanders whether he thinks the administration is being an apologist for the Netanyahu government, INN reported.

“I think the United States has got to develop an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have to be pro-Israel, but we have to be pro-Palestinian. And I hope and believe the president understands that. And I was delighted to see that he is moving forward to try to rebuild with the international community, the destruction- rebuild Gaza after all of that destruction,” replied Sanders, according to the INN report.

In his May 14, 2021 op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times to coincide with the date that marks the birth of the modern state of Israel, Sanders wrote: “Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.” Sanders offered no tangible proof for his spurious accusations.

Dickerson then asked the Vermont Senator how one has an even-handed approach to terrorists who want to destroy Israel.

“Well, what you have got to do is also understand that over the years, the Netanyahu government has become extremely right wing and that there are people in the Israeli government now who are overt racists. You have in West Jerusalem people being evicted from their homes. Tremendous pressure on people within Israel, the Arab community, as well as Gaza. So you have a very difficult situation. You have Hamas, a terrorist group. You have a right-wing Israeli government, and the situation is getting worse. And all that I’m saying is that the United States of America has got to be leading the world in bringing people together, not simply supplying weapons to kill children in Gaza,” said Sanders, as was reported by INN.

Also in early 2021, INN reported that Sanders said that the United States should be able to determine how Israel uses the aid it gives to the state, and should restrict aid in response to moves that would undermine the peace process.

In 2020, he added his name to a letter by Democrats against Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

In 2019, Sanders caused an uproar when he told the J Street conference that the US should redirect its aid to Israel and give it to Gaza instead, INN reported. (Additional reporting by: Fern Sidman)