The Jewish Independent Vermont US Senator has also gotten into it with the group in public….
Sen. Bernie Sanders drew the ire of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its supporters after he announced he would not attend the lobbying group’s annual conference because he said the organization gives a platform for “bigotry.”
Sanders – who now leads the presidential pack in delegates after wins in Nevada and New Hampshire – has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and derided Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “racist” during a Democratic debate in December.
“The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people,” Sanders tweeted Sunday. “I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference.
“As president, I will support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians and do everything possible to bring peace and security to the region,” he added in a second tweet….
image…foxnews.com
insulting Israel…. praising Fidel Castro for “literacy programs”.. it’s like he wants to lose Florida by double digits and drag all sorts of Democrats down with him…
Meanwhile, Bloomberg, for all his faults, would probably be a solid favorite in Florida, thus rendering a second term very difficult for Trump based on that, but Democrats seem to think that “crowd size” will matter more in this campaign.
Sanders is pro-Israel, but unlike you he is not morally indifferent to Palestinian rights. Sanders is just not pro-Likud.
J Street is also pro-Israel; would you call a candidate who wouldn’t address J Street of being anti-Israel ?
I don’t know whom AIPAC has invited onto its platform, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them suffered from anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian bigotry. And at least some case can be made that even Benjamin Netanyahu might fall into that category.
“J Street” is a newer, fringe liberal group that is *much* smaller than AIPAC.
AIPAC is well established and has a history of bipartisan support. Sanders never distances himself from the people associated with his campaign with documented history of anti-Semitism so it’s pretty amazing that the extreme left pressures candidates like Sanders and Warren to denounce AIPAC. Most mainstream Democrats will continue to support AIPAC, but Democrats become less mainstream by the day.
In fact, of the 18,000 members of AIPAC, the overwhelming majority of them would be Democrats.
Diversity of opinion in regards to the U.S.-Israel alliance has always been welcomed as part of AIPAC.
The extreme left has no such tolerance and seem willing to divide and destroy their own party in the name of ideological purity.
Hey CG?
Many IN Israel have the SAME view as Sanders….
I don’t know what you consider Sanders’ view to be.
We are in the United States and anybody who does not support the U.S./Israel alliance is far out of the mainstream. If he wants to be the nominee of the party, he ought to go to AIPAC and speak his mind and explain his views. The vast majority of the audience will be Democrats.
Any Republican who would skip appearing before the NAACP or Urban League or any sort of audience where the crowd might be hostile would be rightly criticized.
I agree he SHOULD go there…
But Bernie IS a LOT like Trump…
He’s my way or the highway….
We are willing to criticize India’s Modi for his Hindu agenda, but at least India is not a Hindu state – certainly not to the extent that Israel is a Jewish state or Pakistan is an Islamic state.
People need to speak out when there is injustice. And Sanders willing to speak out against Netanyahu makes me proud to be a Democrat. If Republican candidates for example are indifferent that blacks are treated unfairly by the criminal justice system, then they shouldn’t feel obligated to speak in front of the NAACP.
We should be careful with the comparisons too, because certainly Donald Trump is a lot more popular in Israel than he is the U.S. and among Israeli Jews than American Jews.
Nonetheless, if Sanders is the Democrats’ nominee, the party will receive a lower percentage of Jewish support than in generation.
(while with Bloomberg would probably surpass all records)
Most JEWS ARE Democrats….
Bernie isn’t…
He’s more a Democrat than a Jew at this point.
Independent – Socialist who pimps Democrats and they allow it because of the US Senate numbers….
and because so many Democrats vote for him and want to vote for him.
In fact my view ion Israel is the same as Sanders….
He still don’t get my vote….