Criticism of Israel by Sanders splits Jewish American vote

[خره مينه لګته وي]

A SUPPORTER of US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
holds a sign which says ‘Jews for Bernie’.​

NEW YORK : When Bernie Sanders called Israel’s response in the 2014 Gaza war disproportionate and urged America to be more balanced on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he smashed a presidential campaign taboo.

His remarks at the April 14 Democratic debate ahead of New York’s decisive primary on Tuesday amounted to unprecedented criticism of Israel and promotion of Palestinian rights from a canvassing US presidential candidate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not right all of the time”, said the Vermont senator. “We cannot continue to be one-sided.”

He criticised Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton for not saying that she would do more to promote Palestinian rights when she addressed the powerful right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby in Washington in March.

“If we are ever going to bring peace to that region, which has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity,” Sanders said.

Sanders, who is the only Jewish presidential hopeful this year, has lived in Israel.

In other countries the remarks would have been considered run of the mill, said Daniel Sieradski, national organiser of the group ‘Jews for Bernie’ which has 8,000 supporters on Facebook.

“But because the discourse in American Jewish politics has been pulled so far to the right in the last couple of decades, Bernie is being made to sound like some anti-Israel extremist.”

During the last contested Democratic New York primary in 1992, it might have been political suicide, The New York Times wrote.

Sieradski disagreed. “I don’t think it’s political suicide,” he said. “But it definitely didn’t help him among people who have hard-line views on Israel.”

‘Breath of fresh air’

He said Jewish Americans make up 20 per cent of the New York electorate. The majority of them are Democrats, meaning that air-tight support for Israel has long been considered a campaign must.

But Sanders words reflect changing attitudes among Jewish voters, particularly millennials who grew up seeing Israel as a strong state and for whom the horrors of the Holocaust are more removed.

Democrat Sharon Goldtzvik, 29, said she was “really excited” to see a presidential candidate bring up the issue of Palestinian dignity.

She founded and runs Uprise, a non-profit focused on human rights issues in the Middle East. Goldtzvik has lived in Israel, is married to an Israeli, and describes Sanders as “a breath of fresh air”.

“I’m under 30. People in my cohort were not willing to accept that there is only one way to support Israel, so I do think that he represents the views of many, many Jews and a growing number of Jews.”

According to a Pew Research Center poll, 35 per cent of Democrats thought Israel had gone too far in its response during the 2014 Gaza.

Sanders has “at least opened up the discourse so the conversation can shift in the Democratic Party, and that’s a big deal,” said Sieradski.

Polls show that Sanders trails Clinton 40-60 per cent among Jewish Democrats in New York City, and 13 points behind his opponent on a state-wide average.

‘Losing anyway’

Documentary film-maker Gaylen Ross is voting for Clinton and believes she is the candidate best able to negotiate a two-state solution.

“Frankly if that’s the kind of language that he comes to a negotiating table with he is already 10 steps behind,” she said. “You don’t play

your hand before you get to the table and you don’t play your hand before you get to a national election.”

Sanders suspension of his Jewish outreach director for referring to Netanyahu in vulgar terms also signals a lack of experience or suggests he is not informed, Ross said.

Sanders was the only the candidate who declined to speak at the AIPAC event in Washington on March 21. He also told the New York Daily News — mistakenly — that he thought more than 10,000 civilians were killed in Gaza in 2014.

Howard Graubard, a New York lawyer active in Democratic politics in the state, does not expect Sanders to suffer much at the ballot box “because he was going to lose anyway”. It won’t alienate his progressive Jewish supporters, but his criticism of Israel gives Orthodox and right-wing Zionist Democrats, who feel little enthusiasm for Clinton, a reason to get out and vote.

“They’re nominal Democrats and need a motivator,” Graubard said. “People are being emailed, flyers will be going up this weekend, there will be phone banks, and the message about Bernie

and Israel is going to pull those people out to vote.”

Source : Dawn

 

[Red-Bull]

stupid leftist, the jihadis will exploit his weakness to their advantage should he ever become president, good thing he has no chance to even get the nomination.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Bernie himself is a Jew and most Jews in the US dont even support Israel.

 

[Red-Bull]

Bernie himself is a Jew and most Jews in the US dont even support Israel.

where did you get that from ?

there is a minority ultra orthodox community who rail against "zionism" but to say that most American Jews don't care for Israel is laughable.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

where did you get that from ?

there is a minority ultra orthodox community who rail against "zionism" but to say that most American Jews don't care for Israel is laughable.

Hey, I live in the US and half of the pro-Palestine protests are just regular Jews.

 

[Red-Bull]

Hey, I live in the US and half of the pro-Palestine protests are just regular Jews.

not surprising considering that most Jewish people in the US traditionally support the democrats but I still find it hard to believe an extreme leftist like Sanders could come to power.

 

[Steve781]

where did you get that from ?

there is a minority ultra orthodox community who rail against "zionism" but to say that most American Jews don't care for Israel is laughable.

American Jews are the most liberal group in the country. Completely the opposite of Israeli Jews, who are very conservative.

 

[Natan]

Grandsons of Sanders are Christians, Trump's grandsons are Jews.

 

[anon45]

Sanders isn't the cause of the split, its been splitting for a while now. Israel simply isn't seen as the end all for Jews by many American Jews and Israeli values and priorities have been shifting from the priorities and values of American Jews (and vice versa). That's not to say Israel doesn't still have alot of influence in the older Jewish community, but the upcoming generation is simply less sympathetic to Israel's situation.

That said Its a virtual impossibility that Sanders will win the nomination, he is already out by any historical metric and New York and the following states will just cement it mathematically (short of SuperDelegates voting against the crowd, and given the other side is Hillary, they won't).

Clinton afaik is the best candidate for Israel, and I firmly believe she will win this election, but the gap between American and Israeli Jews will likely continue to widen though barring a sea change event.

 

[Meengla]

Sanders isn't the cause of the split, its been splitting for a while now. Israel simply isn't seen as the end all for Jews by many American Jews and Israeli values and priorities have been shifting from the priorities and values of American Jews (and vice versa). That's not to say Israel doesn't still have alot of influence in the older Jewish community, but the upcoming generation is simply less sympathetic to Israel's situation.

That said Its a virtual impossibility that Sanders will win the nomination, he is already out by any historical metric and New York and the following states will just cement it mathmatically (short of SuperDelegates voting against the crowd, and given the other side is Hillary, they won't).

Clinton afaik is the best candidate for Israel, and I firmly believe she will win this election, but the gap between American and Israeli Jews will likely continue to widen though barring a sea change event.

A nice summary in barely a few short paragraphs! I fully concur with all of your points.

Indeed, the youth of America is going to be part of the uniquely American melting pot and I believe most of youth--even Muslim second/third generation--will integrate--into a more 'leftist' voice.

PS. I am a strong Bernie supporter. In 2000, I supported Nader. I am a leftist. I hate Trump but I hate Cruz even more. I dislike Hillary but I too believe she is gonna be the next US President. Yes, she will be the best for Israel unless, by some miracle, Cruz wins. But even Hillary is not going to be as 'friendly' to Israel as, say, Obama or GWB have been.

 

[anon45]

A nice summary in barely a few short paragraphs! I fully concur with all of your points.

Indeed, the youth of America is going to be part of the uniquely American melting pot and I believe most of youth--even Muslim second/third generation--will integrate--into a more 'leftist' voice.

PS. I am a strong Bernie supporter. In 2000, I supported Nader. I am a leftist. I hate Trump but I hate Cruz even more. I dislike Hillary but I too believe she is gonna be the next US President. Yes, she will be the best for Israel unless, by some miracle, Cruz wins. But even Hillary is not going to be as 'friendly' to Israel as, say, Obama or GWB have been.

I'd think she'd be more friendly than Obama, but less than GWB. as for why? She has the history. She is the moderate democrat, some even call her the 'conservative' democrat. Socially she is very liberal but I don't think she is going to try to break the mold on foreign policy like Obama has done, there won't be any Nixon going to China moment. At least the Idea won't be coming from her.

The analysis I've seen paints her as following the 'traditional' foreign policy rulebook.

She will stick to traditional US allies and try to cultivate relations to some extent with countries Obama has set the groundwork for (Cuba particularly), but she won't really stick her neck out like Obama.

She will likely be somewhat more Hawkish than Obama in her responses.

Israel couldn't really ask for more.

This is the sense I get from her.

 

[Vassnti]

Sanders Clinton or even Obama arent the cause of the split, people arent falling out of love with Israel, they are falling out of love with Likud. Bibi has managed to piss off most of Washington and now is working on the rest of America.

"As Presidents Johnson and Nixon soon learned, the Israelis did not keep their word. But under Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud alliance, the Israeli government is no longer holding up its end of the larger, unwritten bargain with the United States.
That bargain goes something like this. For decades, American administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, have been committed to safety and security of the Jewish State. So committed, in fact, that the United States will guarantee its survival and provide it political air cover with the international community even in many cases where Israeli policy clearly runs counter to American national interest. In exchange, the United States asks only three things in return:
1. Stay out of American partisan politics. American support for Israel is bipartisan. It will stay that way unless Israeli governments start picking sides in the United States.
2. Don't embarrass America and don't get Americans killed. By now, most Americans assume Israel will act in its own national interest, often at the expense of our own. All we ask for our $3 billion in aid each year is that Israel at least try not to embarrass us too much internationally and avoid getting us killed. Of course, Israel will--and should--decide if its thinks reducing Gaza to rubble or managing continuous violence through the indefinite occupation or annexation of the West Bank represents its best path to safety and security. Just don't expect us to defend it indefinitely in words or actions.
3. Don't raise questions about the loyalty of American Jews. No foreign power has a moral claim to the loyalties of any group of Americans. Israel is no exception. As it turns out, support for greater Israel to the banks of the Jordan River may be a litmus test for U.S. evangelicals, but not for American Jews themselves.
But for decades now, Benjamin Netanyahu has broken each of these implicit promises that have bound Israel and America through good times and bad."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/9/1447721/-How-Benjamin-Netanyahu-betrayed-America