Continued Harsh Criticism from Bernie Sanders Towards Israel

Bernie Sanders, the Jewish-American candidate in the U.S. presidential election, has recently made very strong criticisms of Israel, stating that American public opinion regarding Israel is turning against the country. He emphasized that U.S. relations with Israel largely depend on improving Israel's relations with the Palestinians and the Israeli government's efforts to revive peace. In recent days, Senator Sanders also stated that Israel has killed thousands of 'innocent Palestinians.' The 74-year-old socialist, Sanders, is voicing his criticisms of Israel more than ever as the Democratic primary elections in New York are approaching (April 19), a state with over three million Jews. American Jews, traditionally, and not specifically related to this election cycle, have been supporters of the Democratic Party; they supported Barack Obama with 74% and 69% of the votes in both his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Sanders has had six consecutive victories in the Democratic primaries, and if he wins the April 19 election in New York, it would be a significant blow, even psychologically, to Hillary Clinton's campaign, as she had been a senator from this state with strong support from New York Jews. Last month, Sanders declined to speak at the AIPAC conference, a pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., arguing that he was 'too busy with his campaign,' while other candidates were speakers at the event. In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, Sanders stated that Israel killed over ten thousand Palestinians in the last war (the attack on Gaza in early summer 2014) and caused significant destruction. Previously, Sanders had mentioned that Israel killed 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza during the same war. When the 'Anti-Defamation League,' a Jewish organization in the U.S., asked Sanders to apologize for his 'incorrect' statements regarding the casualties of the Gaza war, Sanders' campaign issued a statement saying, 'What he meant by ten thousand casualties was the ten thousand people who were affected by that war.' Sanders' campaign further explained: 'Sanders himself spent a few months in Israel during his youth and still has relatives there, and no other candidate supports Israel's right to exist while enjoying peace and security as much as he does, but there was a mistake in the use of the term killed for the victims.' In an interview with the New York Daily Times, Sanders distanced himself from the Palestinians' action of filing a complaint against Israel 'for war crimes' at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, stating that he does not support this approach. Sanders also mentioned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is so deep-rooted that he genuinely does not know if the proposal for Israel to withdraw to the borders of the 1967 war would solve the problems. Sanders had strengthened his leftist views during his youth by spending a few months in a kibbutz (a socialist communal farm) in Israel. However, throughout his senatorial career and political activities, he has been a staunch critic of Israeli policies; the Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently republished an interview from the early 1990s in which Sanders expressed the same criticisms he is voicing today. Senator Sanders has persistently articulated his views on justice for America, the global system, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the decades, but until a few months ago, he was considered a completely marginal figure, and not many paid attention to his views. Sanders has emphasized that he is proud of his Jewish identity, but he and his family are secular. The Jerusalem Post reported last week that over 70% of Israeli Jews prefer Hillary Clinton over any other candidate in the current election campaign, while Sanders' supporters among Israeli Jews do not even reach 1%, despite him being genuinely Jewish. Hillary Clinton, with implicit satisfaction regarding Sanders' situation, and American media questioning him about his statistical error regarding Gaza casualties, stated that 'Sanders has not prepared his lesson well, which is why he makes these mistakes.' Israeli Jews oppose Trump and believe that his presidency would undermine America's position to the detriment of Israel. However, Trump occasionally reminds Jews that his daughter has converted to Judaism and married a Jewish man—though, according to most Jews, a Jew is only someone born to a Jewish mother and has remained in this faith, and those who convert to Judaism are never viewed as Jewish.