It’s finally happened: the issue of Palestinian human rights came up in the Democratic debate tonight on national television, and Bernie Sanders repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton — for siding with Israel singlehandedly, for her support of Benjamin Netanyahu and her indifference to the plight of Palestinians.
On the same night that he caved in to rightwing fools and suspended his Jewish outreach director over her criticisms of Benjamin Netanyahu, Senator Sanders stood up for Palestinians and against Netanyahu to cheers from the Brooklyn crowd.
Toward the end of a bruising debate, the two Democratic candidates tangled over Israel and Palestine for more than six minutes, beginning when Wolf Blitzer asked Sanders if he stood by his criticism of Israel for “disproportionate” attacks on Gaza.
Sanders said he had spent many months in Israel as a kid and has family in Israel, and the country has a right to live in peace and security.
But what you just read — I do believe that. Israel was subjected to terrorist attacks, has every right to destroy terrorists. But we had in the Gaza are, not a very large area, some 10,000 civilians who were wounded and some 1500 who were killed… Was that a disproportionate attack? The answer is I believe it was.
Cheers.
And let me say something else. As somebody who is 100 percent pro Israel, in the long run, and this is not going to be easy, if we are ever going to bring peace to that region that has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity. . . One has got to say that right now in Gaza unemployment is somewhere around 40 percent. You got a lot of that area continues — it hasn’t been rebuilt, decimated. Housing decimated, health care decimated, schools decimated. I believe the United States and the rest of the world has got to work together to help the Palestinian people. That does not make me anti-Israel. That paves the way, I think, to an approach that works in the Middle East.
Clinton responded with a staunch defense of Israel, repeating talking points straight out of the Netanyahu government and its lobby here:
They do not seek this kind of attacks. They do not invite rockets raining down on their towns and villages. They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas, aided and abetted by Iran against Israel. And so when it came time after they had taken the incoming rockets, taken the assaults and ambushes on their soldiers, and they called and told me . . . they were getting ready to have to invade Gaza again because they couldn’t find anyone to talk to to tell them to stop it. . . I don’t know how you run a country if you are under constant threat. .
Here was the extent of Clinton’s criticism of Israel:
That doesn’t mean that you don’t take appropriate precautions, and there’s always second guessing when you have a war.
If you blinked, you missed that.
Sanders said:
You evaded the question, the question is not does Israel have a right to respond, not does Israel have a right to go after terrorists… Was their response disproportionate? I believe that it was. You haven’t answered that.
There were audible boos from the audience as Clinton said:
Even the most independent analyst will say that the way that Hamas places its weapons, the way that it often has its fighters in civilian garb, it is terrible… Remember Israel left Gaza. . . they turned the keys over to the Palestinian people. And what happened? Hamas took over. . . We have a terrorist haven that is having more and more rockets shipped in from Iran and elsewhere.
Sanders then criticized Clinton sharply for the pandering speech she gave to the Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, last month:
I read Secretary Clinton’s speech before AIPAC, I heard virtually no discussion at all about the needs of the Palestinian people, almost none in that speech. Here is the issue.
Of course Israel has a right to defend itself, but long term there will never be peace in that region, unless the Untied States plays a role, an evenhanded role in trying to bring people together and recognizing the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people. That is what I believe the world wants us to do and that is the kind of leadership that we have got to exercise.
“Describing the problem is a lot easier than trying to solve it,” Clinton responded. She said she had held the last three meetings between the Palestinians and Israel aimed at a peace agreement.
Sanders gave a one-line answer:
There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time.
Clinton appeared defensive for once about her alignment with the rightwing leader: “I have spoken about and written at some length about very candid conversations I’ve had with him. No one is saying that any leader is always right.”
The issue, she said, is that “There is a terrorist group embedded in Gaza that does not want” Israel to exist.
Sanders hit back:
You gave a major speech to AIPAC, which obviously deals with the middle east crisis, and you barely mentioned the Palestinians. Again it is a complicated issue and God knows that for decades presidents including President Clinton and others, Jimmy Carter and others have tried to do the right thing. All that I am saying is that we cannot continue to be one sided, there are two sides to the issue.
Finally support for Israel is getting politicized in the Democratic Party. Let’s hope this is the beginning of an extended discussion.
Jake Tapper just said it was a historic moment, of a candidate criticizing Israel at last.
Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace says:
It was heartening to hear the beginning of a much needed conversation about Israel’s disproportionate use of force against Palestinians in Gaza during the Democratic debate tonight. Today showed that the movement for Palestinian rights is shifting the discourse at the highest political levels. However, there is still a long way to go before we see our political leaders take courageous steps not just to recognize the humanity of Palestinians but to take action to secure their rights.
I think that it’s interesting that you’re getting this excited about a debate between two strongly pro-Israel Democrats who agreed that Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, and that Hamas is a terrible, embeds itself in civilian areas, and targets Israeli civilians, over whether Israel acted disproportionately in Gaza.
I think this is a negation of your entire program. When push comes to shove, Bernie Sanders is not going to pressure Israel. He’s not a foreign policy guy, and he’s not going to risk his other programs to bother with it.
On the Israeli/Palestinian conflict Hillary said, “Describing the problem is a lot easier than finding a solution.”
She failed abjectly in her description. It was massively, egregiously deceptive. It was so extremely deceptive the term “lie” is hard to avoid. While Clinton was 99.9% one-sided to anyone who knows the facts, Bernie said, “We cannot continue to be one-sided”. There is a Grand Canyon between Bernie’s realism and Hillary’s fantasy. If she does such a poor job of describing the problem, what chance does she have at finding a solution?
Perhaps this massive deception is actually due to massive ignorance. Given her intelligence and experience that is not believable. The only other explanation would seem to be the huge amounts of money she gets from “Israel right or wrong” donors, such as Haim Saban. Which is to say, corruption.
Given that, I want to know what she said to Wall Street bankers in private. Her dodge is that Republican candidates aren’t releasing their transcripts, which has NOTHING to do with the Democratic primary, as was pointed out. She expects me to trust somebody giving that answer?
Bernie is obviously an FDR Democrat, i.e. a true Democrat. Hillary walks and quacks like a Bankster Democrat, i.e. a fake Democrat. In her closing list of barriers she will fight to overcome she neglected to mention the barrier of a wealthy oligarchy robbing and suppressing society. For Bernie, that is the barrier fostering all the others. Again, Bernie sees while Hillary appears blind.
Sander’s candidacy will be one of the things noted to explain how American Jews wedged on Israel.
Clinton: “They do not seek this kind of attacks. The[y] do not invite rockets raining down on their towns and villages.” They have never made provocative attacks upon their neighbours. They have always been scrupulous in observing ceasefires. They have never attempted to undermine the elected government of Gaza. They have never taken pot-shots across the borders at fishermen, farmers and kids playing football, let alone against demonstrators.
Clinton: “They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas, aided and abetted by Iran against Israel.” And let’s be utterly clear on this matter: no one has ever exacerbated the problem by inciting against Hamas and Iran.
Clinton: “And so when it came time after they had taken the incoming rockets, taken the assaults and ambushes on their soldiers, and they called and told me… they were getting ready to have to invade Gaza again because they couldn’t find anyone to talk to to tell them to stop it.” Remember the Israeli government has always been desperately keen to engage in a meaningful peace process, ever eager for its politicians to talk directly to Hamas, and has never once sought to undermine unity between Hamas and Fatah. And let me just record my sincere thanks for the consideration extended to me that even in the midst of a sudden existential crisis that had followed months of careful planning and preparation, the Israeli leaders, despite their busy schedules, were so gracious as to tell little me (not consult me, or advise me) but tell me in no uncertain terms of their intentions, so that I could have time to organise the necessary diplomatic cover at the UN.
Clinton: “…I don’t know how you run a country if you are under constant threat.” Especially if you are a perfectly normal country, that has never attempted to dominate your neighbours, nor to occupy them, nor to colonise them. If that were the case, they might have a perfectly legitimate right to resist, but of course it isn’t.
Clinton: “Even the most independent analyst will say that the way that Hamas places its weapons, the way that it often has its fighters in civilian garb, it is terrible…” Remember its not just Fox News; the UN and the world’s leading human rights organisations have all exhaustively and meticulously documented the frequency with which Israeli attacks on UN facilities, schools and hospitals have been completely justified by the alleged presence of supposed terrorists somewhere in the rough vicinity.
Clinton: “Remember Israel left Gaza… they turned the keys over to the Palestinian people. And what happened? Hamas took over.” Remember that Israel volunteered to liberate a land occupied primarily by refugees from Israel, not in a shady deal with George Bush that sought to intensify settlement in the West Bank, but in a wonderful honest gesture, handing over full control of land borders, air space, the coast and the off-shore reserves of oil and gas. Israel had a marvellous vision of this land becoming the Singapore of the middle east, replete with seaports and airports, but so very disappointingly, its people preferred to live in a bombed-out prison camp. Remember, with scarcely any popular support, with barely a fig-leaf of a mandate achieved via the ballot-box, in “a fair and free election”, Hamas simply took over.
Many have questioned whether Hilary has the judgement, the necessary profound knowledge of the world, the basic honesty, and the passion even-handedly and pragmatically to address the real issues and to make America and the world a better place. To answer that you only have to listen to her own words.
It was refreshing to hear an American politician finally criticize Israel, and openly state that the Palestinians have a right to freedom, and there can never be peace until the US shows concern for the Palestinian people too. Sanders also referred to the fact that there is high unemployment in Gaza, and that there was indeed a reason for the US to not side with only Israel. He also said that Netanyahu is not always right (words never used by any zionist stooge, even during the time Nutty openly tried to sabotage Obama’s Iran deal). It is a shame that Sanders may lose NY, and the nomination, but he certainly had the spine to speak the truth about Israel, knowing it will make him the target of zionist minions, who will now attack him.
Today on Morning Joe they discussed this issue, and it was pleasantly surprising to hear Scarborough say that even though he is pro Israel, the last attack on Gaza by Israel was over excessive. The others agreed that this was the first time this issue was brought up by anyone.
Good for Sanders.
If anyone can link that entire segment, I would appreciate it. Thanks.