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February 2016

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Palestinian doctor Hatim Kanaaneh could be friends with Israeli veteran Dov Yermiya because Yermiya turned against Zionism and acknowledged the discrimination against Palestinians. But Yermiya drew the line at 1948, a war he participated in. “We won.”

As the Democratic primary intensifies there has been increased focus on what a possible Bernie Sanders foreign policy could look like. Phyllis Bennis with the Institute for Policy Studies says, “A theme for Bernie’s foreign policy doctrine could be reduced to a very simple point that links directly to his longstanding focus on economic inequality: No Wars for the Billionaire Class.”

Questions remain about Bernie Sanders’ time in Israel during the early 1960s, when he reportedly visited the Sha‘ar ha-‘Amakim kibbutz run by the ha-Shomer ha-Tza‘ir movement. Historian Joel Beinin was a leader of ha-Shomer ha-Tza‘ir in the U.S. from 1959 to 1969 and says Bernie Sanders was not a member during that time. He also says that anyone looking to red-bait Sanders over his time on the kibbutz will be solely disappointed, “any socialist ideas Bernie Sanders may have encountered via ha-Shomer ha-Tza‘ir wouldn’t have included a positive evaluation of Soviet communism.”

Samir is a friendly young man from Hebron who has a dream: to leave Palestine. When Sabrina Tucci asks him why he tells her his story of being held in Israeli administrative detention, “In prison I did not have any rights. Outside I am a man, but inside they destroyed me. This is why I want to leave this country,” Samir says as his voices shakes.