Bernie Sanders’s populist fundraising efforts may drastically reduce the role of Jewish donors, says JJ Goldberg. While Stephanie Schriock of Emily’s List says rising politicians were forced to adopt AIPAC positions in order to raise funds
Wilson Dizard reports from Brooklyn ahead of the NY Democratic primary today. He finds young voters are attracted to Bernie Sanders for his principled criticism of Israel, even in the wake of the controversial suspension of Jewish outreach aide Simone Zimmerman. Dizard writes, “If Sanders had been at the Highbury Pub in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn on Thursday night to watch him debate campaign rival Hillary Clinton, he might have decided against suspending Zimmerman. There were no cheers louder or longer there in the packed bar than when the Vermont senator (in an act of political courage) stood up for Palestinians”
During Thursday’s Democratic debate Bernie Sanders criticized the Israeli war in Gaza as disproportionate. Hillary Clinton responded with the standard excuse employed by Israel that the problem was that Hamas hides among civilians. Her claims about Gaza flatly contradict what human rights organizations have found, but so far the New York Times hasn’t reported on this.
By bashing Netanyahu and living to do it again, Bernie Sanders has transformed the US discourse on Israel. And his leftwing base made him do it, as JJ Goldberg of the Forward explained in Washington last night.
Today’s Israel lobby is no longer the third rail of American politics, and everyone knows it. That’s what Bernie Sanders’s obvious but unprecedented comments about “justice” in Palestine signaled on Thursday night.
During a performance of Israeli right wing talking points in Thursday night’s debate in New York, Hillary Clinton’s response on Camp David summit simply fell short of being true.
Dearborn MI Arabs voted for Bernie Sanders, why not Jews? The Jewish community faces a choice between AIPAC and Bernie. Is the Jewish community for a more socially progressive US, or for a stronger Israel?
Bernie Sanders caved to rightwing Jewish leaders when he suspended Simone Zimmerman as Jewish outreach director. The movement she joined, Open Hillel, explains that Jewish leaders are alienating young Jews by enforcing pro-Israel litmus test.
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.
Neoconservatives want to make an issue of Bernie Sanders’s Jewish outreach director Simone Zimmerman calling Netanyahu an asshole and a murderer. It’s time we let them, and allowed the Democratic Party to divide over the Israel question