In an interview on July 26, Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said he would “absolutely” consider cutting military aid to Israel as leverage to change their government’s actions.
Asked on July 13 what he would do to pressure Israel to end the occupation and its “atrocities” against Palestinians, Beto O’Rourke said “both sides” experience fear from violence and “both sides” have bad leaders.
Many Democratic hopefuls for president have indicated that the Israeli occupation is a problem and have criticized Benjamin Netanyahu, but none will confirm that they will move the U.S. Embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, or give specifics on how they would pressure the Israeli government.
Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden gave a speech outlining his foreign policy objectives in which he stated that the United States must stand with Israel despite the disagreements some Democrats have with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Andom Ghebreghiorgis is challenging Israel lobby-stalwart Eliot Engel in the his upcoming Democratic primary. “Whether it’s in the U.S. or abroad, I believe in equal rights and freedom for all. We therefore must commit to a political solution that centers those values for Israelis and for Palestinians. Sadly, Eliot Engel has been one of the staunchest supporters of Israel’s right wing policies,” Ghebreghiorgis tells Mondoweiss.
South Bend Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says he would block U.S. taxpayer money from being used for Israel’s potential annexation of the West Bank.
On June 6, five Democratic Senators introduced a resolution denouncing Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign pledge to annex the West Bank. Two of those Senators, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, are currently running for the Democratic nomination for president.
In a Huffington Post interview published on June 5, U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker announced that he now supports a federal anti-BDS bill, which would allow states to punish contractors for boycotting Israel.
“Antisemitism is not some abstract idea to me. It is very personal. It destroyed a good part of my family,” Bernie Sanders tells the American Jewish Committee, and says that history leads him to fight Israel’s military occupation, which has “crushed” Palestinans for over 50 years in pain and humiliation and denies them freedom of movement.
Senator Kamala Harris is seeking to separate herself from the Democratic field by being an unapologetic booster of Israel. Her message to the AJC yesterday contains a vow– “I will do everything in my power to insure broad and bipartisan support for Israel’s security and right to self-defense” — but not a word of criticism of the “democratic and Jewish state.”