The first Jewish politician to win a major-party presidential primary, Senator Bernie Sanders has spoken little about his Jewish identity and less about his stance toward Israel. Seth Mandel examines Sanders’s political background and his likely Israel-related policies were he to gain the presidency:
[Recently, the Israeli daily] Haaretz . . . unearthed an interview Sanders did with the paper in 1990, when he was a congressman. Sanders was already known as a harsh critic of U.S. cold-war policy, especially in Central America. But the interview showed that Sanders faulted Israel, too: he was “embarrassed by Israel’s involvement,” because the Jewish state had been acting as “a front for the American government.”
It’s hard to imagine much has changed. Sanders . . . [is] almost certainly closer to his party’s Israel critics than he is to Charles Schumer. His list of foreign-policy advisers includes James Zogby of the Arab-American Institute—for 30 years a leading anti-Israel voice in Washington—and the conspiracy-theorist Lawrence Wilkerson, who was once chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The level of Wilkerson’s antipathy toward Israel was evident after it became clear that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons on the Syrian opposition in 2013. Wilkerson . . . insisted that “this could’ve been an Israeli false-flag operation.” . . .
Bernie Sanders has made history—as a Jew. But he’ll be the last one to say so, because when socialism actually triumphs, the revolution is not beautiful, it is not quiet, it is not gentle. And it is never good for the Jews.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/bernie-sanders-doesnt-talk-jewish/