Public Comment

Bernie Sanders & AIPAC

Tejinder Uberoi
Friday March 25, 2016 - 05:01:00 PM

 

Kudos to Senator Sanders – the only presidential candidate who had did not grovel before the mighty AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and offered a far more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike the other candidates who only offered more of the same, Sanders is the only Jewish candidate who experienced living in a Jewish Kibbutz and took aim at right-wing Prime Minister Netanyahu’s polices of illegal occupation and settlement expansion. 

He reminded us that “Gaza’s unemployment today is 44 percent and poverty rate almost as high.” He stressed the need to be successful;” we have to be a friend not only to Israel, but to the Palestinian people.” He called for an end to the occupation and blockade of Gaza and was equally critical of Hamas’s rocket attacks and Israel’s overwhelming response that killed 1,500 civilians, wounded thousands and devastated much of the Gaza’s infrastructure. 

This is a man who has a well-calibrated moral compass who speaks his mind but who is not out of his mind like his Republican counterparts. Contrast his message with Clinton’s who only promises to sink billions more into futile wars and American lives. She has a poor record of hasty decisions for regime changes in Iraq and Libya and offers nothing new to end the festering conflict in Israel. Kissinger’s endorsement will come back to haunt her.