Where does Bernie Sanders, the Jewish candidate for president, stand on Israel?

[azurnoir]

Is Sanders a Zionist? Here’s what he told Vox’s Ezra Klein:

“A Zionist? What does that mean? Want to define what the word is? Do I think Israel has the right to exist? Yeah, I do. Do I believe that the United States should be playing an even-handed role in terms of its dealings with the Palestinian community in Israel? Absolutely I do.

“Again, I think that you have volatile regions in the world, the Middle East is one of them, and the United States has got to work with other countries around the world to fight for Israel’s security and existence at the same time as we fight for a Palestinian state where the people in that country can enjoy a decent standard of living, which is certainly not the case right now. My long-term hope is that instead of pouring so much military aid into Israel, into Egypt, we can provide more economic aid to help improve the standard of living of the people in that area.”

At a town hall in Cabot, Vermont, during last summer’s Gaza war, a constituent commended Sanders for not signing onto a Senate resolution that solely blamed Hamas for the conflict, but wondered if he would “go further.”

“Has Israel overreacted? Have they bombed U.N. facilities? The answer is yes, and that is terribly, terribly wrong,” Sanders said.

“On the other hand – and there is another hand – you have a situation where Hamas is sending missiles into Israel – a fact – and you know where some of those missiles are coming from. They’re coming from populated areas; that’s a fact. Hamas is using money that came into Gaza for construction purposes – and God knows they need roads and all the things that they need – and used some of that money to build these very sophisticated tunnels into Israel for military purposes.”

http://www.jta.org/2015/08/17/news-opinion/politics/where-does-bernie-sanders-the-jewish-candidate-for-president-stand-on-israel

[mucifer]

1. He is for the Iran deal

[JI7]

2. his position is same as clinton

[azurnoir]

3. Really ? Did Bernie blame antisemitism for the international reaction to Gaza 2014? Hillary did

“I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets,” Clinton said. Israel, she added, may have made some mistakes that led to civilian casualties, but that is what happens in the “fog of war.”

“I don’t know a nation … that hasn’t made errors, but ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas,” Clinton said, pointing to the terrorist group’s rocket attacks against Israel and the way its fighters base their operations in civilian areas.

Clinton criticized the “enormous international reaction” against Israel, calling it “uncalled for and unfair,” especially in comparison to the relatively more tepid responses to the far greater death toll in Syria and Russian aggression against Ukraine

“I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets,” Clinton said. Israel, she added, may have made some mistakes that led to civilian casualties, but that is what happens in the “fog of war.”

“I don’t know a nation … that hasn’t made errors, but ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas,” Clinton said, pointing to the terrorist group’s rocket attacks against Israel and the way its fighters base their operations in civilian areas.

Clinton criticized the “enormous international reaction” against Israel, calling it “uncalled for and unfair,” especially in comparison to the relatively more tepid responses to the far greater death toll in Syria and Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“You can’t ever discount anti-Semitism,” she added, “especially with what’s going on in Europe today.”

http://www.jta.org/2014/08/10/news-opinion/politics/hillary-clinton-defends-israel-and-netanyahu-says-anti-semitism-might-fuel-some-criticism

[Jester Messiah]

4. "fight for Israel’s security and existence"

Why is that any of our concern? What other countries are we tasked with preserving, and why? I'm generally in Bernie's corner, but I don't agree on this one. We've given them enough, and they keep biting the hand that feeds them anyway. Let them stand on their own.

[azurnoir]

5. yes but there's more from the article

“We are pouring billions of dollars in arms into Arab countries. We have the clout to demand they and Israel, who we’re also heavily financing, to begin to sit down and work out a sensible solution to the problem which would guarantee the existence of the State of Israel and which would also protect Palestinian rights,” he said.

[Jester Messiah]

6. I'm just sick of the whole mess.

Fuck that whole section of the map. All the factions there richly deserve each other. When they get done killing each other, whoever's left can give us a call about re-establishing civilization.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. It's more of that 'You broke it, you buy it' mentality, and American colonialistic paternalism.

Our guys were instrumental in creating Israel after simply taking the land away from the folks who had it because they allied with Germany, based in part on some maps drawn up after WW1, I believe. Most of the nationalistic 'mess' that exists all over the world is because Americans and English went around colonizing, drawing national boundaries that hadn't existed before, and basically ignoring all of the 'ignorant' people who'd live there for millennia, cause after all, what did they know about who they should be lumped into a country with? But Israel was the most recent of our 'great ideas in nationbuilding'.

[davidpdx]

7. I think his stance is reasonable

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not one that I think will ever be resolved. The fringes on both sides have too much to gain by pushing their agendas. As long as that continues there is no hope.

[reddread]

9. he is reasonable

Some people seem to think mentioning Israel without mentioning/while ignoring Saudi Arabia is reasonable.