Sen. Bernie Sanders is near the top of the polls in Iowa. He’s looking good in New Hampshire. He’s surging in South Carolina. Even skeptics are saying the democratic socialist may win the Democratic nomination. So why aren’t we talking about the possibility of America’s first Jewish president?
Part of the answer is that Mr. Sanders, whom I interviewed for a 2015 biography, doesn’t talk much about his faith. “I am not actively involved in organized religion,” he said recently. Yet perhaps another reason is his base’s fraught relationship with Israel.
A mere 3% of liberal Democrats said in a 2019 Gallup poll they sympathize more with the Israelis than with the Palestinians. Moderate Democrats came in at 28%. Younger Democrats appear to be more critical of Israel, and Bernie fans tend to be young. President Trump is close with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who sparred memorably with President Obama. Since then, Trump administration moves such as relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and rejecting the view that West Bank settlements are illegal have opened more room for criticism of Israel in the Democratic Party.
Mr. Sanders has thus been in a delicate dance and at times has stumbled. Take Israel’s 2014 military incursion into Gaza. Progressives might have expected Mr. Sanders to echo progressive complaints that the war in Gaza was disproportionately violent.
Instead, Mr. Sanders didn’t object to a Senate resolution passed by unanimous consent backing “the State of Israel as it defends itself against unprovoked rocket attacks from the Hamas terrorist organization.” When he discussed Israel at a Vermont town hall that year, he was shouted down by his own supporters.
By the most stringent progressive standards, Mr. Sanders has been a steadfast supporter of the Jewish state. He opposes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Even if a two-state solution fails, Mr. Sanders has said he opposes a one-state solution because “that would be the end of the state of Israel, and I support Israel’s right to exist.” Mr. Sanders also has personal ties to Israel. He worked on a kibbutz as a young man. He has relatives there.
Many progressives haven’t forgiven him for this posture. Mr. Sanders has attempted to address the rift by moving left, criticizing the Gaza campaign and calling Mr. Netanyahu “a racist.” He suggested that some U.S. aid to Israel should be diverted to Gaza.
Playing both sides isn’t easy. “It’s not just being pro-Israel. We must be pro-Palestinian as well,” Mr. Sanders said at a Democratic debate in December. How, exactly? He hasn’t explained.
For now, Mr. Sanders’s pro-Israel sentiments may not cost him many votes. Progressives have no better alternative. But if the crisis between the U.S. and Iran or some other Middle Eastern flashpoint heats up and Israel is dragged into the fighting, Mr. Sanders could be forced to choose between his support for Israel and his progressive base.
Mr. Rall is a political cartoonist and the author of “Francis: The People’s Pope,” the latest in a series of graphic novel biographies.
Copyright ©2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"dance" - Google News
January 21, 2020 at 04:05AM
https://ift.tt/2G94Arb
Bernie’s Delicate Dance on Israel - Wall Street Journal
"dance" - Google News
https://ift.tt/33ygDYM
No comments:
Post a Comment