By Mark Gruenberg
WASHINGTON—The avowed Jewish contender for next year’s Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, would use U.S. aid to Israel to force the Israeli government—when Israel forms one—to negotiate with the Palestinians, leading to a two-state solution of the long-running conflict.
Sanders received a thunderous welcome on Oct. 28 from some 4,000 attendees at the annual conference of J Street, the progressive, pro-democracy, pro-peace counterweight to the notoriously right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
J Street is also a counterweight to AIPACs political favorites, the equally notoriously right-wing erstwhile Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, his Likud Party, and U.S. President Donald Trump and his fellow right-wing Republicans.
The Vermont Independent’s warning came as he and three other Democratic presidential contenders—Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg—answered questions from two expert panelists. Castro opposed annexation of Palestinian territory and said he would condition U.S. aid on that issue.....
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