[Sanders lashed out at the new, extremist government in Israel,
which includes a minister once convicted of incitement to racial
violence.]
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‘EMBARRASSED’ BY ‘RACIST’ ISRAELI GOVERNMENT, SANDERS
THREATENS BILL TO WITHHOLD AID  
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Juan Cole
February 21, 2023
Informed Comment
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_ Sanders lashed out at the new, extremist government in Israel,
which includes a minister once convicted of incitement to racial
violence. _

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to attend the
weekly cabinet meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on January
29, 2023., Ronen Zvulun/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

 

Senator Bernie Sanders
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the Nation
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Sunday. In the course of the interview, Sanders lashed out at the new,
extremist government in Israel, which includes a minister once
convicted of incitement to racial violence and more than one figure
belonging to Kahanist organizations of a sort that were at some points
on the U.S. terrorism list.

Sanders, who is Jewish, has several beefs with the current government
in Israel, not least that he is “embarrassed” by it. Israel should
not reflect on Jewish Americans, who are only responsible for their
own individual actions and speech. The world is unfair that way,
though, and for some people the fascist takeover in Israel will raise
questions about what sort of person would not only support it but also
try to silence anyone who speaks out against it. Sanders clearly feels
that it is an albatross about his neck.

For Sanders, a true Mensch, however, it isn’t only about Israel. He
says he is worried about “what may happen to the Palestinian
people.” The hate-filled Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir of the
extremist Religious Zionism bloc have been put in charge of the three
million occupied Palestinians in the West Bank, and are now in charge
of the blockade against the 2 million besieged Palestinians of the
occupied Gaza Strip. It is as though the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux
Klan were put in charge of millions of African-Americans.

Sanders, moreover, doesn’t just want to complain about this alarming
state of offairs, which the CIA believes could result in a new round
of violence. He said,

* I mean, I haven’t said this publicly. But I think the United
States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel. And I think we’ve
got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a
racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution.
You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can’t do it
and then come to America and ask for money.

In Congress, Israel is the most sacred of sacred cows. Its lobbyists
(who ought to have to register as foreign agents but who seldom do)
don’t win every fight and they aren’t almighty or “in
control.” But they are very, very powerful, as the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee boasts at its website. So the Israeli
government routinely violates international and U.S. law with
impunity.

So for Sanders to suggest holding the some $4 billion in direct aid
the U.S. gives Israel every year over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s
head to make him back off his racist rhetoric and alliances, and to
make him stop doing everything he can to forestall the rise of a
Palestinian state, is bold indeed. So far, it is not entirely clear
that Sanders and other critics of Netanyahu could get the votes in
Congress that would be necessary to rein the prime minister in.

===

Juan Cole teaches Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the
University of Michigan. His newest book, "Muhammad: Prophet of Peace
Amid the Clash of Empires" was published in 2020. He is also the
author of "The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation Is Changing
the Middle East" (2015) and "Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle
East" (2008). He has appeared widely on television, radio, and on
op-ed pages as a commentator on Middle East affairs, and has a regular
column at Salon.com. He has written, edited, or translated 14 books
and has authored 60 journal articles.

* Israel's Right-Wing Government; Bernie Sanders; Racism;
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