Bernie’s Israel-Bashing: How Symptomatic Is It?
BY P. DAVID HORNIK APRIL 12, 2016
Bernie Sanders’s “recollection” that “over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza” during the summer 2014 war was, as many have noted, five times beyondHamas’s claims. Sanders then changed it to “the number was I think 2100”—which is actually the figure that the UN, not known as a pro-Israel body, came up with, and even the UN said about one-third of that total were terrorists.
That’s a lie. According to the UN report, the vast majority of the people killed were civilians of which 495 were women and 253 children. Assuming that the writer’s figures are correct, that means 1400 civilian people were killed for no reason, not to mention the numerous buildings that were destroyed which housed thousands of people.
For the record, Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center carried out a name-by-name analysis of the 75% of the Gaza fatalities who could be identified, and found that, of those, 55% were combatants. (Here former U.S. Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties in Gaza.)
Another lie. Israel did not go to “extraordinary lengths” to limit civilian casualties, they actually targeted civilians by destroying their homes and apartment buildings.
Sanders’s astonishing ignorance—he’s been a U.S. senator since 2007—was further revealed when, asked what he thought of Michael Oren’s criticism of his inflated Gaza figures, he answered, “Who is Mr. Oren?” Oren is, of course, the former high-profile Israeli ambassador to the U.S. (2009-2013) and author of the bestselling book Ally on the Obama administration’s hostility toward Israel.
It’s obvious that Bernie Sanders was not ignorant. The only ignorant person is the writer of this article.
But Sanders’s ignorance is not just a personal foible. When it comes to Israeli issues, Sanders is an ideologue. He parrots the standard ideological line of people who do not know what they’re talking about and don’t feel they need to know what they’re talking about, since the ideology comes prepackaged. Trying to add nuance, Sanders said Israel “has a 100%…right to live in freedom,” then added: “we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect.”
The last statement of this article, after “then added” is the best and most honest statement that anyone could make. No American President or any member of the congress has the courage to say it but Bernie Sanders did. The Israelis expect to bully their way through the “so called” peace negotiations which the Palestinians long rejected.
Sanders was not bashing Israel, he was just telling the truth, and the Israelis just can’t stand someone telling the truth when it comes to the Palestinians and Israel!! Why else would a Jew make such unflattering statements about Israel, and bashing Mr. Sanders is not going to change the facts that the Israelis are trying very hard to hide and criticizing Sanders for mentioning them. By the way, only a Jew can get away with such a speech; if someone else said that, he will be branded Ani-Semitic and Israel hater.
Here’s the rule that the Israelis want everyone to abide by: If the truth is favorable to Israel, which’s rarely the case, announce it to the world; but if the truth condemns Israel, either lie about it or keep it to yourself. That’s why Mr. Sanders does not rank high on their favorite people’s list, because he neither wants to hide the truth nor lie about it.