{"id":76615,"date":"2020-03-11T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=76615"},"modified":"2020-03-08T08:31:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T06:31:02","slug":"08-00-47","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=76615","title":{"rendered":"Sanders\u2019s Snub of AIPAC, Slam of Israel\u2019s Premier an Outrage for Many Conference Attendees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Sanders\u2019s Snub of AIPAC, Slam of Israel\u2019s Premier an Outrage for Many Conference Attendees<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Heather Robinson \/ JNS.org<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Democratic US presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his wife Jane O\u2019Meara Sanders and other relatives as he speaks at his New Hampshire primary night rally in Manchester, NH, US, February 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS\/Rick Wilking.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The general consensus at this year\u2019s annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was that Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders\u2019s (I-Vt.) decision to snub the event\u2014a requisite stop for US presidential contenders on the campaign trail\u2014was a big disappointment. Attendees also expressed concern that the some of the senator\u2019s recent remarks could spur antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the mood exiting the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Monday was largely upbeat, with attendees, who travel to the nation\u2019s capital to lobby their members of Congress on behalf of the US-Israel alliance, generally pleased about Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s decisive election victory that day (although it remains uncertain if he can still form a government), when asked their feelings about Sanders\u2019s decision to shun this year\u2019s AIPAC policy conference, many expressed outrage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled about Bibi\u2019s re-election,\u201d said Michael Elman, 64, a retina surgeon from Baltimore. \u201cHopefully, he\u2019ll be able to form a government. I support his policies. We think it\u2019s a good move for the Jewish people, and hopefully, they can get out of this paralysis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that \u201cBernie is a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing. With friends like that, we don\u2019t need enemies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019s decision to skip the conference, as well as his recent characterization on Twitter of the historically bipartisan advocacy group as providing a \u201cplatform \u2026 for leaders who express bigotry,\u201d coupled with his characterization of Netanyahu as a \u201creactionary racist\u201d in last week\u2019s Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, comes at a time when many Jewish-Americans are distressed about a rise in antisemitism associated with extremism at both ends of the political spectrum, and what they perceive as a Democratic Party increasingly populated by members who are hostile to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both his comments and his absence reverberated throughout this year\u2019s event, with speakers ranging from US Vice President Mike Pence to House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), to former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg making reference to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his speech on Monday, Pence said if elected, Sanders would be \u201cthe most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation.\u201d And in reference to Sanders\u2019s remarks, he said, \u201cit is wrong to boycott and slander Israel. It is wrong to boycott and slander AIPAC.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloomberg called Sanders \u201cdead wrong\u201d to describe AIPAC as a \u201cracist platform.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Attendees by and large strongly echoed these sentiments, although there were a small number of dissenters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo associate pro-Israel advocacy with bigotry, [Sanders] is advancing antisemitism,\u201d said Robin Hanerfeld of Bethesda, Md. \u201cHe\u2019s emboldening antisemites to start using the word to describe us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anne Brody Elovic, 58, a homemaker from the heavily Jewish village of Skokie, Ill., said \u201cBernie Sanders is a putz. If you want to run this country, have the chutzpah to come stand here and tell us what you think.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some who expressed disappointment in Sanders self-identified as Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmong this crowd, there\u2019s a resounding agreement that Bernie made a bad decision,\u201d said Gaby Cosgrove, a dentist from Los Angeles. \u201cAs a very devoted Democrat, I feel he\u2019s embarrassed me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to Democratic candidates who either spoke or addressed the conference by satellite, Cosgrove added that she thought Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) \u201cwere wonderful.\u201d She said the same of Bloomberg, who was there in person.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Extremism tends not to be good for minorities\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Among those taking strong exception to Sanders\u2019s recent statements claiming AIPAC provides a \u201cplatform for leaders who express bigotry\u201d were non-Jewish African-American and Hispanic Israel-supporters in attendance. Many had traveled from across the country at their own expense to show their support for Israel and the values they believe Israel upholds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf AIPAC promotes bigotry, then why am I here? Why is there a whole constituency group led by African-Americans here?\u201d said London Camel, 20, a student at Florida Agricultural Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Fla.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe organization is bipartisan and about dialogue, so why not come, Senator Sanders?\u201d posed Landen Coles, 19, a student at the University of Miami.<\/span><\/p>\n

Older African-American Israel-supporters echoed the younger generation\u2019s sentiments and added some of their own. \u201cSenator Sanders should keep in mind that extremism tends not to be good for minorities,\u201d said Eric McLendon, 56, of New York, who works in commercial real estate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, two of about two-dozen AIPAC attendees interviewed expressed some degree of qualified support for Sanders, saying that although they disagreed with his recent statements about Netanyahu and AIPAC, they supported his right to make them and would consider voting for him to be the next president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s important to me, but I\u2019m not a one issue voter,\u201d said Jonah Dubin, 21, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. \u201cBloomberg is standing in a better place on Israel, [but] lot of people feel Sanders would be better on health care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But, added Dubin, \u201cIt influences my decision to vote for Sanders in a negative way that he didn\u2019t come here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some cited the values of debate and discussion in voicing their disapproval of Sanders\u2019s choice to rebuff AIPAC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally from Venezuela, Veronica Figoli of Denver, Colo., said life back home \u201cbecame broken\u201d when people ceased being able to have civil conversations. A lifelong Democrat, she said she disagrees with Sanders\u2019s characterization of AIPAC and decision not to attend, emphasizing that she believes \u201cthe most dangerous conversation is the one which never happens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sanders\u2019s Snub of AIPAC, Slam of Israel\u2019s Premier an Outrage for Many Conference Attendees Heather Robinson \/ JNS.org Democratic US presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is accompanied by his wife Jane O\u2019Meara Sanders and other relatives as he speaks at his New Hampshire primary night rally in Manchester, NH, US, February 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS\/Rick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76669,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76615\/revisions\/76669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}