Truthdig
Sen. Bernie Sanders Is Criticized for Signing Pro-Israel Senate Letter
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/bernie_sanders_criticized_for_si
gning_pro-israel_senate_letter_20170509/
Posted on May 9, 2017
Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chair, left, and Sen. Bernie
Sanders at a Democratic Party rally in Mesa, Ariz., in April. (Gage Skidmore
/ CC 2.0 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/34191453605) )
Although Bernie Sanders is often touted as a progressive leader within the
Democratic Party, the Vermont senator is facing criticism from his
supporters after he signed his name to a pro-Israel Senate letter
(https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/f6c7c142-8655-4c34-907b-ff
e91b033f34/83A98BDD8379F7A35D6207DCB0D74B38.4-27-2017-rubio-coons-ltr-to-uns
g-re-israel.pdf) . The letter, addressed to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations, advocates for the Senate's "desire to see the United Nations
improve its treatment of Israel" and condemns what it calls "continued
targeting of Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N.
entities."
In a recent piece
(https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/bernie-sanders-throws-
palestinians-under-bus?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=838e2e5df6-RSS_EMA
IL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-838e2e5df6-290649781) on
The Electronic Intifada, Michael F. Brown argues that, although this stance
is expected of many establishment politicians, progressives should be
outraged at Sanders' decision to sign the letter. Brown writes:
The diverse coalition Sanders brought together will be jeopardized if he
thinks Palestinians can be thrown under the bus with no reaction.
The letter, addressed to the UN secretary-general, claims absurdly that
Israel is being picked on and singled out by the world body - even though
Israel has flouted international law and UN resolutions for decades without
ever once being subjected to UN sanctions.
It also smears UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, whose
overstretched resources mean the difference between subsistence and hunger
for a million Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under a decade-long
Israeli siege.
Brown also analyzes a recent interview in which Sanders defends signing on
to the letter:
"While offering mild criticism of Israel - he even used air quotes when he
said the words 'human rights violations' - Sanders deployed a favorite
Israel lobby tactic of deflecting attention to abuses by other countries,"
Brown argues. "Sanders appears to counsel returning to a so-called 'peace
process' that has failed for decades. His apparent confidence in the
unprincipled triumvirate of President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is
astonishingly misplaced."
"In the interview, Sanders repeated the false claims in the letter he
signed, that Israel is unfairly singled out," Brown continues. "That Sanders
and other 'progressives' would join such an attack on the rights and
existence of the Palestinians is another indication that the self-styled
Democratic 'resistance' to the Trump administration prefers political
expediency over principle."
Read Brown's full piece here
(https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/bernie-sanders-throws-
palestinians-under-bus?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=838e2e5df6-RSS_EMA
IL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-838e2e5df6-290649781) .
-Posted by Emma Niles (http://www.truthdig.com/staff/emma_niles/)
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