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Now that Bernie Sanders has proven himself to be a serious contender for the presidency, the question of how he will handle Israel and the Palestinian issue is becoming important. There is already a Facebook page called “Will Ya #feelthebern 4 Palestine” and I have had several people online and in person ask me what I thought. Clearly there are indications that he is a far better candidate than any of the others on many issues, but on Palestine it is hard to say. If there is a lesson to be learned from Barak Obama it is that his personal opinions and preferences are not a good indicator. Obama seemed to be on the right side of the issue and then became Israel’s biggest supporter, arguably because in America in order to be president you need to bow to the arms industry and AIPAC.

In a piece by Michael Crowley in Politico, Crowley writes that:

“over his career Sanders has cast some votes and made critical statements about Israel that unnerve some in the pro-Israel community. That's all the more puzzling, some say, given his own heritage as the son of a Jewish immigrant father from Poland whose family was wiped out by the Nazis — and someone who spent time working on an Israeli kibbutz.”

Unnerving the pro-Israel community is always a good thing, but there is nothing puzzling about Sanders’ stand on Israel. Though in America people are often not aware of this, there are many Jewish people in the US and around the world who had experiences similar to his, and like him, have little regard for Israel. The majority of holocaust survivors were not Zionists and did not go to colonize Palestine, they came to America or returned to their homes is Europe. And just because a young person, Jewish or otherwise, stayed on a kibbutz for a while, something that many young people did in the late 60’s & 70’s, it does not make him a lover of Israel. Living on a kibbutz was appealing to young people because of the sense of freedom that kibbutz life offered at the time, and because it came with healthy doses of sex, drugs and sunshine. It had very little if anything to do with loving Israel.

It is very encouraging that Sanders does not make an issue of his being Jewish, and hardly mentions Israel at all. The one and only time that I saw him mention it was in a very personal, clearly unplanned comment he made during a rally. A young Black Muslim woman asked him about Islamophobia, and he brought her up to the stage, gave her a hug and said “Let me be very personal if I might, I’m Jewish.” Very personal!

The truth is that Sanders may well be representing Jews far more than people give him credit. He represents Jews precisely because he is secular, a socialist, an intellectual and does not follow the false religion of AIPAC and Zionism. That is a position traditionally held by many Jewish people throughout the 20th century. In the 1980’s when the Israeli Noble laureate and war criminal (yes, it’s hard to believe but he was both) Yitzhak Rabin was ordering Israeli troops to break Palestinian’s bones, Sanders said: “The sight of Israeli soldiers breaking the arms and legs of Arabs is reprehensible," and he added that it "must be condemned.” A few months later, Sanders also said that Israeli policy of shooting people is unacceptable. He even argued at one point that it is “wrong that the United States provides arms to Israel."

Though today it is hard to believe, there were times when Jewish Americans in positions of influence did dare to criticize Israel. In 1968, less year after the Six Day War, the Israeli army embarked on a massive assault against a Palestinian camp in the village of Karame, east of the Jordan River. It was called the battle of Karame, which coincidentally also means dignity in Arabic (you can read about the battle of Karame on page 127 in my book, “The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.”) It was a huge debacle for Israel, and Israel was severely criticized around the world. U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg, a prominent American Jewish figure if ever there was one, said "We believe that military counteractions such as those which have just taken place, on a scale out of proportion to the acts of violence that preceded it, are greatly to be deplored.” One can only imagine what he might have said today, as Israel steps up in genocidal policies.

In 1991, Sanders voted to withhold $82.5 million in U.S. aid for Israel unless it stopped settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was also the only Jewish member of Congress not to back a House resolution condemning the Palestinians and expressing solidarity with Israel after a Palestinian suicide attack. The problem is that today in America calling for Israel to stop human rights abuses, not to say to stop the wholesale murder of Palestinians, is considered radical if not altogether nutty.

In the end, however, the only thing that matters is this: should Bernie Sanders become president, will Palestine be at the top of his priority list. I think it is fair to say it will not. He will be more interested in other issues like education, welfare, healthcare and all the other issue that make him the socialist candidate. This will mean that Palestine once again will be pushed aside sacrificed in order to get other things accomplished. After all, the president’s job is not to bring justice to Palestine. That is the job of people of conscience in this country. It is up to those who care to make sure that whoever is elected president cannot get anything done unless he considers Palestine. It is our job as activists, and writers and speakers, students, teachers, and people who care about social justice to make sure no support for Israel will be tolerated. We must insure that boycott, divestment, sanctions and all forms of isolation are in place when it comes to Israel. We must force this issue to the top of the national debate and the top of the president’s priority list or else nothing will change.

So will President Sanders be good for Palestine? Only if we make him so. And this is true for whoever is elected next November.