Sen. Bernie Sanders’ reaction to Ilhan Omar’s comments helped solidify his hold on the party’s left wing and dovetailed with his intensified outreach to older African-American voters. | Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images 2020 elections Sanders seizes pro-Omar lane in 2020 No other presidential candidate came out as quickly — or as forcefully — on the Rep. Ilhan Omar controversy as the Vermont senator.

When the latest controversy erupted over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments about Israel, only one 2020 presidential candidate rushed to her defense: Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont senator, the only Jewish candidate in the Democratic primary, embraced the African-American, Muslim congresswoman and called out House Democrats for “stifling” debate about Israel while also warning against equating “anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel.”


No other presidential contender came out as quickly — or as forcefully — as Sanders, who laid down a clear line in the crowded Democratic field between those running as true progressives on foreign policy and those who support an existing U.S. policy that tends to favor Israel over Palestine.

Sanders’ reaction to Omar’s comments — in which she said Israel’s allies "push for allegiance to a foreign country” — served other purposes as well: it helped solidify his hold on the party’s left wing and dovetailed with his intensified outreach to older African-American voters, a critical constituency that failed to warm to him in 2016.

“Bernie Sanders has held the most progressive positions in the Democratic Party on foreign policy and U.S. policy toward Israel — and just like with so many other issues, the party is catching up to positions he’s held for years now,” said Waleed Shahid, a former Sanders campaign aide who currently works for the progressive Justice Democrats. “It’s noteworthy that Sanders had both the first statement and the most aggressive one in calling out Netanyahu’s government specifically and mentioning the Palestinians by name."

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Sanders’ rivals, however, sized up the potential political risk and shied away from taking such a left-wing position. Their responses reflected their belief Omar’s remarks stand to create a wedge between two demographic groups crucial to the party base, Jewish and African-American voters, and open a divide along racial and religious lines amid a sensitive debate over anti-Semitism, anti-black prejudice and Islamophobia.

A House resolution that was initially proposed to denounce Omar by name was changed to condemn anti-Semitism, bigotry against Muslims and racism against minorities, and passed overwhelmingly Thursday. Omar’s name was not mentioned in the final resolution.

The presidential candidates vying for the progressive vote — California’s Kamala Harris and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren — followed Sanders’ lead Wednesday and expressed solidarity with Omar. More moderate senators with unquestioned pro-Israel bonafides held their tongues until Thursday before issuing statements that made sure to fault Omar as well as her critics.

“Those with critical views of Israel, such as Congresswoman Omar, should be able to express their views without employing anti-Semitic tropes about money or influence,” said New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, “just as those critical of Congresswoman Omar should not be using Islamophobic language and imagery that incites violence, such as what we saw in West Virginia.”

Gillibrand, like most other Democrats, faulted Republicans in Congress for waiting decades to denounce Iowa Rep. Steve King for his racist remarks, for President Trump’s numerous inflammatory comments about immigrants and his failure to denounce white nationalists after the 2017 Charlottesville riots.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who avoided news media questions until a CNN reporter caught him in the halls of Congress, cautioned that “we can’t be selective” in denouncing bigotry.

“I found what she said was disturbing, and I stand against anti-Semitism and racism and bigotry,” he said. “You also see bigotry and anti-Islamic sentiment being wrapped around her criticism.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — a staunch Israel supporter — waited until Thursday night, after the House resolution vote, to issue a brief statement condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment. She likely won’t be able to avoid a more fulsome response for long. On Sunday, her staff plans a press conference concerning climate change in Tampa, where she’s likely to be asked about the Omar controversy.

Florida plays an outsized role in the discussion about Israel: After California and New York, Florida has the largest number of Jewish residents.

In 2016, the issue of Palestine and Israel collided in the races for Florida’s Democratic Party chair as well as the Democratic National Committee Chair. In the 2018 race for governor, Democrat Andrew Gillum was savaged by Republican opponent Ron DeSantis for his support of a black-led leftist youth group, Dream Defenders, which opposes Israel’s "occupation" of Palestine. Gillum narrowly lost to DeSantis and precinct data show Gillum underperformed in precincts in heavily Jewish areas.

“I see this as a wedge that can grow larger,” said Mike Moskowitz, a major pro-Israel Democratic donor from Florida. An opponent of Sanders, Moskowitz said the controversy over Omar’s comments “allows Donald Trump to criticize us” and “plays into the hands of Bernie, who has always espoused these views.”

“This is not the debate we want to be having,” Moskowitz said. “This is not what the presidential candidates want to talk about, except maybe for Bernie.”

Moskowitz said he still believes Sanders’ views are not in the mainstream in the party and that the rift — which has appeared to widen in recent years and has increasingly worried many Democrats — is a serious threat to Democratic unity.

The issue will be front and center, he said, at the party’s nominating convention when it decides the platform plank concerning Israel and Palestine — it already caused a brief stir in 2012 .

Sanders’ comments come as his campaign has signaled that foreign policy will be a larger focus of his 2020 campaign, after critics knocked him as a lightweight on international affairs four years earlier.

Activists are noticing, in the wake of his Omar remarks.

“It is significant that Senator Sanders mentioned Netanyahu by name and referenced Palestinians in his statement. Senator Warren also referenced them in her statement. Senators Harris and Gillibrand did not,” said Yonah Lieberman, founding member of IfNotNow, a movement of young American Jews urging the end of Israel’s "occupation" of Palestine.

Many on the left, however, believe that the party base is more dovish and pro-Palestinian than the Democratic establishment thinks.

“There’s a generational divide, and a younger, more diverse and more progressive Democratic Party is linking the fight for inclusivity at home with taking on Netanyahu’s Trump-like rhetoric and policies abroad,” said Shahid.

For Zaina Alsous, an organizer with the Dream Defenders group, the attacks on Omar have been unfair and have ignored her growing stature as a “new progressive leader” and champion of human rights throughout the Middle East. She credited Sanders for his stance on the issue.

“There will be a very severe wedge in the party,” Alsous warned, if Democratic candidates and voters don’t begin reorienting their views to support more human rights in Palestine.

