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Bernie Sanders says Israel has the right to defend itself. | Getty Sanders runs against Netanyahu on Israel

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win delegates for a major party presidential nomination, spoke the language of the secular left on Israel, while Hillary Clinton gave a full-throated defense of America’s longstanding foreign policy toward the Jewish state.

Sanders, who has said Israel has the right to defend itself but has responded “disproportionately” to Palestinian attacks, called for the United States to take a more “even-handed role.”

“If we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is not right all of the time,” Sanders said.

Clinton spoke passionately about the challenges that Israelis face.

“I have been there with Israeli officials going back more than 25 years,” she said, and “they do not seek these kind of attacks.”

She added, “They do not believe that there should be a constant incitement by Hamas, aided and abetted by Iran, against Israel.”

Clinton blamed Palestinian leaders for perpetuating violence throughout the history of the conflict: Yassir Arafat rejected an agreement with President Bill Clinton and then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak that would have created a Palestinian state 15-years-ago, she said, and when Israel unilaterally vacated Gaza, she added, Hamas took charge.

“We have a terrorist haven that is getting more and more rockets shipped in,” she said.

Sanders implored viewers to consider the plight of the Palestinian people, saying that schools and health care have been “decimated” and that “right now in Gaza unemployment is somewhere around 40 percent.”

In her speech to AIPAC, Sanders said, “you barely mentioned the Palestinians.”

He added, “All that I am saying is that we cannot continue to be one-sided.”

“Of course there have to be precautions taken,” Clinton said, a sentiment she repeated several times even as she criticized Hamas for hiding weapons among civilians. “I understand that there is second-guessing anytime there is a war,” she said at another point.

Clinton also hinted at her broader criticism that Sanders does not offer realistic solutions.

“Describing the problem is a lot easier than trying to solve it,” she said.