Of the 2020 candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, has been the most vocal supporter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose repeated comments about Israel led to a messy fight in the House. | Matthew Putney/AP Photo 2020 Elections Sanders aide apologizes for questioning American Jews’ 'dual allegiance' to Israel The 2020 candidate's deputy press secretary later deleted her Facebook post after POLITICO began asking about it.

A spokeswoman for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign apologized Tuesday after questioning whether the “American-Jewish community has a dual allegiance to the state of Israel” — a comment condemned by Jewish leaders across the political spectrum as having anti-Semitic overtones.

"In a conversation on Facebook, I used some language that I see now was insensitive. Issues of allegiance and loyalty to one's country come with painful history,” Belén Sisa, Sanders’ national deputy press secretary, told POLITICO. "At a time when so many communities in our country feel under attack by the president and his allies, I absolutely recognize that we need to address these issues with greater care and sensitivity to their historical resonance, and I'm committed to doing that in the future.”


Sisa posed the question Sunday during a discussion in a Facebook thread in which she said that, like Sanders , she stood with Rep. Ilhan Omar. She deleted the post after POLITICO began asking about it.

Omar's repeated comments about Israel led to a messy fight in the House as many of her fellow Democrats accused the first-term congresswoman of using anti-Semitic language. Omar's defenders have said she was making valid criticisms of the nation’s government and allies that were being stifled.

The Sanders aide’s remarks defending Omar reflect a fraught conversation within the Democratic Party over what constitutes legitimate criticism of Israel and what is anti-Semitism. A vocal contingent of progressive activists concerned about Palestinian rights says the country has been overly deferential to Israel — but Omar and some of her supporters have triggered a fierce backlash when they've ascribed or hinted at motivations for that support.

COUNTDOWN TO 2020 The race for 2020 starts now. Stay in the know. Follow our presidential election coverage. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Sisa's comments were flagged to POLITICO by a critic of the post. Jewish political leaders criticized her remarks before Sisa deleted them.

“I would totally disagree with that. It’s ridiculous. ... She’s wrong,” said Rep. Lois Frankel, a Jewish Democrat from Florida. “That’s just a terrible statement to make.”

The comments are an example of why “Bernie Sanders is not my candidate," Frankel added.

Sisa’s comments stood out both because of her communications role in the Sanders campaign and as a result of their timing. Omar came under fire last week over her saying she wanted "to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” The House, in response, overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning hateful language.

A Jew from Sisa's home state of Arizona pointed out the history of the "dual allegiance" slur in the Facebook thread — from the hangings of Jews in ancient Persia to the 1492 purge of Jews in Spain to Nazi Germany.

Sisa’s response: “This is a serious question: do you not think that the American government and American Jewish community has a dual allegiance to the state of Israel? I’m asking not to rule out the history of this issue, but in the context in which this was said by Ilhan.”

Another person on her Facebook then asked: “do you think Bernie Sanders has dual loyalty?” Sisa replied: “I think I would probably have to ask him? But his comments make me believe other wise as he has been very blunt on where he stands.” She then shared links to articles on Sanders’ recent reaction to Omar’s comments.

Of the 2020 candidates, Sanders, who is Jewish, has been the most vocal supporter of Omar. After a House resolution was proposed to denounce Omar by name, the Vermont senator said, “What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate."

On Tuesday, after others weighed in, Sisa deleted the offending post and tried to pivot to immigration. Sisa is an undocumented immigrant from Argentina who is protected from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established by former President Barack Obama.

“I deleted my previous question, because I don't think it truly represents the question I was asking or what I was meaning to say,” Sisa wrote. “I think the injustice of questioning someone's loyalty because of their culture or where they come from is something that is happening through comments being made about Mexican immigrants and a lot of the immigrant community now."

Rabbi Jack Moline, leader of the left-leaning Interfaith Alliance, said he couldn’t understand how Sisa could ask the question, considering the volume of debate and discussion over the very use of the phrase “dual allegiance” in recent weeks. He said too many people are unaware of the sensitivity of the phrase.

“It’s more of a surprise that she hasn’t been paying attention to the political talk about it,” Moline said. “She is not someone I would bring on to my own political campaign. I can’t answer what’s going on in her head or what’s going on in the Sanders campaign. It doesn’t strike me as being either well-prepared or sensitive enough to the power of a political message in campaign season.”

Moline said he initially defended Omar for making what he thought was an uninformed remark after she tweeted, “It's all about the Benjamins baby” in response to a tweets by journalist Gleen Greenwald that read, “GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for [Ilhan and Rep. Rashida Tlaib] over their criticisms of Israel. It's stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans." Ilhan later apologized.

Moline said he ceased defending Ilhan after she said “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

President Donald Trump has jumped into the fray to accuse Democrats broadly of being anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, a comment bashed as absurd by Jewish Democrats. Florida Rep. Ted Deutch, while expressing concerns last week on the House floor about the resolution that was changed to condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia overall instead of Omar directly, made sure to mention how Trump’s 2016 campaign had used “classic anti-Semitic tropes.”

Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, defended Trump and the GOP as staunch allies of Israel and said Sanders' campaign has no excuse because Sisa “is a communications professional. She understands very well what words mean and what they’re intended for. There’s no question that her words are absolutely, unequivocally and unquestionably anti-Semitic and sort of repeat an anti-Semitic mantra that has gone back thousands of years.”

More broadly, Brooks said, the remarks are “emblematic of a pervasive view that exists within a vein of the Democratic Party that is on the ascendancy that should give everyone — Jew, Gentile, Republican and Democrat — concern.”

The hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the left-leaning group J Street declined to weigh in on Sisa’s post. The Anti-Defamation League also did not comment on the post, but shared the organization’s previous writing about the “dual loyalty” slur.

