Dem wannabes gang up on Israel
4 cheered at J Street as they lob hostile barbs at Jewish state
Five Democratic candidates for president spoke this week at the annual Washington conference of the left-wing J Street organization.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Minnesota Senator Amy Kloubuchar, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, and Colorado Senator Michael Bennet were each interviewed by the hosts of the weekly podcast “Pod Save the World,” former National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor and former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes who asked them to “discuss the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship, their visions for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, their plans to combat the growing threat of white supremacy and more,” according to an email from J Street ahead of the conference.
Another five candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, author Marianne Williamson, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang — delivered video messages.
Biden was perhaps the most emphatic in defending assistance to Israel.
“Israelis wake up every morning facing an existential threat,” he said in his video message. “That’s why we always have to be adamant that Israel must be able to defend itself.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal were also scheduled to speak.
The conference concluded on Tuesday, when participants lobbied J Street’s agenda on Capitol Hill.
Sanders: Shift aid to Gaza
Senator Bernie Sanders earned cheers at J Street’s annual conference when he said some of the money Israel receives from the United States for defense assistance should go to humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip.
“I would use the leverage, $3.8 billion is a lot of money and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government, or for that manner, to any government,” Sanders said. “We have a right to demand respect for human rights and demaocracy.”
Asked specifically how he would address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of the Hamas terrorist group, Sanders said, “My solution is [to say] to Israel, if you want military aid, you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza. I would say that some of that $3.8 billion should go right now to humanitarian aid in Gaza.”
A quick reaction was posted on Twitter by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“Just when you thought Bernie Sanders couldn’t get any more radical, he outdid himself,” Haley wrote. “He wants to take money we give to Israel to defend itself from terrorists, and give it to Gaza, which is run by terrorists?? Unreal. Why isn’t every other Dem pres candidate saying he’s wrong?”
Kloubuchar: No on Golan
Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Sunday that she “disagreed” with President Donald Trump’s decision in March to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
“It’s not a good idea to negotiate these things right now, but let me be very clear in how strongly I believe that that promise that the prime minister made during his political campaign was wrong,” she said.
Her reply was in response to a question on whether she would condition U.S. assistance to Israel on the Jewish state not fulfilling a campaign promise of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex parts of the Judea and Samaria.
“That he was going to annex a third of the West Bank,” she continued. “Also the Golan Heights and what he did there. I disagreed with that.”
Klobuchar added, “I also strongly disagreed when he, at President Trump’s urging, said that members of Congress couldn’t even visit Israel,” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) being barred from entering Israel in August for their support of the anti-Israel BDS movement. Trump called on Israel to reject the freshmen congresswomen from entering the country.
In her remarks, Klobuchar reiterated some of her previously voiced positions, including re-entering the United States into the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris Climate Accord, and the need to fight anti-Semitism.
She also noted the one-year anniversary of the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, where 11 worshippers were killed in the deadliest attack in American Jewish history.
She did not reiterate whether or not she would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Castro: Aid is conditional
Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said on Monday that he wouldn’t rule out conditioning U.S. assistance to Israel if the Jewish state were to annex parts of Judea and Samaria.
When asked if he would follow what his fellow candidates Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Elizabeth Warren have said about such a contingency, Castro responded, “That wouldn’t be my first move, [though] I would not take that of the table.”
Castro stressed a two-state solution and the hope of working with an Israeli government not led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose policies he criticized in his remarks, including accusing the Trump administration of being in lockstep with him.
And he reiterated his support for the United States to re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from in May 2018, reimposing sanctions lifted under it, along with enacting new financial penalties against the regime.
Additionally, Castro expressed support for opening a U.S. consulate in eastern Jerusalem and “make clear that under a two-state approach, that would be the embassy to a Palestinian state.”
He also called for restoring U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and the U.N. agencies supporting the Palestinians. If elected, he said that he would reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization mission in Washington, which the Trump administration shuttered in October 2018.
Castro expressed his opposition to the anti-Israel BDS movement, but criticized efforts to legislate against it, earning a strong applause from the audience when he said he said “[I] don’t support cracking down on political speech.”
Finally, Castro noted the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 27, 2018, Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, where 11 worshippers were killed in the deadliest attack in American Jewish history.
Buttigieg: No annexation
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg reiterated on Monday that the United States should condition its assistance to Israel on the Jewish state not fulfilling Prime Minister Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex parts of the West Bank.
“We need to have the visibility to know whether U.S. funds are being used in a way that’s actually not compatible with U.S. policy, and U.S. policy should not be promoting this kind of settlement construction,” he said at the annual J Street conference in Washington.
In June, Buttigieg warned about possible annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria by Israel.
“If Prime Minister Netanyahu makes good on his threat to annex West Bank settlements, he should know that a President Buttigieg would take steps to ensure that American taxpayers won’t help foot the bill,” he declared.
Buttigieg also appeared to imply that President Trump is hypocritical for claiming to be pro-Israel, considering his response to white supremacist, and neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville.
“You have somebody who on one hand sees … anti-Semites as very fine people, and on the other hand thinks he can get people to think he is a friend of the Jewish people,” he said.
Buttigieg said that one can be pro-Israel without supporting Trump and Netanyahu.
“You can be committed to the U.S.-Israel relationship without that [defining] you are supportive of any policy choice by a right-wing government,” he said.
Buttigieg has said that, if elected, he would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Regarding the Golan Heights, Buttigieg told JNS in August that the U.S. recognition was “an intervention in Israeli domestic politics.”
Bennet: No settlements
Colorado Senator Michael Bennet said Israeli government shonot “be building settlements, and I do think we should be doing anything we can to limit the settlements that are being built,” he said.
Bennett said Prime Minister Netanyahu got “a permission slip” from the Trump administration to do what it wants, including in Judea and Samaria.
In response to a JNS reporter’s question before his conference remarks, the senator said he would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem “though I think the terms of that should have been part of the negotiated two-state solution even though Jerusalem has always been the capital of Israel.”
Bennet declined to answer whether or not he would keep President Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
