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Bernie Sanders and AOC Mark October 7 Anniversary with False Accusations Against Israel
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are seen before a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
One year to the day after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 men, women, and children — including 46 Americans — in southern Israel, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lashed out with false accusations at the Israeli government.
Sanders’ and AOC’s claims were hardly original — yet coming from two large voices on the left, they deserve a thorough dissection.
To their credit, both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez began their statements by condemning the October 7 massacre as an instance of terrorism — a word that American journalists increasingly refuse to use.
Unfortunately, both quickly pivoted to condemnations of Israel, and specifically its prime minister. According to Sanders, “Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government” has not just targeted Hamas, but “waged total war against the Palestinian people.”
Yet it is Sanders who apparently can’t distinguish Hamas from the general population of Gaza.
The Vermont senator says that the war (which was started by Hamas) has claimed 41,000 Palestinian lives — a figure produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, although Sanders does not mention the source.
Hamas’ reliance on data from unidentified sources is a serious problem, but the more salient point is that its roster of the dead includes thousands upon thousands of Hamas gunmen and soldiers — a point the Hamas ministry does not dispute.
The Israelis estimate there have been 17,000 enemy fighters killed in action. Yet Sanders draws no distinction. It would be like equating dead Al-Qaeda operatives with Afghan civilians during the war that was started by the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Unlike Hamas, Israel is honest about what’s happening in Gaza.
Israel does not pretend that the war claims no civilian lives. Prime Minister Netanyahu said in May that 16,000 people had perished. When Hamas operates out of hospitals, schools, mosques, and UN buildings, it ensures that civilians will suffer. Yet Sanders remains quiet on this point, too.
A word is also in order about Sanders’ characterization of the Israeli government as “extremist.”
Five days after the events of October 7, Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz formed a national unity government that specifically excluded the most right-wing ministers from the “security cabinet” that would run the war. Yet acknowledging this would make it much harder for Sanders to portray the Israeli government as beyond the pale.
Ocasio-Cortez relies on the same rhetorical sleight-of-hand as her colleague from Vermont.
She claims that Netanyahu is not pursuing Hamas, but “mass revenge.”
She cites the Hamas health ministry’s death toll without attribution while failing to acknowledge it includes thousands upon thousands of enemy fighters killed in action. Then she moves to the claim that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid, “pushing Gaza to the brink of famine.” Sanders emphasized the same point, expressing concern that “many thousands of children facing malnutrition and starvation.”
A generous assessment of these assertions would conclude they are seriously out of date.
Six months ago, conventional wisdom held that famine in Gaza was “imminent.” The source of this forecast was the awkwardly-named but highly influential Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, a UN-backed association of experts. It not only warned that famine would set in by the end of May, but that scores of children would begin dying of hunger each week. It insisted that only a ceasefire could enable the delivery of sufficient aid to prevent a catastrophe.
Israel was determined to prove this wrong.
UN figures showed that 2,874 truckloads of goods entered Gaza in February, or fewer than 100 per day. The number then rose to 4,993 in March and 5,671 in April. The UN has not been able to publish comprehensive figures since the beginning of May, but the Israeli government began to make its own data publicly available. Its online dashboard shows that 6,277 truckloads arrived in May, with the number decreasing gradually in subsequent months. All told, more than 54,000 trucks delivered their cargo to Gaza during the first year of the war.
In late June, the IPC published a revised assessment of the situation in Gaza. The percentage of residents facing the most severe food shortages had fallen from 30 to 15 percent, defying the IPC forecast that the number would rise to 50 percent. There were similar improvements in other categories, and no more talk of imminent famine. A typical headline, however, still read, “Famine will loom over Gaza as long as conflict rages.”
Neither the IPC nor journalists gave Israel much credit, but their fearful predictions never came to pass.
The final charge that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez level at Netanyahu is that he has “sabotaged” or “undermin[ed]” ceasefire negotiations.
The lawmakers may want to pass this information to the White House, where the National Security Council’s spokesman described Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as “the big obstacle” to a ceasefire, “no questions about it.”
Five years ago, Ocasio-Cortez vented her frustration with those who care more about being “factually and semantically correct” than being “morally right.” Perhaps she and Senator Sanders should consider the possibility that knowing the facts is what leads to being morally right.
David Adesnik is a senior fellow and director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
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