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In an unusual twist, AIPAC praises Bernie Sanders over his Israel-Hamas ceasefire stance

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For a few hours on Sunday, the unthinkable happened on social media: AIPAC promoted a clip of Bernie Sanders talking about Israel.

Hours later, that praise prompted Sanders to write a post distancing himself from the pro-Israel lobby.

Sanders, the Jewish Vermont senator and unofficial leader of progressives on Capitol Hill, has broken with many of his allies in recent weeks over their approach to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. While members of Congress such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have called for an immediate ceasefire in the fighting, Sanders has backed the position of the Israeli government and Biden administration — opposing a ceasefire because it would leave Hamas in power after it killed and wounded thousands in its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

“Well, I don’t know how you could have a ceasefire, permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel,” Sanders told Dana Bash on CNN’s ” State of the Union.” “And I think what the Arab countries in the region understand [is] that Hamas has got to go.”

Within an hour of the interview, soon after 11 a.m., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee posted the clip on X, the platform formerly known on Twitter.

Sanders answers @DanaBashCNN about fellow progressives calling for a ceasefire,” AIPAC said, and tagged a number of those progressives, including Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Cori Bush of Missouri, Jamaal Bowman of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.

“Thank you @SenSanders for your clear and principled opposition to calls for a ceasefire with Hamas,” it said in another tweet two hours later.

The series of comments accentuated a fissure between progressives advocating for an immediate halt in the fighting and others — led by Sanders and, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ro Khanna of California — who are not ready to press for an immediate ceasefire, but who want Democrats to be more outspoken in calling Israel out for its excesses.

The episode also prompted some former Sanders fans to denounce him.

“Biggest political disappointment of our generation,” wrote Briahna Joy Gray, the top spokeswoman for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, in one notable response.

AIPAC’s friendliness was jarring, given acrimony in recent years between Sanders and AIPAC. Before he ran for president in 2016, Sanders enjoyed a cordial relationship with the lobby and attended its annual conferences. But he skipped the conference in 2016 to campaign, and AIPAC would not allow him to address it remotely — an option it had offered candidates four years earlier. Four years later, mounting his second presidential campaign, Sanders heeded calls from progressives and declined to address AIPAC.

Later on Sunday, Sanders made clear that the affection wasn’t mutual. In a post on X, he wrote, “@AIPAC has supported dozens of GOP extremists who are undermining our democracy,” he said. “They’re now working hard to defeat progressive members of Congress. We won’t let that happen. Let us stand together in the fight for a world of peace, economic and social justice and climate sanity.”

The post was a nod to Ocasio-Cortez and other prominent progressives, who posted the same critique of AIPAC days earlier. In a post on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez called AIPAC “racist and bigoted,” as well as “an extremist organization that destabilizes US democracy.” On Monday, Punchbowl News reported that Mike Casca, Sanders’ deputy chief of staff, was taking a new job as Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff.

An official in Sanders’ office confirmed that Sanders wrote his post in part because he wanted to make clear that he was not happy with AIPAC’s praise. Elsewhere in the CNN interview, Sanders also made clear that he disagrees with Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza and advocated a position AIPAC vehemently opposes — that aid to Israel should be conditioned on its behavior.

“It is no great secret that the United States provides $3.8 billion every year to Israel,” he said. “Now they can say that they don’t want the money — fine. But if they’re going to take our money and Biden wants to give them even more, they have got to recognize that they cannot offend American values, what we stand for what civilized world stands for.”


The post In an unusual twist, AIPAC praises Bernie Sanders over his Israel-Hamas ceasefire stance appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

i24 NewsThe Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.

According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.

In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.

The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.

Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.

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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.

IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.

Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.

Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.

Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.

Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.

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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 NewsBlue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.

Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.

Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.

“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”

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