Bernie Sanders said that Israel has a right to be protected by the United States.
Sanders, who has spoken out in favor of Palestinian interests as well as Israel’s right to exist in security, made the assertion May 29 during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I am 100 percent pro-Israel in the sense of Israel’s right to exist,” said the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. “I lived in Israel. I have family in Israel. Israel has the right to live not only in peace and security, but to know that their very existence will be protected by the United States government.”
Last week, Sanders appointed three Israel critics, including Cornel West, who supports boycotts against Israel, to help draft the Democratic Party platform ahead of the convention in Philadelphia.
On “Meet the Press,” Sanders said the United States “has got to respect the needs of the Palestinian people. They cannot be pushed aside.” Asked whether he wanted the party platform to say the Palestinians were occupied, Sanders said conditions were premature for determining the language, but added, “We’ve got some good people on our platform-writing committee.”
Last month, Sanders suspended his campaign’s Jewish outreach coordinator, U.C. Berkeley graduate Simone Zimmerman, shortly after her appointment when it was revealed that she had posted an expletive-ridden Facebook diatribe against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. — jta