Bernie Sanders promoting ‘most antisemitic candidates in a generation,’ says former campaign official

Former Obama State Department official and campaigner for Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid accuses the senator of hurting ties with Israel and causing “pain and distress” to American Jews.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A former senior campaign official for Sen. Bernie Sanders excoriated the Vermont independent, accusing him of deliberately elevating candidates who promote extreme hostility toward Israel and undermine Jewish confidence in the Democratic Party.

Joel Rubin, who directed Jewish outreach for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, made the accusations in an interview conducted during the Aspen Security Forum.

Rubin described Sanders’ recent endorsees as the “most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates” seen in the Democratic Party in decades and said their emergence was “by design.”

Rubin told the Jewish Insider in the interview which was published on Tuesday that Sanders and the political movement surrounding him were attempting to transform the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel rather than merely challenge particular Israeli government policies.

He said Sanders had become an “outright hostile actor” in the internal Democratic battle over Israel.

Rubin previously served in the State Department during the Obama administration and was the founding political director of J Street, the left-wing Middle East policy thinktank that supports a two-state solution and has frequently criticized Israeli government policy. He has also criticized AIPAC, separating his complaints from the traditional pro-Israel organization’s own political campaign against progressive candidates.

His criticism focused particularly on Graham Platner, the populist candidate Sanders helped propel to the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maine.

Sanders campaigned alongside Platner and continued supporting him as the candidate faced scrutiny over past online posts, allegations involving sexually explicit messages and a tattoo resembling the Nazi-era Totenkopf symbol. Platner said he had not understood the tattoo’s Nazi association and had it covered.

Platner later ended his campaign following a sexual assault allegation, which he denied. Sanders ultimately called on him to withdraw, but Rubin accused Sanders and other progressive leaders of ignoring warning signs for too long.

“There is no line. There is no bottom. There is no low,” Rubin said.

Rubin also pointed to Sanders’ support for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros.

Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have campaigned for El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director competing against Rep. Haley Stevens for Michigan’s Democratic Senate nomination.

During a CNN interview this month, El-Sayed described Israel as “a rogue state.”

“They did a genocide,” El-Sayed said. “At baseline they do apartheid.”

El-Sayed has made opposition to US military aid for Israel a central element of his campaign. He has nevertheless pursued support from Jewish voters and participated in events with Jewish Democratic organizations and a progressive Michigan synagogue.

El-Sayed has said Jewish voters may disagree with some of his positions but respect his willingness to state them consistently.

Sanders also endorsed Kiros shortly before she defeated veteran Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s Democratic primary. Sanders called Kiros “exactly the kind of bold leader we need in Congress.”

Kiros supports ending US military assistance to Israel and imposing an arms embargo. She drew condemnation from Jewish organizations after describing the October 7 Hamas attack as an inevitable consequence of Israeli policies.

Following her primary victory, Kiros declared that her supporters would not wait to “end the genocide in Palestine.”

Rubin argued that such campaigns were moving beyond criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or support for Palestinian statehood and toward opposition to the existence of Israel and the US-Israel relationship itself.

He warned that rhetoric targeting AIPAC was increasingly being used to portray virtually any Jewish supporter of Israel as an agent of a foreign power attempting to control American politics.

Sanders’ office did not respond to requests for comment on Rubin’s accusations.

The senator has argued that Israel’s Gaza campaign had gone far beyond self-defense and constitutes genocide. He has repeatedly sought to block weapons transfers and military assistance to Israel, placing him at the forefront of the growing Democratic revolt against traditional US support for the country.

The efforts to end US aid to Israel have gained significant support in Congress. An amendment seeking to eliminate $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel recently received support from 103 House Democrats, although it was defeated 314-104.