Bernie Sanders’ ‘old and tired’ ideas for Middle East peace

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) wrote an essay in the New York Times this week titled “Justice for the Palestinians and Security for Israel.”

His ideas are as old and tired as Sen. Sanders himself and as likely to succeed as his past bids for the presidency.

Sen. Sanders acknowledges, “I do not have all the answers.” Indeed, he has none. Just the calcified outlines of a terrorist Palestinian State lubricated by more American funding, some taken from money historically provided to Israel.

Sen. Sanders begins by obfuscating the salient facts.

He acknowledges Hamas’ murder of 1,200 innocent Israelis, but neglects any mention of the rape, torture and mutilation that these and other poor Israelis endured — an inconvenient fact, no doubt, in vouching for the Palestinian capacity to live in peace.

He also fails to mention that Hamas’ brutalization of Israeli civilians has now made it, overwhelmingly, the most popular political organization among the Palestinian people.

He also accepts as fact the death toll ascribed by the “Gazan Health Ministry” controlled by Hamas, and falsely attributes those deaths to “indiscriminate bombing” by the Israel Defense Forces.

I couldn’t help but recall an unpleasant conversation I had with Sen. Sanders in 2016 on the topic.

After he bitterly complained of Israeli soldiers attacking non-military sites (after warning civilians to leave), I asked him if he could identify any less lethal means for Israel to defend itself against Hamas terrorists who hid behind civilians.

He couldn’t then, and he can’t now.

But most troubling about his vision is Sen. Sanders’ strategy to overfund the Palestinians and underfund Israel.

In other words, take American tax dollars and give more to corrupt organizations that oppress their own people, pay incentives for terrorists to kill Jews and educate the youth to hate Israelis.

And then give less to one of America’s most important allies and the only democracy in the Middle East.

He barely hides the fact that this “strategy” is designed to reign in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who Sanders plainly despises and who he refers to as under “indictment for corruption.”

His meddling in Israel’s internal affairs is as inappropriate as Israel asking why Sanders has three homes on a government salary.

The Israeli people will decide if they wish to choose new leadership after the war. America should respect their democratic process and help them defeat the existential threat posed by modern-day Nazis.

A United States senator siding with an avowed enemy of America and Israel is unbecoming his lofty position.

David M. Friedman served as United States ambassador to Israel from 2017 to 2021. He is the founder of Friedman Center for Peace Through Strength.