Yesterday, the following footage from Saturday night of Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders fielding an antisemitic question made its way online.
https://youtu.be/GgdfhFbsX9A
I felt like I had a fair bit to say about this, but I see Daniel Greenfield of Frontpage Mag has already expressed much of it.
At a Bernie Sanders event in New York City, a black “community activist” began ranting about “Zionist Jews” running the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. At previous events, Sanders had been quick to condemn what he claimed was bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric by Republicans. But when confronted with the real thing by a left-wing activist at one of his own events, he couldn’t do it.
There was no condemnation of anti-Semitism. Instead after an initial claim that he was proud to be Jewish, he switched to a rambling speech criticizing Israel and distancing himself from Zionism.
Bernie Sanders had suggested at the same event that President Clinton was racist for defending his crime fighting policies to Black Lives Matter protesters, but would not condemn anti-Semitism. Instead of defying left-wing hatred for Jews, he tried to suggest that he wasn’t one of the “bad Zionists”. He was one of the “good Jews” who had a balanced position on Israel and “Palestine”.
It was a sad and shameful display. And this was not the first time that Bernie saw bigotry and blinked.
When NPR’s Diane Rehm accused him of having dual citizenship in Israel, he stumbled through a reply, but never condemned the anti-Semitism inherent in the question. He backed Jesse Jackson despite the Hymietown slur. When asked about it, he did his best to avoid directly condemning anti-Semitism.
Bernie Sanders came out of a political movement rife with anti-Semitism. He encounters it in public on a regular basis. And he is too much of a coward to stand up to it.
I would just add the following: the exchange was not only instructive of Sanders’ views but also those of the haters.
Even after the storm over Sanders’ recent comments inflating the death toll in Gaza to 10,000 and characterizing Israel’s use of force as “indiscriminate,” the questioner zoomed in on Sanders’ Jewishness, while using the antisemitic trope about Jewish running the financial institutions.
It says it all really. No matter how hard a Jew will try to distance themselves from Israel, or sell their own people out, the haters will never be satisfied. Well, almost never. They’d likely be satisfied – at least in the short term – if all Jews disappeared from the face of the earth.
Because at the end of the day, it really isn’t about Israel.
The guy asking the question is clearly an anti-Semitic a-hole. I think a lot of folks in the crowd, both black and white, recognized that reality. Bernie Sanders did not rise to the occasion to make it a teachable moment to combat anti-Semitism, and that is regrettable. But in fairness, Bernie Sanders is running for president of the United States not president of the Anti-Defamation League. This event is not getting much play in the American media because it is perceived as not that newsworthy by most Americans.
And who is doing the perceiving? The same media people who silently nod their approval of the Jew haters.
I would need more context on who was in the crowd and for what purpose to fully understand what went on here, Norman. We’ve come to expect political biases from our media. I don’t particularly like it, but that is the reality. And while we’re on the subject of anti-Semitism on the campaign trail, I don’t recall much of a fuss being made in the media by some of the assumptions about the business acumen of Jews expressed by Donald Trump (i.e. Jews are good with money, and Jews are good at making deals) in addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition some weeks back. Sounds kind of anti-Semitic, don’t you think?
The crowd rejected the anti-Semitism in the comment. There was nothing to teach. This is so much made up nonsense.
when one is running for office, one is not just talking to individual crowds
you should read the comments on the video
bernie had a chance to make a statement, he didnt
but i do not expect more from a man, whose record on israel is spotty at best and who has nothing to do with the jewish community
what has he ever done to show that he is proud to be a jew
spending a year on a kibbutz doesnt count
I agree with you on Bernie. I disagree that this should have been, (or that I’d have expected it to be) anything other than what we saw.
Spending a year on kibbutz does count. Just not for everybody.
If it were a Trumpkin making the same Hew hating (or better yet, anti-Black) comment at a Donald Trump Townhall -you would think different.
Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t, but the press sure would.
No, if Trump supporters made the same type of anti-Semitic comments (and they have in significant numbers, just read the Comments Section on Breitbart.com), they would be just as big of a-holes as the guy at the Bernie Sanders rally.
I don’t know how long it’s been since the Right Wing Conservative Pro-Israel Crowd got out of the house.
And maybe it’s due to the fact that White Right Winger Jewish Zionists don’t spend ANY time at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
But it Urbanese the LOUD BOOING of the Crowd CLEARLY put the anti-Semite and his anti-Semitic tropes in place. Bernie took it from there.
He’s running for POTUS people… not for Top Jew. Make peace with it, and move on.
You’re moronic.
Thank you.
Because everyone knows that White Right Winger Jewish Zionists are all racists, right? Oooh, and don’t forget misogynist, too.
Dammit! You’re right. I forgot misogynist!!
OK. I’ll try it minus the drama…
the LOUD BOOING of the Crowd CLEARLY put the anti-Semite and his anti-Semitic tropes in place. Bernie took it from there.
BTW, I never said anything about anyone being a racist. Nor is it implied.
Bernie isn’t even a registered Democrat, but his string of primary victories tells us all we need to know about that party trying to foist a corrupt law violator on the electorate because “her time has come.” Indeed, the vote gathering of Sanders and Donald Trump sends a message by many Americans to both parties: a pox on both your houses.
The singular point of agreement we have is that BOTH PARTIES Stink! To high heaven.
imho, it’s the MONEY in the system that’s the biggest corruptor.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Alexi. I’m a registered Democrat and almost always end up for the Democrat in the general election only because the Democrats are marginally less bad than the Republicans. I really don’t want a parliamentary system like the Israelis have, but I do want money out of our politics, and I want more and better choices when I go to vote in November.
I’ve been an independent my whole life (I’m like that anyway, I never join anything), and I end up voting the same way you do for the same reasons (less poison being better choice than more poison).
I don’t want a Parliamentary system either. But I think we might need one.
And ya, the $$$$$ has got to go! That’s problem #1.
Is that Harry Belafonte sitting there? Belafonte is as Red as Sanders.
Belafonte hasn’t had a hit song in 55 years at least. Maybe he would do best by riding off into the sunset and living on his royalties.
He took the money, but he didn’t run to Venezuela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_L1RAVm4js
Only in the short term. They still find ways to blame the Joos for everything they dislike.