RUTHFULLY YOURS

Today, Vermont seems to be the center of a new political development, testing the waters for how far the Left can go in the Democratic Party in advancing an anti-Zionist agenda. The push to separate Democrats from the traditional support for Israel is currently led by Vermont senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and a self-proclaimed socialist, is of course one of the two contenders for this year’s Democratic presidential nomination. He has had a string of successes in both caucuses and primaries, and has so far won 15 states and a few territories, and earned over 7 million votes. In 2008, Hillary Clinton lost the nomination to the younger, far more charismatic African-American newcomer, Obama. To lose state after state to a 74-year-old avowed socialist who calls for a revolution in politics is in some ways much more shocking than Clinton’s previous defeat. Assuming Clinton wins the nomination, still very likely due to her huge lead among Democratic super-delegates, and her far greater appeal than Sanders to minority votes, especially African-Americans, Sanders will have demonstrated either Clinton’s weakness as a candidate, particularly among younger voters, or demonstrated the power and appeal of his hard left message.

The New York primary is to be held on April 19. New York is the state with the largest number of Jews and the highest percentage Jewish population. Most Jewish New Yorkers, apart from Orthodox Jews, will cast their votes for Democrats.

One might expect that, like most politicians, Sanders would use the time before the primary to stroke that base of Jewish voters who will be a major component if he can pull off an upset in New York. Given his weakness in prior state contests among African-Americans and Hispanics, the traditionally liberal Jewish vote might seem made to order for Sanders. A fair number of liberal Jews (although probably a declining number each year) are pro-Israel.

But Sanders has continued his quixotic quest for the White House in a very un-Clintonian fashion. Clinton never misses an opportunity to appeal to each and every special interest voting group in an obvious and often grating fashion. This week is set aside for hugs and kisses with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Sanders seems to be deliberately spitting in the face of one interest group: pro-Israel Jewish Democrats.

Sanders’ first attempt to distance himself from the pro-Israel community came in the well-publicized interview with the New York Daily News earlier this month in which, obviously unaware of what actually transpired in Gaza in 2014, he told the interviewers that Israel had indiscriminately killed over 10,000 innocent civilians. His figure was off by a factor of seven even by the United Nations casualty count. Judged by Israel’s figures, which counted many of the casualties as fighters and not civilians, Sanders’ number was too high by a factor of 14. But Sanders also accused Israel of deliberately bombing schools and hospitals in Gaza — comments describedby former ambassador Michael Oren as blood libel for which he demanded an apology.

Sanders seems uninterested in foreign policy when there is so much income and wealth in America that he needs to redistribute through higher taxes on the wealthy and much higher social spending for everybody else. He demonstrates a laziness about learning or addressing foreign policy issues — something that Daniel Greenfield calls a “meh-ness.” A serious candidate for the nation’s highest office who is asked about specific things requiring factual answers has the right to say he does not know and will check back to give a better answer later. When Republican candidate Donald Trump states his policy positions clearly in reply to such questions, he is often slammed for his answers. He is accused of lacking knowledge and only being able to give short, shallow answers. Sanders’ ignorance appears to be even greater and more broad-based than Trump’s, but he is treated like a novelty by the media — the cute but authentic 74-year-old Jewish socialist codger.

Another equally disturbing affront came this week as Sanders appointed Jewish outreach director Simone Zimmerman. This new addition to the Sanders campaign has, in the past, supported the BDS movement and Jewish Voices for Peace, and has been a vicious critic of everything having to do with Israel.

“The hypocrisy of expecting feel-good social justice projects to offset millennials’ deep outrage at the grave injustices committed by the Jewish state is almost too much to bear,” wrote Zimmerman, who is in her mid-20s. “No public relations trick can save Israel’s image. The problem isn’t with the hasbara [public diplomacy]. The problem is nearly 50 years of occupation. The problem is rampant racism in Israeli society. The problem is attacks on human rights defenders by extremists and by the state. The problem is a Jewish establishment that ignores or justifies all of this.”

One might wonder where Zimmerman’s outreach will be directed. If it is to the hard Left, which already castigates Israel at every opportunity, then the appointment is suggestive that Sanders has written off the pro-Israel vote, and wants to double down on his Daily News comments to please the Israel haters. If Sanders actually believes he has a balanced view on Israel, one wonders what type of vetting process was employed before Zimmerman was brought on board.

Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s senior senator, and the longest-serving member of the Senate, has been unenthusiastic about the State of Israel for some time. Over the past few weeks, it was reported that Leahy was pushing the State Department to consider various alleged “gross” human rights violations committed by Israel and Egypt. Military assistance to either or both countries could potentially be cut off if the State Department supports the charges since legislation, which has Leahy’s name on it, conditions U.S. military assistance to countries on whether their security forces are committing abuses.

Leahy’s willingness, along with that of 10 Democratic House members, to move ahead with this letter to the State Department is evidence that the pressure applied by the Left on Democratic members of the House and Senate is bearing fruit. There is no love, only lots of hate on the Left for Israel, and the Left increasingly expects its members in Congress to reflect those views.

The national media regularly comments that the Republican Party has moved to the right during the Obama years, which is a fair charge. But they deny that anything has changed among Democrats. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute is one pundit who regularly argues this, though it is clearly incorrect. The Sanders campaign is just the latest evidence of how far left the Democrats have gone since Bill Clinton left office. An aging, not very knowledgeable or coherent socialist is winning close to 45% of votes cast by Democrats. His message seems to start and end with “break up the big banks and punish the wealthy.” In his world, all the jobs that are needed can be created by the government. This is surely a path to economic growth and prosperity as proven by Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Mao Zedong. When asked about anything other than his core topic, he can spout a few seconds of whatever the Left is selling, as he did on Israel.

It should come as no surprise that two hard left Vermont senators, with no fear of ever being turned out of office by voters in their state, are the water carriers for the anti-Israel Left in Congress. In the future they will have a lot more company.