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The Vermont senator accused Israel of genocide and refused to condemn Tlaib’s call to wipe the Jewish state off of the map.
By World Israel News Staff
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has refused to condemn Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib’s inflammatory remarks about Israel, amid accusations the congresswoman engaged in antisemitism.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Diana Bash showed Sanders a clip of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s assertion that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza and her defense of the chant, “From the river to the sea” describing borders that would eliminate the existence of the State of Israel.
Although Dana Bash reminded Senator Sanders that the Anti-Defamation League decried the “From the River to the Sea” slogan as dangerous for the State of Israel and antisemitic, Senator Sanders refused to criticize Tlaib’s remarks.
Instead, he described Israel’s military campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza as a “horror show.”
Sanders explained that Representative Tlaib, “Is a friend of mine,” and mentioned that “her family comes from Palestine….we have to address that humanitarian crisis.”
Dana Bash gave Senator Sanders yet another chance to condemn the remarks, even as he said he regarded the congresswoman as his friend, by pointing out that “words matter.”
Sanders, however, doubled down and still refused to criticize the remarks; “Words matter, but what matters more is that you have a horrible humanitarian disaster that has to be dealt with right now.”
Eventually, Sanders did offer a subtle criticism of the slogan, saying, “Slogan’s like ‘from the river to the sea’ if that means the destruction of Israel, that’s not going to work.”
However, this delayed criticism is rather tepid compared to more vigorous condemnation of Tlaib’s remarks from other Michigan Democrats, such as Attorney General Dana Nessel and State Senator, Jeremy Moss.
Dana Nessel posted on X that Tlaib’s comments are “so hurtful to so many. Please retract this hateful remark.”
Thus far, however, Tlaib has refused to retract the remark along with her accusation that Israel had bombed a Gaza hospital, even after the explosion was proven to have been the result of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile misfire.
It also should be noted that, although Senator Senators avoided condemning Rashida Tlaib’s remarks, He did affirm in a CNN interview that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” and added that he didn’t think a ceasefire was possible “with an organization like Hamas.”
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