Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) departed from much of the “progressive” left on Sunday morning when he opposed a ceasefire in Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, though he supported a “pause” and criticized Israel’s bombing in Gaza.
Sanders told CNN’s State of the Union that he opposed a ceasefire even though he said Israel should have to change its military strategy as a condition for more U.S. aid, and even though he considered Israel’s current government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to be “racist.”
Senator @BernieSanders:
“Well, I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire… with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the State of Israel. And I think what the Arab countries in the region understand is that Hamas has got to go.” pic.twitter.com/oGMGdkNpqx
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 5, 2023
From the CNN transcript:
[DANA] BASH: I want to just clarify one thing, Senator, if I might. You support a humanitarian pause in Gaza. Some of your fellow progressives say that there should be a full-on cease-fire, which would require an agreement on both sides to halt the fighting.
Do you support a cease-fire? And, if not, why not?
SANDERS: Well, I don’t know how you can have a cease-fire, permanent cease-fire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.
And I think what the Arab countries in the region understand, that Hamas has got to go. So what we need right now, the immediate task right now is to end the bombing, to end the horrific humanitarian disaster, to build, go forward with the entire world for a two-tier, two-state solution to the crisis to give the Palestinian people hope.
Sanders’s position lines up with that of President Joe Biden, who is pushing for a “pause,” ostensibly so that humanitarian aid convoys can enter Gaza more easily, and so that hostages could be safely released, though Hamas has not said it would do so.
Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a “pause” unless Hamas releases the more than 240 hostages it took during a brutal terror attack October 7 in which it murdered more than 1,400 people. Hamas has promised more such attacks against Israel in future.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
