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On 2/24/20 8:45 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/24/sanders-aipac-jewish/
Washington Post, Feb. 24, 2020
Amid Sanders’s rise, candidate battles AIPAC and a pundit comparing
campaign’s momentum to Nazi invasion
By Katie Shepherd
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has never attended an American Israel Public
Affairs Committee conference, according to the lobbying group. In fact,
his public refusal to attend last year’s conference early in his bid for
the 2020 Democratic nomination spurred a petition that urged other
presidential candidates to steer clear of the pro-Israel lobbying
group’s event.
Things have changed since last year, but the senator from Vermont on
Sunday again denounced the conference, which he called a platform for
“leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights.” In
doing so, Sanders has reignited the debate over the lobby’s influence in
U.S. politics, at a time when the Jewish candidate’s campaign has been
repeatedly compared to the rise of the Nazis.
In response, AIPAC, which calls itself a “pro-Israel lobby” and holds
substantial sway in foreign policy debates involving Israel and the
Palestinian territories, described Sanders’s position on Sunday as
“truly shameful.”
“Sen. Sanders has never attended our conference and that is evident from
his outrageous comment,” AIPAC said in a tweet Sunday. “By engaging in
such an odious attack on this mainstream, bipartisan American political
event, Sen. Sanders is insulting his very own colleagues and the
millions of Americans who stand with Israel.”
Bernie Sanders
✔
@BernieSanders
The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do
the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC
provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian
rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference. 1/2
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Sanders’s vow to skip the AIPAC conference, which he made on Twitter on
Sunday evening, came the day after he secured a landslide victory in the
Nevada caucuses, clarifying a possible path to the Democratic
nomination. Sanders dominated headlines over the weekend, and a “60
Minutes” interview Sunday night in which he defended past statements
made about aspects of Fidel Castro’s rule over Cuba trended into early
Monday.
60 Minutes
✔
@60Minutes
Bernie Sanders defends his 1980s comments about Fidel Castro in an
interview on 60 Minutes. https://cbsn.ws/2Pis7uC
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Sunday’s Sanders-heavy news cycle offered a window into how the senator
will navigate the next stretch of his campaign, after seizing a
commanding position in the primary race.
The dark roots of AIPAC, ‘America’s Pro-Israel Lobby’
The fact that arguably the most left-leaning candidate in a crowded
field of Democratic challengers secured an early lead has shocked many
observers. Among those is MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews, who was
so struck by the candidate’s success Saturday that he compared Sanders's
victory in Nevada to Nazi Germany’s invasion of France in 1940.
“It looks like Bernie Sanders is hard to beat right now,” Matthews said.
He continued discussing Saturday’s Nevada caucus results, emphasizing
how difficult it may be for another candidate to surpass Sanders, even
though he is a party outsider and has been the target of attacks from
the Democratic establishment.
“I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of
1940, and the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says ‘It’s
over,’" Matthews said, comparing the senator’s win to that moment. “And
Churchill says: ‘How can it be? You’ve got the largest Army in Europe,
how can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over.’”
Matthews’s comment drew harsh criticism from Sanders supporters who
viewed it as unfair and insensitive because Sanders is Jewish.
Progressive Jewish advocacy group IfNotNow slammed Matthews and MSNBC on
Twitter for using “Nazi comparisons when talking about @BernieSanders, a
Jewish candidate with family that was murdered in the Holocaust.”
Bernie Sanders, powered by diverse liberal coalition, forces a reckoning
for Democrats
An MSNBC contributor raised the issue on “AM Joy” Sunday morning.
“Why is Chris Matthews on this air talking about the victory of Bernie
Sanders, who had kin murdered in the Holocaust, analogizing it to the
Nazi conquest of France?” said Anand Giridharadas, an editor-at-large
for Time magazine, during the MSNBC program. “It is time for all of us
to step up, rethink the dawn of what may be, frankly, a new era in
American life.”
Anand Giridharadas
✔
@AnandWrites
· 22h
This is a wake-up moment for the American power establishment.
Many in this elite are behaving like aristocrats in a dying regime —
including in media.
It’s time for many to step up, rethink, and understand the dawn of what
may be a new era in America.
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Anand Giridharadas
✔
@AnandWrites
I needed to speak truth about my colleague @HardballChris.
You simply cannot compare the victory of Bernie Sanders, whose kin was
murdered in the Holocaust, to the Nazi defeat of France.
This is a moment in media to grow and become curious or irrelevant.
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MSNBC did not immediately return a request for comment late Sunday.
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Critics also pointed to an instance earlier this month in which MSNBC
anchor Chuck Todd cited a conservative column that called Sanders
supporters “brown shirts” on-air while discussing online harassment by
so-called Bernie Bros. The cable network was panned online for implying
that his fans have a Nazi-like fanaticism and using an analogy that
casts Sanders, whose Polish relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, as
a Hitler-like figure.
“'Digital brown shirt brigade.’ That’s how our Jewish candidate’s
supporters are being described on the MSM,” Sanders campaign national
press secretary Briahna Joy Gray tweeted after the segment aired this
month. “The contempt shown for ordinary people is really something.”
Sanders's Jewish identity came to the forefront again Sunday evening
when he announced his intent to miss the AIPAC conference. Top
Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), were speakers at
last year’s conference. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) are slated to speak at
next month’s event.
It’s unclear whether other Democratic candidates will opt to skip AIPAC
this year. At least 12 high-profile Democrats, all of whom were likely
2020 presidential candidates at the time, opted out in 2019. Several of
Sanders’s current Democratic challengers, including Sens. Elizabeth
Warren (Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and former South Bend, Ind.,
mayor Pete Buttigieg, did not show up in 2019.
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