By Ronald L. Ray —
United States Senator Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (Vt.), Democratic presidential candidate and socialist, is not what he seems.
Vaguely populist in campaign rhetoric, he is, however, a far cry from the stereotypically anti-imperialist, leftist internationalist many people imagine when they hear the term “socialist.” Upon closer examination, his foreign policy views demonstrate that he has more in common with warmongering neoconservatives and establishment Zionists than with the typical peacenik.
In a world in which the apartheid, terrorist, genocidal, rogue nuclear state of Israel and its lobbyists control the direction of most U.S. foreign and domestic affairs, this is no small matter—especially at a time when the Zionist occupation government in Palestine is determined never to “give peace a chance,” and to further Balkanize the Middle East with its constant provocations and proxy wars.
The 74-year-old Polish-Jewish Sanders was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to Vermont in 1968. He has received a free pass on the significant factor of his advanced age—unlike the late President Ronald Reagan—perhaps because of his “progressivist” political views. But it is critical that his ideas about international relations receive closer scrutiny. Will Sanders bring the soldiers home, who are involved in dozens of senseless wars and conflicts worldwide, or will he continue the same devastatingly deadly foreign policy of every presidential administration from either major party since George H.W. Bush?
On the positive side, Sanders believes in seeking diplomatic solutions to international tensions, maintaining war only as a last resort. This could raise the ire of the perpetually bellicose Zionist lobby and the international plutocrats of the military-industrial-banking complex. Sanders has also occasionally criticized the violence employed by Israel against Palestinians and supports a fully free and independent Palestinian state. Sanders, a natural-born U.S. citizen, additionally states that he holds no dual citizenships.
Nevertheless, upon closer examination, there is much that should concern potential supporters—the first observation being that the presidential candidate often comes down firmly on both sides of an issue, creating deliberate ambiguity. Tellingly, both the liberal Jewish Daily Forward and the rabidly Zionist Jerusalem Post hold generally positive views of their fellow “member of the Tribe.”
Sanders’s criticism of Israel is of the most anemic kind—the sort of controlled opposition that fits well within the guidelines of Israeli propaganda strategy and the political playbooks of the Anti-Defamation League and American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sanders will occasionally, if pressed, criticize Israel for “overreacting” and targeting non-combatant Palestinian civilians but turns around to blame the causes of these war crimes on Hamas, while mischaracterizing the factual situation of Israeli aggression as an allegedly justified “defense.”
To his credit, the senator boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a sycophantic joint session of Congress and refused to co-sponsor a Senate resolution supporting Israel’s genocidal Operation Protective Edge in 2014. But he in fact supported the operation, which involved crimes against humanity, as the resolution passed by unanimous consent.
Emigrate While You Still Can! Learn More . . .
According to the “Daily Kos” website, Sanders voted in typically Zionist fashion to call on the United Nations (UN) to rescind the Goldstone Report, which condemned Israel for war crimes against Palestinians. He opposes UN recognition of the state of Palestine without a negotiated peace settlement with Israel. He also opposes returning Israel to its 1967 borders—a return that is a sine qua non for a peaceful Palestinian solution.
Counterpunch reports: “Sanders is the darling of the American-Israeli [sic] Public Affairs Committee and the right-wing Likud government of Israel. He has done everything within his power to keep the myth of Islamic terrorism alive.” He is also a committed supporter of the military-industrial complex fomenting wars across the world.
Sanders accepts uncritically the Establishment’s false propaganda about the situation in the Middle East, particularly regarding the U.S.-created terrorist organization, Islamic State, and the supposed dangers of a “nuclear Iran.” While he makes much of his past opposition to the Iraq War and says he wants to end American military involvement in the Middle East, he promotes the insane notion that the terrorist ally of Israel, Saudi Arabia, should be encouraged to rampage across the region on our behalf—as though that will in any way promote peace. In this regard, Sanders is a typical Zionist warmonger, supporting proxy warfare on behalf of Israel.
Moreover, Sanders’s foreign policy views, if implemented, risk genuine world war. He supported the U.S.- and Israeli-led bloody coup in Ukraine, which has plunged that country into genocidal civil war. And he beats the war drums against Russia, claiming the U.S. should “stop Putin.” Both operations promote Israeli interests in re-establishing a Khazarian empire and Big Oil’s insistence on maintaining U.S. petroleum hegemony.
Sanders, who possesses a notably explosive temper, promotes not world peace, but world destruction.
Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author and an assistant editor of THE BARNES REVIEW. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence.
