Joining CBS' Face the Nation Sunday morning, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I) seemed to be reading from Hamas propaganda talking points while addressing the violence that's been carried out by terrorists against Israel amid his own opposition to U.S. support for Israel.
"All that I think is that given the incredible suffering in Gaza where we have a poverty rate of 56%, 70% of the young people are unemployed, and after the Israeli attacks you have wastewater plants destroyed, clinics destroyed, hospitals destroyed, I think the United States has got to develop an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We have to be pro-Israel, but we have to be pro-Palestinian," Sanders said.
Surely Sanders knows that Hamas hides behind hospitals, schools, offices, and homes to launch their attacks—he just leaves that fact out along with the lengths to which Israel goes to warn innocent civilians and minimize any collateral damage in their successful strikes
“Given the incredible suffering in Gaza...I think the United States has got to develop an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says. “We have to be pro-Israel, but we have to be pro-Palestinian.” pic.twitter.com/LXMMGPXRVJ
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 23, 2021
When asked how an "even-handed approach" works when dealing with terrorists who seek to destroy Israel, Sanders retreated to moral equivalencies. "You have Hamas, a terrorist group, you have a right-wing Israeli government, and the situation is getting worse," Sanders said. Apparently to Bernie, Hamas terrorists seeking to wipe Israel off the map are on a level field with the government of America's best ally in the Middle East.
"Hamas is a terrorist, corrupt, authoritarian group of people, and we've got to stand up to them," Sanders also said. "But once again, our job is not not simply to put more and more military support for Israel, it is to bring people together."
"The United States of America has got to be leading the world in bringing people together, not simply supplying weapons to kill children in Gaza. This last series of attacks killed 64 children." @BernieSanders this morning pic.twitter.com/P9GXppiSIJ
— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) May 23, 2021
Sanders also didn't miss the opportunity to repeat Hamas propaganda: "All that I'm saying is that the United States of America has got to be leading the world in bringing people together, not simply supplying weapons to kill children in Gaza. This last series of attacks killed 64 children and destroyed a large part of the infrastructure of Gaza in a community that has already been one of the most uninhabitable territories in the world."
Sanders conveniently failed to mention the Israeli lives lost during the most-recent conflict, nor did he reference IDF reports that Hamas misfired 680 rockets in Gaza and, if not for the Iron Dome's 90% success rate, more than 4,000 rockets would have struck Israel. When it comes to the infrastructure Sanders mentioned, he also left out the fact that Israeli strikes took out 60+ miles of Hamas' tunnel network.
The IDF has successfully completed Operation Guardian of the Walls. This is what the 12-day-long operation looked like in numbers: pic.twitter.com/AM2WoqPx4K
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 22, 2021
When asked about recent violent attacks against Jews in broad daylight (on which Katie reported), Sanders tried to pivot and pin blame on "right-wing extremists."
"We have to combat anti-Semitism," Sanders said before adding "we have to combat the increase in hate crimes in this country against Asians, against African Americans, against Latinos. We've got a serious problem of a nation which is being increasingly divided, being led by right-wing extremists in that direction."