“Progressive” senator who was almost the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2016 says: “there is no debate” about Israel’s right to murder Palestinians
Last Thursday (26), the North American Congress unanimously approved a resolution condemning “pro-Hamas and anti-Israel student groups”. A voice vote was held, in which senators are called upon by the President of the House to take a position in favor or against the resolution. The measure is reserved for unanimous issues, for rapid approval, an expectation that was confirmed by the absence of protests against the proposal.
The resolution “denounces the rhetoric of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas student groups as anti-Semitic, repugnant, and morally despicable for sympathizing with genocidal violence against the State of Israel and for endangering the physical safety of Jewish Americans in the United States.” . Furthermore, it reinforces Israel’s right to exist; supports North American Jews, as if protests against the genocide in Gaza and in favor of Palestinian resistance threatened them; and “encourages the United States to fully and completely support Israel and its right to exist and defend itself.”
That the US Senate would approve a reactionary measure like this is not surprising. The surprise is due to unanimity, counting on the vote of the only senator elected by the bloc of progressive parliamentarians of the Democratic Party, known as the Congressional Progressive Caucus , or Congressional Progressive Caucus, in a free translation.
The senator in question is Bernie Sanders, who prides himself on his “independence” from the bipartisan American dictatorship. Finally, Sanders was elected in his state, Vermont, without being linked to any of the major American parties. This independence never actually existed, but in 2016 a great illusion was created around Sanders’ pre-candidacy for president within the Democratic Party. This process certainly opened a crisis within this important pillar of the American political regime, just as Donald Trump did for the right in the Republican Party, but after his defeat, step by step, Sanders revealed himself as a good and loyal soldier of imperialism. .
On the Palestinian issue, this past week, their capitulations reached their highest point. It has become clear that their collaboration with Joe Biden’s reactionary government goes far beyond an alliance against Trump’s “fascism”.
Since the 7th, when Operation Al Aqsa Flood began, Sanders was already demoralizing his supporters with his firm support for Israel, much firmer than his defense of a North American public health system, one of his main banners. Even before signing under the suppression of popular protests by left-wing university students (the sector in which his electorate is concentrated!), Sanders already said:
“I listened carefully to what Senator [Rick] Scott and others said about the barbaric act committed by Hamas against innocent men, women and children, the machine gunning of young people who were just attending a dance, the murder of babies. This is a horrible, horrible act that precipitates a global crisis, and the United States of America, all of us, condemn this act. And, in my opinion, the State of Israel has the absolute right to defend itself against Hamas and terrorism in general. There is no debate about this” ( Bernie Sanders Speaks on the Israel-Hamas Conflict Transcript , Rev , 10/19/2023).
After this emphatic introduction, which repeats the lies of the capitalist press that so sabotaged Sanders, the senator asks that the Zionist state, in its “absolute and indisputable right” to self-defense, not attack the “hundreds and hundreds of thousands of men, women and innocent children in Gaza.” We would like to know how it would be possible to allow the attack on Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions on the planet, without harming innocent people or destroying their homes. The cynicism of Sanders’ proposal hurts us more than the murderous rage of reactionary senators who openly defend genocide. At least they are honest in their intention!
On the 25th, one day before accompanying the Senate in the absurd resolution against the Palestinian struggle and its supporters in the United States, Sanders returned to the stage. Once again we suffered a long introduction, identical in content to the imperialist press, and what were we awarded? More lies.
“Israel has the right to defend itself and go after Hamas. But innocent Palestinians also have the right to life, security and peace. Remember that the last election held in Gaza was in 2006, when the majority of people in Gaza were not yet born or could not vote. Even so, a minority voted for Hamas. Hamas is an authoritarian organization that does not necessarily represent a broad portion of the Palestinian people, and we should not confuse all Palestinians with this terrorist organization” ( NEWS: Sanders Calls for Humanitarian Pause in Israel and Gaza , Bernie Sanders’ official portal, 25/ 10/2023).
Hamas won the 2006 elections not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. If new elections did not take place after that year, it was precisely because the imperialist puppets of the Palestinian National Authority not only did not hand over power to Hamas in the West Bank but also prevented new elections, obviously at the behest of “Israel”.
Sanders, who has Israeli citizenship and in the 1960s went to the country for its “socialist” ideology to work on the kibbutz, has already taken such pro-Zionist positions, for example in 2014, on the occasion of brutal attacks by Israel. The senator from Vermont also unconditionally supported US aid to the Ukrainian Nazi puppet government in its fight against Russia. On the other hand, he has never received a nod for his reformist proposals. He does this not to bargain, but out of ideological alignment with US imperialist policy.
