Sanders’ Challenge to Clinton and Democrats: Palestinian Lives Matter

[Israeli]

6. Something missing here.........whatever could it be?

This has also been the overarching theme of Israeli efforts to counter BDS and growing anti-Israeli hostility on campuses, indeed the leitmotif of Israel’s view of any and all hostility in the world. It’s all part of a sinister anti-Semitic plot, possibly masterminded by Hamas, Iran and other Jew-haters. They are poisoning the minds of naive and impressionable American youths and leading them down a path of evil. And if that is the case, there’s no need to acknowledge the influence - or the very existence, in fact - of occupation, racism, “seeds of fascism,” popular support for extrajudicial killings, endless efforts to curtail democracy and the cries of frustration and anguish that all of these spark in Israel and are broadcast from there, through social media, to the rest of the world. All of these don’t matter, because primordial antipathy to Jews rules the world.

One of the eight senators who stayed away from Netanyahu’s speech was Bernie Sanders. Since then, the Vermont senator has gone on to become a presidential contender who is wildly popular among young Democratic liberals. It is possible that Sanders’ willingness to stray from the norm, to criticize Israel and Netanyahu publicly, to call for an evenhanded U.S. approach and to express unabashed sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians gave an extra push to pent up liberal frustrations that had been simmering beneath the surface all along.

Lieberman’s appointment as defense minister is bound to pour more fuel on the fire, even if one assumes, as I do, that his actions will belie his harsh and often racist words. Nonetheless, the next time someone blames anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, leftist agitprop, liberal naiveté or that all purpose whipping boy Barack Obama for the growing alienation between Israel and liberals, in America and around the world, you might want to refer them simply to this week’s headlines.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.721482