Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appeared to criticize US Senator Bernie Sanders, whose boycott of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has laid bare divisions among Democrats.
Sanders is staying away from the annual conference, saying it offers a platform for “leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights” and has denounced Netanyahu as a “reactionary racist.”
Netanyahu, addressing the conference by satellite on the eve of Israeli elections, did not name Sanders, but said: “This year AIPAC was accused of providing a platform for bigotry. These libelous charges are outrageous.”
Speaking to the thousands of people at a Washington convention center, Netanyahu said: “You send a powerful message to all those who seek to weaken our great alliance that they will fail.”
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, was far more direct in attacking Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
“We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. We don’t want him in Israel,” Danon said. “Anyone who calls our prime minister a ‘racist’ is either a liar, an ignorant fool or both.”
Netanyahu has vowed to annex much of the West Bank if he secures another term, with Israelis voting yesterday for the third time in less than a year.
Calling the Palestinians “the pampered children of the international community,” Netanyahu voiced confidence that the US would recognize the annexation in line with a Middle East peace plan presented a month ago by US President Donald Trump.
“This will be a truly historic day. The map of Israel will change, the future of Israel will change, and it will change for the better,” Netanyahu said.
Sanders, asked about AIPAC in a televised interview on Sunday, promised to protect Israel’s security, but also to be more “even-handed.”
“What we need in this country is a foreign policy that not only protects Israel, but deals with the suffering of the Palestinian people as well,” he said.
Ex-military chief Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s rival in the election, did not mention Sanders in his own remarks by satellite to AIPAC, but vowed to rebuild support for Israel in the US.
“I will instill hope and not hate. That is the Israel we know; that is the Israel we need,” Gantz said. “Israel will never, ever become a partisan issue. I will work effectively across both sides of the aisle.”
While showing few gaps with Netanyahu on security issues, Gantz said he would oppose far-right politicians seeking to enter parliament and promised inclusion at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall.
AIPAC for years has been an election-year rite of passage for US presidential candidates, but only one Democratic contender plans to attend in person this time: former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Former US vice president Joe Biden, who won a primary on Saturday in South Carolina, sent a video message in which he urged Israelis and Palestinians not to scuttle a two-state solution.
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