 Thankfully Bernie Sanders is one of the better United States senators on the issue of Israel Palestine But let me tell you he's still not perfect and he has come a long way since 2014 So let me just remind you the way that Bernie Sanders spoke about this issue during a town hall in 2014 He got lots of pushback because of this. Take a look Roads and all the things that they need and use some of that money to build these very sophisticated tunnels into Israel with military Question was asked it's a bad question If you don't Excuse me shut up You don't have the microphone. You've asked, you know, I don't want police officers here No Okay To say that Bernie Sanders has improved on this issue would be an understatement you can argue that he's done a complete 180 on this issue and People during the town hall were outraged because they asked Bernie Sanders about the war crimes being carried out by the Israeli government And he acknowledged that their response was disproportionate, right? And they were overreacting The issue was that he still kept focusing on Hamas But what about Hamas this and Hamas that in Israel has the right to defend itself And they were trying to educate him on this issue and after years Bernie Sanders finally is Changing his mind on this and that's really important So I'm not showing you that video to attack Bernie Sanders and smear him and make it seem as if he's less progressive as he should be I'm sharing that video with you because I want you to know that there's hope We can change hearts and minds not everyone is as principled and objective as Bernie Sanders but it is possible to actually change people's minds on this issue and Maybe you're not convinced yet that Palestinians have the right to exist But there's still a chance for you to change your mind So Bernie Sanders has made a tremendous amount of progress on this issue and in an op-ed for the New York Times He wrote the US must stop being an apologist for the Netanyahu government and in this op-ed He says let's be clear No one is arguing that Israel or any government does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people So why are these words repeated year after year war after war? And why is the question almost never asked what are the rights of the Palestinian people in this moment of crisis? The United States should be urging an immediate ceasefire We should also understand that while Hamas firing rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable Today's conflict did not begin with those rockets over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism in his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces including Itamar Ben-Gir an extremist Jewish power party by bringing them into government It is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation and it's Knesset Now he goes on to call for an immediate ceasefire and he calls on Joe Biden to actually condition the aid that we're sending to Israel Now it's not perfect, right? He doesn't mention apartheid in that article and to my knowledge. He still doesn't support BDS He's against the crackdown in the US against BDS, but he doesn't necessarily see BDS as a solution himself But when you compare what Bernie is saying now to what he said back in 2014, it is it's a huge difference It's like night and day and it's really important Now part of the reason why a lot of lawmakers don't want to speak out in defense of the Palestinian people is because any and all Condemnation of the Israeli government's actions is usually conflated with anti-semitism What you're condemning this far right extremist Benjamin Netanyahu. It must be because you're an anti-semit So the question is when somebody who's a Jewish American like Bernie Sanders condemns the far right extremist government of Israel What's the response? Well, it's the same response They tweak it a little bit rather than saying that he's anti-semitic that is say He's a self hating Jew and if you read the op-ed that Bernie Sanders wrote There is zero indication that he is a self hating Jew But that didn't stop Alan Dershowitz from going on the far right Newsmax TV and calling Bernie Sanders just that and ironically condemning Palestine for war crimes you get inadvertently you get the social media supporting Hamas the New York Times supporting Hamas and It sends a very powerful message do it again kill children, you know kill civilians attack attack attack commit war crimes You'll prevail on this because of the anti-semitism that stimulates so much of this and you can be a Jew in an anti-semite You know Bert Weidner has made some wrong statements positively and I commend him for that but Bernie Sanders who's Jewish is a self-hating Jew a Self-hating Jew who is willing to see Israel be defeated militarily by a terrorist group Because he's on the hard left and he had to follow the hard left and that's what he has been doing think of how Preposterous and idiotic this argument is from Alan Dershowitz. He's calling Bernie Sanders a self-hating Jew Because Bernie Sanders condemned ethnic cleansing and genocide From a far right government that wants an ethno-state quite literally that makes him a self-hating Jew that's moronic and This isn't necessarily an argument that only Alan Dershowitz is peddling lots of people were staunchly pro-Israel Israel usually funded by the Israeli lobby by the way They are saying the same exact thing so in an interview with Ali Velshi on MSNBC who's been great on this issue by the way Bernie Sanders responded to this responded to claims that criticisms of the Israeli government is Anti-Semitic and Bernie Sanders. Oh, he had a great take senator you you publish an op-ed I Delivered a commentary yesterday on the fact that we we do need to start taking the rights of the human rights of Palestinians into account Senator Ted Cruz not talking about you but talking about the squads opposition to Two things he said this on Thursday It's disgraceful that you have members of the United States Congress that basically operate as shills for terrorists and Undermine Israel and they undermine Israel so often that after a while you start to say, okay, we get it you don't like the Jews Folks have said that about you too How do we how do we understand the ability to criticize the policies of the Israeli government as being entirely separate from and counter to anti-Semitism That's exactly right. The Israeli government has evolved over the years into a pretty Strong right-wing government and their coalition now includes people who are over Racists and when you have the United States of America Ali Putting almost four billion dollars a year into Israel. We have the right To demand that they respect the human rights of all people Including the Palestinians what we need now is an even-handed policy which protects The security of Israel they have a light right to live in peace and security without terrorist attacks But the people in the Palestinian territories also have a right to live in peace and dignity And anyone who takes a look what's going on in Gaza right now where youth unemployment is 70% And I'm talking about before this current war and the terrible things that have happened in the war Where youth unemployment is sky-high where people can't get electricity and clean water on a regular basis This is a territory controlled by Israel So we got to deal with the corruption of the Palestinian Authority We got to deal with that but we have also got to create a situation Where the people in the Palestinian territories are respected as well Yeah, so what he's basically saying is what's wrong is wrong It doesn't matter who you are and where you come from Genocide is genocide ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing my words not his of course, but the sentiment remains Don't let these bloodthirsty fools Intimidate you into thinking that it's anti-semitic to condemn the right-wing government of Israel that wants an ethno state They're the ones who are actually racist. They're the ones who are prejudiced Who hate another group of people because of their identity? It is not anti-semitic to condemn the right-wing government of Israel To not condemn the right-wing government of Israel means you actually don't care About people who are suffering so don't let them try to weaponize their identities to shut down criticism This is just a diversion tactic pushed by the Israeli lobby to get people to turn a blind eye to the war crimes being committed by Israel But no silence is unacceptable and For those like Andrew Yang and Richie Torres who go out of their way to defend the ethnic cleansing that Israel is doing currently against the Palestinian people They're the ones who will be viewed as the intolerant bigots Who support something so egregious That I don't think it's that long until all of history sees what's happening in fact I can't even say that the rest of the world already sees what's happening It's just the United States who brainwashes its citizens But again, even that's starting to change as some US media outlets are calling it what it is an apartheid They're calling Israel an apartheid state They're calling Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal because he is and the United States is the sole vote That blocks condemnation of this on the UN Security Council so honestly, we stand alone in the world in Allowing this to take place So understand that in the broader context of world history and the fight for justice We know who's on the right side of history. I Think that's very obvious. It's not folks like Alan Dershowitz. It's folks who stand up for the Palestinian people and That should be obvious it shouldn't be this controversial People shouldn't be this afraid to speak up because they're afraid that condemning a psychopath like Netanyahu Means that they're anti-semitic that's preposterous and we have to absolutely vociferously push back against this moronic narrative We have to