“Anyone who calls our prime minister a 'racist' is either a liar, an ignorant fool, or both,” declared Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon, speaking on Sunday, March 1, at the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C.
The ignorant fool Dannon undiplomatically referred to was, of course, US Senator Bernie Sanders, a strong contender in the ongoing Democratic presidential primaries, who has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a racist, accused the entire elected Israeli government of being racists, and most recently said AIPAC is a platform for bigots.
For those not familiar with American culture of the past 60 years, it takes some context to explain why Sanders would mindlessly condemn Israel, Netanyahu and AIPAC as all being racists.
Since the late 1950s, at the start of the American civil rights revolution, liberal America labeled as racist anyone who opposed their agenda for black Americans and the narrative which tried to sell their leftist version of racial utopia to the American public.
In fact, for nearly 60 years the word racist has been a club which quickly bludgeoned anyone who threatened leftist fairy tales about race and America.
Indeed, anyone with the temerity to mention the devastating impact of welfare payments on blacks, the inability to properly educate black children, the catastrophes of black violence, black babies born to unwed mothers, and dozens of other issues were met with screaming accusations of racism by American leftists.
What was particularly wonderful for the armies of impotent leftists like Sanders, was that throwing around the word racist seemed to be all the effort they needed to expend to prove their bonafides as the great white protectors of black Americans.
No real work had to be performed by leftists to help black Americans. The leftists did not have to leave their all-white neighborhoods and roll up their sleeves and help. They did not have to try to educate black children. They did not need to teach black Americans how to work and save money.
And all too predictably, Mr. Sanders moved on from his leftist fantasies about black America to his warped fantasies about Israel.
Mr. Sanders’ vision of what Israel must be--must be--was gleaned from his few weeks of visiting a socialist kibbutz. He wanted singing and dancing around campfires, endlessly naive discussions about socialist utopias, everyone equal and working in the fields, with all profits distributed based upon the needs of the kibbutz members (most of the kibbutzim eventually had to be bailed out by the Israeli government).
And Sanders’ leftist delusions excluded rabbis, synagogues, Torah, yeshivot, kashrut, the flag of Israel, soldiers, Hatikvah and Shabbat.
However, Mr. Netanyahu and the right of center Likud eventually arrived on the scene, and their very existence challenged the leftist narrative of what Sanders demanded Israel should be.
How uncomfortable Bernie Sanders was with Netanyahu’s proud nationalism, with his faith in the Israeli military, with his success in embracing capitalism and, lastly, with his belief that reality has shown that peace with the Palestinian Arabs is probably not possible.
How repelled Mr. Sanders was with Netanyahu’s extraordinary military service in an elite commando unit, especially compared to those of Mr. Sanders’ ilk, who seem genetically incapable of wearing the uniforms of their countries.
Most of all, here was Netanyahu, a proud Jew…….the exact opposite of Sanders, who spent a lifetime hiding his inconvenient Judaism and only discovered he was a Jew at 74 years old when it brought him political advantage during his 2016 presidential campaign.
So, faced with Mr. Netanyahu’s success at puncturing the left’s lunatic world view, Mr. Sanders returned to his old playbook and labeled Netanyahu, his government and AIPAC as racists.
How often has that old warrior for justice, Bernie Sanders, condemned other racists?
And while throwing around such libels comes naturally to Sanders and his fellow leftists, how often has that old warrior for justice, Bernie Sanders, condemned other racists?
What did Mr. Sanders say about the proudly antisemitic Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who happily and publicly attacked Jews? Bernie said nothing, because only Mr. Netanyahu is a racist.
How did Sanders label his comrades in China, who recently locked up millions of Moslems in re-education camps? Bernie said nothing, because only Israel’s government is racist.
What condemnation did Sanders hurl at the Kuwaitis when they expelled 200,000 Palestinians in 1991, the Saudis when they expelled 300,000 Yemenis and Somalis in 2015, or, closer to home, the Mexicans when they built a wall to halt migrants on their southern border? For Mr. Sanders, none of these governments could be racists. Only Israel’s government is racist.
And what did Mr. Sanders say when his buddies Jesse Jackson called Jews “Hymies” or when Al Sharpton called Jews “white interlopers” and “diamond merchants”, or even when black leader Louis Farakkhan spent decades spewing his antisemitic lunacy? Well, none of these black leaders were racists, according to Mr. Sanders, for only Netanyahu is a racist.
Oh, and what did Sanders say when fellow comrade Jeremy Corbyn said Jews are alien to British culture? Why, he threw his support behind Corbyn, because only Netanyahu is a racist.
And where was Mr. Sanders when Jews needed him during the battle to free Soviet Jewry? In all those decades he never said a word of support, since his Soviet comrades could not be racists. Only Israel is racist.
And most urgently, Mr. Sanders has refused to voice support for the Jews of his former Brooklyn who remain under daily attack by blacks, since blacks can not be racists, only Jews are racists.
But, if Mr. Sanders really wants to seek out truly dangerous racists, all he needs to do is look into the faces of those antisemites he has gathered around as campaign staff and supporters. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Jeremy Corbyn, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Cornel West, Rep. Ilhan Omar and so many other antisemites who publicly support and work for Mr. Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination.
And, painfully, there’s much more:
In 1994, Sanders voted against a Congressional resolution condemning remarks by Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a leading member of Farrakhan's Nation of Islam movement, who gave a speech saying Hitler must have had a good reason for exterminating European Jewry.
However, the always-moral Bernie Sanders voted against condemning Muhammad, since blacks could not be racists, according to Mr. Sanders. Only Jews are racists.
Again, calling Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government and AIPAC racists is part of Mr. Sanders’ well-worn playbook to silence those who do not ascribe to his warped leftist views of the world.
In Bernie’s world, leftist antisemites must not be condemned, black antisemites must not be condemned, congressional antisemites must not be condemned. In Bernie’s world, only Jews are condemned as racists.
But, as we all know, if Mr. Sanders wants to really expose the number one racist who reflexively applies an antisemitic double standard to Israel and always turns a blind eye to those seeking to destroy the Jewish state and the Jewish people, all Bernie Sanders needs to do is look into the mirror.
And remember that we need to maintain some perspective about Sanders’ libeling Netanyahu about being a racist. For long, long after the self-hating Jew Bernie Sanders has returned to dust, never to be remembered, the legend of Benzion, Jonathan and Benjamin Netanyahu will be told and retold.