Bruce Ticker

Maybe now the threat of anti-Semitism – government-sanctioned anti-Semitism, to be specific – could be slackening with Bernie Sanders’s slackening presidential campaign. American Jews feared that a Bernie Sanders presidency would intensify the anti-Semitic movement that has been haunting our country, especially during the past few years. Had Sanders swept Super Tuesday states last week, we should still be worried. [Bruce S. Ticker]

Hatikvah, as Israel’s national anthem, stirs tender emotions among us whenever it is played, but for others it is a provocation. Likewise, a $225 million expenditure is seen as worth the price to defend Israel, but some newly-minted members of Congress do not readily understand that. Two episodes surfaced last week that reflected missed opportunities in communication for Jewish organizations that seek to be protective of Israel. Most prominent was the sharp bickering between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Jewish and political leaders over his attacks against AIPAC and Israel’s prime minister. Despite the offensive attitudes of some Israel critics, some of this acrimony could be grounded in AIPAC’s tactics to lose friends and influence people – the wrong way about Israel. [Bruce S. Ticker]

Possibly our first Jewish president, and already Americans are panicking. This sigh of relief: Democratic leaders and others are raising concerns about an overreaching agenda and a misguided approach to Israel, not over his religion or ethnicity. It looks like that, anyway. We must face it – the election of a President Bernie Sanders could become a reality. It is yet too soon to predict the outcome, but this one result is foreseeable: Sanders will confront an adversarial Congress, if not a hostile Congress. [Bruce S. Ticker]

Worries that Sanders could jeopardize the party’s standing coincided with the impeachment trial, Trump’s so-called peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and the aftermath of the parliamentary elections in Britain. [Bruce S. Ticker]

– Two policy positions should disqualify any candidate for president – casting a vote to invade Iraq or distorting Israel’s role in its struggle with the Palestinians. That would eliminate former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the three consistent front-runners for the Democratic nomination. In October 2002, then-Senator Biden joined 76 other senators in voting to send troops to invade Iraq, and Sanders and Warren cannot pontificate on the Middle East for long without placing a disproportionate amount of blame on Israel. {Bruce S. Ticker]

Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts were among Democratic presidential candidates to chime in, and both predictably misrepresented the situation after a cease-fire was declared. [Bruce S. Ticker]