The Jewish state is doing its best to prevent the first Jew from sitting in the Oval Office if that Jew is Bernie Sanders.

“We don’t want Bernie Sanders in Israel,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, in response to the Democratic presidential candidate’s refusal to appear at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) event.

Sanders had also accused Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a “reactionary racist.”

For that, Danon slammed Sanders as an “ignorant fool” and a “liar.”

Netanyahu responds

When asked by Israel’s Army Radio to respond to Sanders’ outburst, Netanyahu himself insisted that he “would not intervene in the US elections.”

But Netanyahu’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, did take Sanders to task last week when the Democrat suggested that were he to become president, he’d consider returning the US Embassy to Tel Aviv.

“That remark was shocking,” said Katz. “There is no Jew who hasn’t dreamed of returning to Jerusalem for thousands of years.” Except maybe Bernie Sanders.

Pro-Israel, but…

On Sunday, Sanders took to the CBS program “Face the Nation” to respond to the mounting criticism. The fact that he felt the need to do so again speaks to how important Israel has become as an issue in US presidential elections.

“I am pro-Israel. I am pro-Palestinian,” insisted the Democratic presidential frontrunner. “I will do everything to protect the independence and the security and the freedom of the Israeli people.”

But, Sanders continued, “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.”

.@BernieSanders addresses confrontation with @AIPAC: "I'm Jewish and I'm very proud of my Jewish heritage…I am not anti-Israel…but 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." pic.twitter.com/2gf5psaG3k

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 1, 2020

Just not this Jew

And that right there reveals why Israel would like to prevent the ascension of the first Jewish president, so long as it’s this particular Jew. Sanders, like so many far-left liberals in the US, blames Israel for the suffering of the Palestinian Arabs, in particular those living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

His views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict ignore the fact that for the past two decades, the US-led peace process has centered on giving the Palestinians most of what they demand and routinely squeezing Israel for “goodwill gestures.” That the Palestinians themselves have systematically failed to comply with numerous signed agreements can hardly be blamed on Israel. 

US President Donald Trump’s decision to flip this failed formula on its head has for Israel been a breath of fresh air, and Jerusalem is wary of returning to a dead-end approach under America’s first Jewish president.