Bernie Sanders on the Israel-Hamas War: “We Have Got to Stop the Bombing Now”

Courtesy CNN

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In an interview Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that while “Israel has a right to defend itself,” its bombing campaign in the Gaza needs to come to an end immediately.

As he told host Dana Bash:

I think it’s clear to most people what Hamas did—and Hamas is an awful terrorist organization—is they slaughtered 1,400 people in cold blood. Israel has a right to defend itself. What Israel does not, in my view, have a right to do is to kill thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children who had nothing to do with that attack. So the immediate concern, Dana, to my mind is we’ve got to stop the bombing now.

Sanders said the United States should use military aid as a leverage to force the Israel’s hand. “If you want this money,” he said when asked about a potential Israeli aid package that could come before the Senate, “you’ve got to change your military strategy.”

When asked about the video Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) released on Friday criticizing President Joe Biden for “supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people,” Sanders turned his focus to the Republican response. “What’s happening right now is a horror show—we don’t have to quibble about words,” he said. “One of the things that concerns me, Dana, is there’s not been enough talk about what right-wing Republicans are doing right now. They don’t want any aid to go to the Palestinians. Somebody should be talking about that. Somebody should be talking about how Trump wants to expel Palestinians from this country.

“You can disagree with Joe Biden, but on his worst day he’ll be a hundred times better than where Trump and right-wing Republicans are coming from.”

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At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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