cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/20474460
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday night spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate:
And let me also mention something that I found rather extraordinary and outrageous. And that is just a few days ago Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing extremist government in Israel, a government which contains out-and-out anti-Palestinian racists.
Netanyahu issued a statement in which he equated criticism of his government’s illegal and immoral war against the Palestinian people with antisemitism. In other words, if you are protesting, or disagree, with what Netanyahu and his extremist government are doing in Gaza, you are an antisemite.
That is an outrageous statement from a leader who is clearly trying – and I have to tell you, he seems to be succeeding with the American media — trying to deflect attention away from the horrific policies that he is pursuing that created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
So, let me be as clear as I can be: It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in almost seven months Netanyahu’s extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children.
It is not antisemitic to point out that Netanyahu’s government’s bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless – almost half the population. No, Mr. Netanyahu it is not antisemitic to point out what you have done in terms of the destruction of housing in Gaza.
It is not antisemitic to realize that his government has annihilated Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers. At a time when 77,000 people have been wounded and desperately need medical care, Netanyahu has systematically destroyed the health care system in Gaza.
It is not antisemitic to condemn his government’s destruction of all of Gaza’s 12 universities and 56 of its schools, with hundreds more damaged, leaving 625,000 children in Gaza have no opportunity for an education. It is not antisemitic to make that point.
It is not antisemitic to note that Netanyahu’s government has obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure – there is virtually no electricity in Gaza right now, virtually no clean water in Gaza right now, and sewage is seeping out onto the streets.
It is not antisemitic to make that point.
President, it is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the Gaza area in saying that his government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza.
I worked for Bernie's campaign in '16, and I agree with this about some of his top staff... There were times where it legitimately seemed like they were deliberately screwing things up... And since a lot of them were establishment Dems who had previously worked for the likes of Hillary it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out they were.
I think the biggest reason he lost the primary was the Party shenanigans though. All the tricks we see the Republicans using now-a-days like voter purges and closing polling locations last minute are tricks they learned from Hillary's campaign and the DNC schills that control the state parties. And of course there was just straight up fraud in some places like Iowa.
As for his supporters, he actually got millions of young people to show up and vote in the primary who otherwise wouldn't have. Millions of whom almost certainly didn't show up to vote for Clinton, and likely wouldn't have thought twice about voting at all had it not been for Bernie. Had he been on the ballot millions of young people who didn't show up for Clinton would have shown up. I doubt anyone who voted for Clinton would have voted for Trump over Bernie, and I doubt they would have stayed home. The DNC flushed millions of new voters' votes down the toilet by forcing Clinton through.