New gov't will fight 'I'm not anti-Israel, just anti-Bibi' stance - comment

• Published date: 15 June 2021
• Author: HERB KEINON
• Date: 15 June 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

But how about anti-Netanyahu sentiment abroad? Is that, perhaps, just a politically correct way to be anti-Israel? To determine the answer, it will be worth watching US Sen. Bernie Sanders.

That's right, Sanders, the one-time US presidential candidate whose campaign was chock-full of attacks on former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "racist." In one presidential debate, Sanders said that "sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running the country."

During that same campaign, Sanders loudly declared via a tweet that he would not attend the annual AIPAC conference because he was "concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights."

So now that there is a new government in Israel, and now that Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will increasingly be the face of Israel to the world, is Sanders going to accept an invitation to AIPAC if Lapid is the featured Israeli speaker there? For, after all, Lapid is a liberal, and in his first speech as foreign minister on Monday said one of his top goals is to repair ties with the Democratic Party.

Or, perhaps, was Sanders' animus toward Netanyahu – and the animus of the far-left flank of the Democratic Party he represents, along with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and others – just camouflage and an excuse to hide a far deeper hostility toward Israel?

Ever since Netanyahu publicly tangled with former president Barack Obama, and then embraced Donald Trump, it has been convenient for some Democrats and progressives to couch deep-seated anti-Israeli sentiments by saying they are not against Israel, but rather only against Netanyahu or "Netanyahu's Israel."

An oft-heard refrain has been, "Being pro-Israel does not mean being pro-Netanyahu?" This, of course, is true. But now that Netanyahu is no longer running the show, will these people who were not "pro-Netanyahu" all of a sudden reevaluate what they think of Israel? Or was it all just a ruse?

Or, how about the claim that Israel is no longer the Middle East's only true democracy, a claim that has gained currency in recent months, with even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writing a couple of weeks ago that Israel "is not even pretending to be a democracy anymore."

Will those who have already declared the death of Israeli democracy now do a U-turn, seeing as the Jewish state just went through a peaceful – though not...