As a Sanders’ supporter, one fear I have for Bernie is that as a Jewish president, he will face the same sort of bigotry the repugnants have dumped on Present Obama as a black man.
On Saturday, Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders held an event aimed at African Americans at the historic Apollo Theater in New York. A member of the audience asked a question:
“As you know,” opened the questioner, “the Zionist Jews–and I don’t mean to offend anybody–they run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign.”
Sanders began wagging his finger in dissent, and interjected“Zionist Jews” a “bad phrase.”
The questioner responded: “What is your affiliation to your Jewish community? That’s all I’m asking.”
“No, no, no, that’s not what you’re asking,” “I am proud to be Jewish,” he declared, to cheers from the audience. But then Sanders did something odd. Rather than using the question as a teaching moment to address and rebuke its anti-Semitic underpinnings, Sanders instead immediately pivoted to his stump speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Talking about Zionism and Israel,” he said, “I am a strong defender of Israel, but I also believe that we have got to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinian people.”
Sanders never challenged the actual contents of the question.