Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, if he wins the presidential race, may be the first American leader in more than 40 years to declare that Jewish settlements are illegal. Sanders' position on Israeli settlements may be largely consistent with international law, dozens of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the policies of some former US administrations, but it represents a sharp line departure from former US presidents, who have avoided questions about the legitimacy of Israel's decades-long march In building Jewish settlements on Arab lands, even though they criticized them as a serious obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Break through prohibitions
When it comes to the politically complex issue of Middle East diplomacy, Sanders is willing to break political taboos. This 78-year-old Vermont senator, who lived in an Israeli kibbutz in the early 1960s, refers to Israel as an "occupying power", and this signal is considered by the government of Israel and its allies in the White House and Congress as an insult. Sanders said he would be ready to adjust $ 3.8 billion in annual US military aid to Israel, due to its treatment of the Palestinians, a situation that does not appeal to Republicans and the leadership of the Democratic Congress. Sanders also described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December 2019 as "racist."
Last Sunday, Sanders announced that he would not attend the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a traditional venue for Democratic and Republican political candidates, expressing concern about the program it "provides to leaders who express fanaticism and oppose basic Palestinian rights." These statements sparked a barrage of criticism from American Jewish organizations and commentators, who described them as "hateful", "hostile", and "distorted."
A new approach
The successful candidacy of Sanders - who has emerged as a Democratic leader since his initial victory in Nevada - has opened up the possibility for presidential candidates to adopt a radically different approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and increase the divisions between the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party. It would certainly be a fundamental shift from the policies of the administration of the US President, Donald Trump. "It is very difficult to say at this point that Senator Sanders falls within the parameters of traditional American foreign policy," says David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee. "I have little doubt that Sanders' foreign policy in the Middle East will look very different from foreign policy." To Trump ».
It is still too early to determine the impact of Sanders' approach to the Middle East on his electoral opportunities. Trump certainly portrays Sanders as anti-Israel, whose current government has unrestricted support from Trump's base of Christian evangelicals and conservative Jewish voters. But we do not believe that Sanders, or any of his Democratic rivals, faces a major problem in securing the majority of Jewish votes in the United States, according to CEO of the American Jewish Democratic Council, Haley Sofer. She said: "While there is not a single candidate around which the opinions of Jewish voters agree, the overwhelming majority of Jewish voters will support any Democratic candidate in the general elections against Trump."
Critics warn that Sanders' presidency will eliminate decades of support that the two parties have been providing to Israel, undermining ties with America's closest allies in the Middle East and endangering Israel's security. They fear that this will also give a strong moral boost to some of Israel's most cruel critics, including prominent supporters of the boycott movement, divestment and sanctions, such as Palestinian-American activist, Linda Sarsour and her representatives, and two members of Congress, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Some fear that the Sanders presidency could exacerbate the split in the Democratic Party over Israel, and the removal of some Jewish voters in the Democratic camp, which will benefit the Republicans. In an attempt to distance himself from Sanders, his colleague, presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg, pledged that "he will always be noon for Israel" and will never "impose conditions on our military aid, including missile defense - and it does not matter who the prime minister is."
Increased anxiety
Meanwhile, American Jewish leaders are increasingly concerned about Sanders' commitment to Israel's security, as well as the growing influence of Israel's most critical of his supporters. They are also concerned that any move by "President" Sanders during his economic pressure on Israel will lead to tension with Israeli leaders, which will make it more difficult for the White House in its pursuit of peace in the Middle East.
Harris says that the basic rule of Middle East policy is that any Israeli leader "risking for peace" should have confidence in the US administration in the White House at the time, and if there is no trust, the likelihood is diminishing about someone taking the risk . For his supporters, Sanders' positions on Jewish settlements, the position of Israel as an occupying power, and his calls to use American financial support to put pressure on Israel for political concessions, would represent merely a return to long-standing American principles, which the Trump administration turned back-and-forth. Decades regarding the US foreign policy outlook on settlements, as this administration acknowledged that settlements are legal.
"I think Bernie is trying in many ways to get US policy back on track," says veteran PLO member Hanan Ashrawi. Sanders' willingness to call on Israel to fulfill its legal obligations represents a "corrective step that we really desperately need to prevent the slippery slope of American discourse and political positions, which have been distorted in the past decades."
Kulm Lynch, Senior Press Writer for the "Foreign Policy"
Try to manipulate the language
In the past there were not even questions about whether or not the settlements were legal, they were taken for granted. This belief was one of the main foundations of American politics, despite attempts to manipulate the language. For decades, American presidents have sought to avoid any phrase "illegal" that relates to Israel. Even former President Jimmy Carter, perhaps the most equitable of the Palestinians in the White House in 50 years, refrained from using such a phrase, although he made it clear that Israel’s building of Jewish settlements on lands that were inhabited by the Arabs before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war “violated the Geneva Convention, And the occupied territories should not be tampered with by establishing permanent settlements by the occupying power. ” “The use of the word unlawful was clearly an official expression of the Carter administration’s policy, even if Carter did not utter this word explicitly in his speeches, but it appears that the Carter administration has gone further than any other US administration in Confirm the illegality of the settlements. ”
Friedman, who has gathered a recent, detailed history of the administration’s positions on settlements, says it was President Ronald Reagan who first proposed freezing new settlements in an effort to promote peace. However, Reagan did not describe her as illegal. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have issued calls to end Israel's occupation of Arab lands that have been seized since 1967, but they have not described them as illegal.
Obama has greatly hindered the efforts of the UN Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements until his final weeks in office, and when Washington abstained from voting on a resolution condemning Israel's settlement building policy, Obama and his national security team referred instead to Israeli settlements as "not legitimacy". However, any ambiguity about the US position on the settlements ended with the advent of the Donald Trump administration. In November 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States does not believe that Israeli settlements violate international law, altering a US position that has been in place for four decades. Senator Bernie Sanders called for a "fundamental change" in the US relationship with Israel, a change that will strike a greater balance between Palestinian rights and Israeli security needs. Sanders says he will consider redirecting about $ 3.8 billion in military aid to Israel to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 1.8 million people in Gaza suffer the world's worst humanitarian crisis. While Sanders did not personally embrace the BDS movement against Israel, he opposes punishment for those who do so, saying they have the constitutional right to protest.
When it comes to Middle East diplomacy, Sanders shows a desire to break political taboos.
Although Sanders did not personally embrace the BDS movement against Israel, he opposes punishing those who do so.
For his supporters, Sanders' positions on Jewish settlements, the position of Israel as an occupying power, and his calls to use American financial support to put pressure on Israel for political concessions, would represent merely a return to long-standing American principles, which the Trump administration turned back-and-forth, where This administration has recognized that the settlements are legal.