Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

Bernie Sanders has been repeatedly uttering the phrase “Israel has a right to defend itself” on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, which in the year 2025 can only be interpreted as blatant genocide apologia.

Israel does not have “a right to defend itself” against an occupied population in a giant concentration camp. Under international law it has a right to end the occupation, and that’s it. “Israel has a right to defend itself” is just a slogan people say when they want to justify supplying an ongoing genocide.

Sanders has been mixing his support for Israel in with periodic criticisms of Netanyahu and the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, always taking care to make his criticisms about the behavior of Israel’s current leadership and not the nature of the racist apartheid state itself.

Sanders is doing this for two reasons. Firstly, he is working to galvanize a big tent inclusive coalition of Democrats in opposition to Trump, and he wants that big tent to include people who think genocide is bad and people who think genocide is fine. He doesn’t want to offend the pro-genocide liberals.

Secondly, Sanders is doing this because he himself is a Zionist. Like other liberal Zionists, Bernie Sanders upholds a vision of an Israel that has never, ever existed: one which remains an ethnostate dominated by Jews, but which conducts itself in a kind and just manner, without constantly murdering and abusing Palestinians.

This iteration of the state of Israel is a fiction. An imaginary fantasyland, like Narnia. Everything about Israel is stacked against the possibility of such a status quo ever emerging, and Israel has always done everything it can to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. By pretending it is possible to have the Zionist entity and also have peace and justice, liberal Zionists help manufacture public consent for continuing to feed weapons to the genocidal apartheid state of Israel.

      • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
        82·
        3 days ago

        Brother. You can go and read my entire post history and you’ll see I’ve been nothing but anti Israeli Zionism and pro-Palestine and I think you’re reaching here.

        Furthermore, you’re watering down the term Nazi by throwing it around so liberally. I think you should go and do some introspection about how you converse with people.

          • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
            71·
            3 days ago

            What does it matter what I believe?

            For what it’s worth Israeli’s should have a home. That doesn’t mean I support current Israeli government policies, settlers, genocide, concentration camps, murdering civilians, murdering medics, murdering the press, or war crimes.

            The fact that you asked this question leads me to think you have a naive view of the world and think a simple question can give you insight.

            • IndustryStandard@lemmy.worldOP
              311·
              3 days ago

              If you support the existence of Israel you are a Zionist. That is the definition of Zionism. Israelis can have a home outside of occupied Palestine. This simple question gets right to the root of the issue and weeds out all the neoliberals.

              Your naive world view on letting politicians support a genocide without pushback is what is is simple. It does not matter Bernie is support genocide less than the rest of American politicians. He should be not supporting it whatsoever. And stop saying Israel has the right to defend itself.