Washington – Sen. Bernie Sanders said it was “absurd” for Republicans to introduce as the Senate’s first bill of this Congress legislation that would protect states that penalize Israel boycotters.
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“It’s absurd that the first bill during the shutdown is legislation which punishes Americans who exercise their constitutional right to engage in political activity,” Sanders, I-Vt. said Sunday on Twitter, linking to an article in The Intercept about the bill. President Donald Trump will not sign any funding legislation that does not include over $5 billion for a wall with Mexico, triggering a government shutdown entering its third week.
“Democrats must block consideration of any bills that don’t reopen the government,” Sanders said. “Let’s get our priorities right.”
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and James Risch, R-Idaho, last week introduced the first bill to be considered in the Republican-led Senate, consolidating four bills that languished in the last Congress: One codifies into law $38 billion in defense assistance for Israel over 10 years; another protects states that pass laws targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, including states that ban contracts with Israel boycotters. Civil libertarians have decried the laws as infringing on free speech.
The bill’s other two provisions strengthen the U.S.-Jordan relationship and enhance sanctions against Syria’s Assad regime.
Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, mounted a surprisingly strong challenge in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, becoming the first Jewish candidate to win major-party nominating contests. He has hinted he may run again in 2020. He has emerged as the leader of progressives in the Senate.
The first bill to be considered in the U.S. House of Representatives, newly led by Democrats, tackles political corruption and voting rights.
Yamsar knows the feeling of being a capo
it is absurd to punish Americans who exercise their constitutional rights to refuse service to Blacks and Latinos, ooooops, sorry, that is a mistake, should be Jews….
Sanders is a nut case, from the old self hating Jewish socialists….
A Hispanic trying to protect Israel and a Jew trying to uproot those protections. Queen Isabella and the Abarbanel must both be rolling in their graves.
Bernie Sanders Yrmach Shemo
I’m sure all the alt-yidden on this site will start grepsing their shtetl mentality how Bernie is self-hating and an anti-Semite. The truth is that he is right. He’s American and not Israeli and needs to look out for this country and do the job he was elected for. It is patently absurd, from American point-of-view, to consider such BS legislation.
If all he was saying was to not mix business with politics, I might disagree, but could tolerate a debate. But this is not his intention at all, and his track record of being anti-Israel is written all over this. He richly deserves to be sidelined and disgraced over his positions, and I wish for him to become permanently silenced.
I am not a fan of Bernie Sanders but I do think that the title of this article is purposely misleading. As much as I would want such anti-BDS legislation, I agree that right now the number one priority in the USA is to get the federal government reopened and its employees back to work.
And as much as we Frum Jews are in favor and impatient for such a bill, the rest of America may resent us and Israel if this were to be the first order of business when our own government is shut down.
I can’t stand Bernard Sanders. When he was running for the Presidency in 2016, he kept stressing how he worked on a kibbutz in 1963. Yet, when he spoke about his parents, he had the gall to state that they were “two immigrants from Poland”. He didn’t have the guts to state that “they were two Jewish immigrants, who came from Poland”, as he did everything in his power, to cover up his Jewish identity. He even campaigned in Brooklyn in the neighborhood which he grew up in (which today has a large Jewish community), on Shabbos. OY GEVALT!
Fake news liars the dems first bill by the dems is to attack Trump the dems would never vote on legislation that would force members of Congress to release 10 years of their tax returns and abolish the electoral college so that leftist in California and NY can choose the president with no input from anyone else
I never looked at his record in Israel because he was never a serious contender for the presidency but assuming he has a bad record on Israel, he is right but for the wrong reason.
The optics of this being #1 concern during a government shut down are terrible.
he is an alte-kakeh from the old self-hating jew type.
pfeh on him and all his ilk!
These are the new democrats of today. It use to be our party but it no longer represents our needs. Its not the pary for frum torah jews who care about our brothers. Its now the party for empty jews who care more about palestianins than their own brothers.
The man is a complete wack job. Amazing how out of touch he is with reality. It’s sad this is the new norm of the democrats and liberals. Hashem Yirachem if these nut job ever hold an office with power.
Part of me wants to see BDS be legal in America for a short time so we can learn who is against us. I would love to counter-boycott a company owned by one of these BDS supporters.
The freshman class of Democrats are going to be a problem. It’s a new day and some of these people could be trouble. This is not your Daniel Patrick Moynihan party of Dems, these are Social Justice warriors. Anytime someone says they are speaking truth to power, I know they are wannabes who want to be seen as modern day MLK’s.
To #26 - Unfortunately, in the seventy plus year history of Israel, there have been instances of Israeli border police murdering civilians. On Oct. 29,1956, in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim, the Israel Border Police killed forty eight Arab civilians who were returning home from work, during a curfew imposed earlier in the day, of which they were unaware. Of the 48 killed,19 were men, 6 were women, and 23 were children aged 7-17. All of the killers were pardoned, and released within one year. It took until 2007, for President Shimon Peres to formally apologize. In addition to the above atrocity, former Israeli IDF troops admitted that in the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, there were times, where there were not have enough soldiers to guard all of the Egyptian POW’s, who had surrendered. Thus, there were some IDF troops who machine gunned and killed several hundred helpless Egyptians. This was not a formal policy, but was done by individual soldiers. There is no record of those involved in those atrocities, every being punished.