Thursday, February 11, 2016

Will Clinton feel the Bern on Israel?

Very interesting little trial balloon-and-reaction reported in Haaretz (via Nathan Guttman Forward): 
“Hillary Clinton has been a very strong friend of Israel and that is something that should not be lost on the American Jewish community,” said Paul Hodes, a former New Hampshire congressman who came to rally for Clinton at her post-primary event. Hodes, who is Jewish and from New Hampshire, told the Forward: “Senator Sanders hasn’t showed himself to be the kind of friend of Israel that Secretary Clinton is.”

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign denied that it was considering this strategy. “We have no idea what this report is referring to. The notion that we’re planning to start attacking Sanders’ record on Israel is simply false,” Laura Rosenberger, foreign policy adviser, told the Forward.
Smart move, Clinton campaign. Don't go there, unless you want to further prime the pump pushing young liberals to Sanders.  In fact, Clinton's fawning unconditional support for Israel,  evinced in her letter to billionaire left-side AIPAC enforcer Haim Saban condemning the BDS movement,, is probably a significant factor in her rejection so far by young progressives.

If the Sanders campaign constrains Clinon's pandering to the Israel lobby, that will be a real salutary effect.

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