Sanders: Israeli democracy is in peril

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that he thinks that democracy is in peril in Israel and that the U.S. should revisit the conditions under which it offers financial assistance to the country.

“I do,” Sanders said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” when asked if he thinks democracy is in peril in Israel. “I am very worried about what [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people.”

Netanyahu, who was the prime minister of the country on and off for over a decade starting in the 1990s, took over the position again in late 2022. Since then, his conservative government coalition has been criticized for its plan to overhaul judicial norms in a move that critics argue would infringe on democratic checks and balances.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said last week that he is urging Netanyahu to “pump the brakes” on the changes he is pursuing.

“We're telling the prime minister, as I tell my kids, pump the brakes, slow down, try to get a consensus, bring the parties together," Nides said in an interview with CNN podcast “The Axe Files.”

Netanyahu has also placed far-right figures in prominent roles in his government as part of the coalition that allowed him to return to power.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a primarily figurehead role, warned earlier this month that Israel was “on the brink of constitutional and social collapse.”

Sanders said on Sunday the U.S., which is one of the closest allies of Israel and provides it with billions of dollars of support each year, should add conditions to that assistance.

“I think the United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel,” Sanders said. “And I think we've got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can't do it and then come to America and ask for money.”

The treatment of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation has been a foreign policy focus for some progressives in the U.S., who criticize Israeli officials for what they argue are human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Sanders said the White House has not been in touch with him about the issue, and when told that the Biden administration has been careful in their criticism of Netanyahu, Sanders said, “I am not careful about it.”

“I'm embarrassed that in Israel, you have a government of that nature right now,” Sanders said.