Sander is a true enemy of the Jewish return to Judea and Samaria. In his Utah speech, he insisted that “peace will mean an end to what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory, establishing mutually agreed upon borders, and pulling back settlements in the West Bank, just as Israel did in Gaza.” His website says Israel has to “cease developing settlements on Palestinian land.” In 1991, as Congressman, Sanders voted yes on H.Amdt. 173 to H.R. 2508, “an amendment to withhold $82.5 million of the amount earmarked for Israel, [to be] restored if the President certifies that the Israeli government has demonstrated that it is not investing in new and expanded settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.” But Sanders in the past has also voiced his agreement to keeping some large population blocks in their place in Judea and Samaria, possibly as PA land swaps with Israel.
In 1995 Sanders voted against S. 1322, recognizing that Jerusalem should remain an undivided city, should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel, and the United States Embassy in Israel should be moved to Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.
However, in 1997 Sanders co-sponsored H.Con.Res. 60 that “calls upon the President and the Secretary of State to affirm publicly, as a matter of United States policy that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the State of Israel; and urges United States officials to refrain from any actions that contradict this policy.” So, which is it? Someone should ask Bernie to go on the record on the “undivided Jerusalem.”
Perhaps most troubling is Sanders’ support of the “Palestinian right of return,” not to green-line Israel, but to the PA. The net effect of such a policy would be the same, creating the potential for hundreds of thousands of migrants from across the Middle East declaring themselves the descendants of “Palestinian refugees” and settling down alongside Israel’s border. Sanders voted in favor of H.Con.Res. 460, to “strongly endorse the principles articulated by President Bush in his letter dated Apr 14, 2004, to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,” which declared: “It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a [Palestinian state], and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.”