Bernie Sanders’ Hollywood Jewish Problem
Bernie Sanders might be the only viable Jewish candidate in American presidential history, but Hollywood’s Jewish community seems to think there’s something not quite kosher about him.
As Sanders sets his sights on California, which has emerged as a must-win state in the Democratic race for the White House, he may encounter resistance from Jewish leaders in Hollywood who view him as anti-Israel.
“He doesn’t understand the complexities of the Middle East,” Clinton supporter and one of Hollywood’s biggest Democratic donors
Saban, an Israeli-American media mogul, is just one in a long list of Jewish Hollywood power players underwhelmed with the senator from Vermont, particularly when it comes to his views on Israel. In fact, Hollywood’s biggest Jewish heavy hitters, including
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While Sanders does have a few recognizable Jewish celebrity backers of his own — including Sarah
From the beginning, Sanders has been slow to attract Hollywood’s Jewish movers and shakers, many of whom believe the Vermont senator has been deliberately downplaying his religious ancestry for political reasons.
When Sanders thanked supporters following his landslide victory in New Hampshire earlier this year, he waxed about being “the son of a Polish immigrant who came to this country speaking no English and having no money.”
The crowd cheered. But his words were like fingernails on a chalkboard for many Jews watching in disbelief. Rabbi Michael Paley of New York told the New York Times at the time that he was “surprised” that the Vermont senator failed to mention his father was a Polish Jewish immigrant, an important distinction given the country’s long anti-Semitic history. Most Jews fleeing Poland were far more preoccupied with staying alive than pursuing the American dream. It’s almost unheard of for Polish Jews to call themselves simply, “Polish.”
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Last month, Sanders was the only presidential candidate — Democratic or Republican — to skip the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting, the most influential Pro-Israel lobby in the country. While Sanders cited a prior commitment, he did manage to find time to slam Israel just hours later during a CNN town hall, telling Wolf Blitzer that, “Overwhelmingly the United States time and time again has looked aside when Israel has done some bad things.”
Sanders also criticized Israel for its response to Gaza’s rocket attacks in 2014, which led to Operation Protective Edge, a two-month long bloody conflict.
“The kind of destruction that was wrecked on Gaza during that war was way above what needed to be done for military purposes,” Sanders said.
To be fair, there are plenty of Jews and even Israelis who agree with Sanders’ assessment. But many in Hollywood believe Sanders’ condemnation lacked context. Israel did level swaths of Palestinian territory near the border with Gaza — essentially creating a buffer zone between it and the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip — but only after Hamas fired thousands of rockets on Israeli cities from those very same areas.
“A lot of people were surprised and disappointed he didn’t speak at AIPAC,” Los-Angeles based lawyer and Clinton fundraiser, Dana Perlman — whose mother is a Holocaust survivor — told TheWrap. “There was so much energy and excitement about a Jewish-American vice president when Joe Lieberman joined Al Gore’s ticket in 2000. I’m not seeing that energy when it comes to Sanders.”
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During an interview with The New York Daily News earlier this month, Sanders continued his attacks on Israel, saying that “over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?” It actually doesn’t. In fact, it’s almost seven times the United Nations estimates. He then added that, “Hospitals, I think, were bombed.” Nowhere did Sanders mention that those hospitals also served as Hamas’ private launching pads for rockets aimed at Southern Israel and Tel Aviv.
The Anti-Defamation League quickly urged Sanders to “correct his misstatements.”
“He is critical of Israel’s behavior based on misinformation,” Saban said. “If rockets are shot out of hospitals … targeting women, men, children — not soldiers — do you take out that rocket launcher … or not?”
And earlier this month, Sanders was forced to fire his national Jewish outreach coordinator Simone Zimmerman just two days into her new gig, after a particularly vulgar Facebook post she wrote about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had been exposed.
All that has taken a hit on Sanders’ polling numbers among Jewish voters, a problem that extends well beyond the Thirty-Mile Zone. While a recent Siena Research survey showed Clinton leading Sanders by a mere 4 percent (52-48), when it came to Jewish Democratic voters, Sanders trailed Clinton by a whopping 22 points (60-38).
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“He doesn’t have a long-standing involvement with the Jewish community as Hillary does,” L.A.-based Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter Donna Bojarsky told TheWrap. “She obviously loves Israel.”
The Clintons have a long and warm relationship with Israel. When Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, then-President Bill Clinton ended his touching eulogy with the words, “Shalom haver,” goodbye friend in Hebrew. Those words became a source of comfort for millions of Israelis who to this day consider that moment a pinnacle in Israeli-American relations and the phrase even became a popular bumper-sticker.
But it’s not just Bill who managed to forge a close tie with Israel and Jewish Americans. Hillary Clinton is a beloved figure in Israel in her own right. Unlike President Barack Obama, who’s had a contentious, sometimes dismissive, relationship with Netanyahu, Clinton was able to find
“For me, it was very telling that during the Democratic debate in New York, she offered what I think was a very sympathetic portrait of probably one of the most controversial Israeli prime ministers in history,” Danielle Berrin, writer of the Jewish Journal’s weekly blog “Hollywood Jew” told TheWrap. “Her defense of Bibi came from a deep internalization of the challenges he faces.”
But that, Berrin says, is why Israelis — even those on the hard left — respect her.
“She knows the challenges well, she has studied them,” Berrin said, adding, “she really f-king gets it.”
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But Berrin insists Sanders doesn’t hate Israel. Nor does she think he’s ashamed of his Jewish roots, a point he’s made many times. His is a less traditional view, according to Berrin — one that may represent a new emerging generation of Jewish Hollywood power players that doesn’t necessarily have Israel at the top of their concerns when choosing a presidential candidate and believes change in the Middle East will only come with intense international pressure.
Even so, Berrin says Sanders may never enjoy the kind of support and admiration from the Jewish community — in Hollywood or elsewhere — as the Clintons.
“To ask the Jewish community to get excited about Bernie Sanders when he’s not excited about the Jewish community is a tall order,” she said.
Sharon Waxman contributed to this report.
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