Bloomberg: Sanders ‘dead wrong’ for calling AIPAC racist
WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg pledged to support Israel if elected, and slammed his rival for not attending AIPAC.
Speaking at AIPAC’s foreign policy conference on Monday, the former New York mayor said: “Unfortunately, not all of my fellow Democrats in this race have attended an AIPAC conference. One of them, Sen. [Bernie] Sanders, has spent 30 years boycotting this event. And as you’ve heard by now, he called AIPAC a racist platform. Well, he’s dead wrong.”
He also went after Sanders for suggesting conditioning military aid to Israel.
“I will always have Israel’s back. Because Israel has a right to defend itself, by itself,” Bloomberg said. “That means I will never impose conditions on military aid no matter what government is in power.
“Calling it a racist platform is an attempt to discredit those voices, intimidate people from coming here, and weaken the US-Israel relationship,” Bloomberg continued. “The reality is, AIPAC doesn’t fuel hatred. AIPAC works to combat it and the violence that it can produce. And if more elected officials spoke to the people here, they’d understand that.
“Israel is on the front lines, countering American enemies in the region and sharing valuable intelligence and experience with us,” he continued. “Conditioning foreign aid wouldn’t only impair Israel’s ability to keep itself safe, but our ability to keep ourselves safe.”
The presidential hopeful started by joking about his recent appearance at the Democratic debates.
“Israel is small but resilient and surrounded by adversaries. And if you caught the last couple of presidential debates, you know that I can empathize.”
He also vowed – unlike Sanders – to keep the US Embassy in Jerusalem and voiced his opposition to the BDS movement.
“I promise to always oppose the BDS movement’s pernicious efforts to delegitimize and punish the State of Israel, as I always have,” he said. “I will stand up to efforts to hold Israel to a double standard at the United Nations.”