“Many of us, your former staff, share your Jewish heritage,” the letter said. “Our pain and sorrow at the losses on October 7 will not be weaponized.”
Nearly 300 alumni of the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders are urging the Vermont senator to join calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In a letter sent Tuesday, former staffers asked Sanders to introduce a Senate-side companion to the “ceasefire now” resolution in the House; support an end to U.S. funding “for war crimes against the Palestinian people, the expansion of settlements, and the occupation of Palestinian lands”; and to support an end to the blockade of Gaza. The House ceasefire resolution — led by Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; André Carson, D-Ind.; Summer Lee, D-Pa.; and Delia Ramirez, D-Ill. — now has 18 members supporting it.
“President Biden clearly values your counsel, as is shown by the ways you’ve managed to shape the outcomes of his presidency,” the staffers wrote. “We urge you to make it clear what is at stake in this crisis politically, morally, and strategically.” The group also produced a video appealing directly to Sanders.
The Vermont senator has taken to the Senate floor to advocate for humanitarian aid for people in Gaza and urged Israel to allow aid to enter the region, along with calling for a halt from “the bombs and missiles from both sides.” Still, he has not formally endorsed a ceasefire, and his former aides are urging him to introduce a Senate resolution more clearly laying out the case.
For veterans of the Israel-Palestine fight in the United States, Sanders is someone who expanded the boundaries of allowable dissent, but has never been a radical on the question. In the 2016 presidential campaign, his suggestion that the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza had been disproportionate was elevated as an indication that Sanders was heavily critical of Israel. Pressed on his characterization on CNN, Sanders stood by it.
“Was Israel’s response disproportionate? I think it was,” Sanders said. “Israel has a 100 percent — and no one will fight for that principle more strongly than I will — has the right to live in freedom, independently, and in security without having to be subjected to terrorist attacks. But I think that we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect, and that is my view.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper noted to Sanders that even that formulation was outside the realm of standard campaign fare. “It is interesting that the first Jew in American history to win a delegate, much less a primary, is taking this position with Israel,” Tapper said to Sanders. “Usually in American politics, everyone just supports Israel whatever Israel wants to do, but you are taking a more critical position.”
“I’m taking a more balanced position,” Sanders responded.
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He has been a staff reporter for Politico and the Washington City Paper and is a co-host of the show Counter Points. He is the author of the books “We’ve Got People” (2019) and “This Is Your Country on Drugs” (2009). His third book, published in December 2023, is “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.”
