TEL AVIV – If elected president, Senator Bernie Sanders said he would strongly consider moving the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.
During an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, Chuck Todd asked Sanders if he would move the embassy back.
“Yup,” Sanders said.
“I think it’s something that we should — I can’t give you a definitive answer, but yeah. The answer is, look, whether it is Iran and Saudi Arabia, whether it is Israel and the Palestinians, the United States needs to bring people together, needs an even-handed policy,” he added.
Todd pressed him on the issue, asking, “Would you move the embassy, now, out of Jerusalem? Or would you keep it there for the present?”
Sanders responded, “We’ll take that one step at a time. It’s something — you know, bottom line is, we need to be a — we are the most powerful country on earth. Let’s bring people together and try to bring peace.”
In May 2018, the U.S. finally relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, fulfilling a law passed 23 years ago by Congress. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the time called the move “courageous” and “momentous.”
“What a glorious day. Remember this moment!” Netanyahu said at the time. “President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history. All of us are deeply moved. All of us are deeply grateful.”
“Thank you President Trump, for having the courage to keep your promises.” he added.
As recently as last month, Sanders smeared the Netanyahu government with being “racist.”
Israel is being “run by a right-wing, dare I say, racist government,” he said at a CNN town hall event.
In a 2016 interview with the New York Daily News, Sanders falsely claimed that Israel killed “over 10,000 innocent people” during the 2014 Gaza War, outdoing even Hamas’ own figures by a wide margin.
“I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza,” Sanders told the paper’s editorial board.
Both Israel and Hamas’ figures stood below 2,500, with both claiming that more than half were Hamas militants.
On that same topic, Sanders also claimed that Israel reacted disproportionately in 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
“Was Israel’s response disproportionate? I think it was,” Sanders told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview.