Joel Rubin Went to Town on Bernie Sanders and it was GLORIOUS
How do former Bernie Sanders' high-ranking campaign staff feel about him now? Let's ask Joel Rubin, the Director of Jewish Outreach for Sanders' 2020 campaign. From Jewish Insider:
ASPEN, Colo. — Joel Rubin, a former State Department official who led Jewish outreach for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, is now excoriating his former boss and the movement he has built for elevating stridently anti-Israel candidates — most notably former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner.
The anti-Israel and antisemitic wave that’s taken hold on the left as a result of the efforts of Sanders and his allies, Rubin said, is bad for the Jewish community and politically unwise for the Democratic Party and for the U.S.’ own strategic interests.
“I think what Sanders and the Sanders operation have done is shove into our system the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we’ve seen in a generation — if ever, certainly within the Democratic Party — and it’s by design,” Rubin said in an interview with Jewish Insider last week on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum. “It’s not by accident, and it’s very disruptive intentionally. The goal is to undermine Democratic unity and even rationality on Israel at this stage.”
He said that Sanders and his allies have directed anger and frustration toward Israel into a “highly unproductive debate about whether or not Israel should exist and whether or not we should support it or have any relationship” — rather than a “constructive” discussion of how the U.S. can work to resolve issues with a longtime ally and partner that plays an important role in American national security.
Sanders, Rubin said, has become an “outright hostile actor...”
“...I’m extremely disappointed. I feel like it violates the goals of promoting peace in the Middle East and the two-state solution, and I believe that it exacerbates the pain and distress that the American Jewish community is experiencing right now in Israel policy,” Rubin said. “I had higher hopes for a senator who is Jewish, and his team who knows very well what’s out there.”
He said that the American left is now following the model of former Labour party leader in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn — who faced a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission finding of antisemitism within the party under his leadership — and the movement is “no longer progressive — it’s something much darker.”
“It’s a hate-based narrative they’re promoting,” Rubin said. He said that Sanders and others on the left are on a mission to break the Democratic Party’s ties to the Jewish state and the U.S.-Israel relationship, with no argument for how that would produce a positive outcome.
When he worked for Sanders’ 2020 campaign, Rubin said that he was “given latitude to communicate messages about him and his views on Israel and peace and antisemitism that were positive,” with a focus on solving issues and creating solutions, while disassociating from “the most hateful voices.”
“That’s no longer the case. I don’t know what’s going on inside that operation. There is no line. There is no bottom. There is no low,” Rubin said. “And what it’s doing now is gutting American Jewish confidence in the Democratic Party, which is not a way to win elections, and it’s unethical as well, considering American Jews have been a bedrock community supporting the Democratic Party.”
He said the party should be pushing for policies that move toward peace, which is “not what these people are advocating for.” He said that the effort is also playing into the hands of conservatives, allowing them to frame themselves as the only ones taking action against antisemitism.
“We need leadership, and the progressive community needs to stop scapegoating Jews for all problems in the world,” Rubin said...
“...Any person who’s Jewish who expresses any level of support [for Israel], no matter where on the spectrum, is now a Jewish person who needs to be targeted for harassment, and is described as an AIPAC [supporter] trying to insidiously control the American political system for a foreign power,” Rubin said.
“The American Jewish community doesn’t deserve this,” Rubin continued. “The Jewish American community on the Democratic side has been a foundational funder, organizer, elected leader, organizational leader, powerful leading voice of infrastructure in the liberal openness of American life in the last 50, 60 years, and now we’re getting beaten up as if we were the opponent. It’s totally offensive and it’s politically dangerous for the Democratic Party to do that as well.”
I feel Joel Rubin in my veins.
Because he sees Bernie Sanders the way we see him. As a pandering, philandering dolt who sold out his heritage and his people to try and maintain relevance at a time when he once again returned to being a lifelong backbencher. Rather than sail off into the sunset at one of his three houses, Bernie Sanders chose to go all scorched earth against a Democratic Party that bent over twice to allow him to pursue his pipe dream of becoming United States president. Because multimillionaire Bernie knows his days are numbered, he is holding on for dear life, and the only way he can even be seen as having influence is if he endorses upstart candidates that take down the treacherous "Democratic establishment." And the only people actively working against Democrats during the age of Donald Trump are far-left groups whose stated mission is to undermine the existing Democratic Party and reestablish it in their own image.
Bernie Sanders is the son of Jewish parents. According to Sanders, his father Eli left his native Poland in 1917 in part because of widespread antisemitism at the time. Rather than leaning into his faith during his formative years, Sanders drifted away from it. He left the heart of the Jewish diaspora in New York City and eventually relocated to Vermont, where he put his faith not in religion but in trying to jumpstart a fledgling political party called the Liberty Union Party. It wasn't until he ran for president in 2015 that he decided to lean into his Jewish heritage. During that first campaign, he said that being Jewish was an essential part of who he was. He described wanting to be a role model for young Jewish boys and girls. He became the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary. But Sanders quickly saw that Judaism could only get him so far on the campaign trail. With his campaign floundering in April of 2016, Sanders made the strategic blunder of stalking the Pope in order to try and win over the Catholic vote in New York. A month later, he was mathematically eliminated from the race, and despite uselessly hanging on for another six weeks, Sanders finally gave in and withdrew, paving the way for Hillary Clinton to become the 2016 Democratic nominee for president.
By the time he ran for president a second time, Sanders abandoned any and all efforts to lean into his Jewish heritage. Immediately off the bat, Sanders was quoted as saying that he maintained his pride in being Jewish but that he deferred to his Catholic wife, Jane, when it came to spiritual matters. In February of 2020, Sanders skipped the annual AIPAC conference due to what he perceived was the organization's "bigotry" in opposing basic Palestinian rights. This decision quickly led to a larger mistrust of Sanders in the Jewish community, and it was during this time that Joel Rubin was called into action to save a sinking ship. But the damage had been done. When you alienate 1/2 of the core Democratic Party voting bloc, you're up a creek without a paddle. Combined with Sanders' consistent underperformance with Black voters, you can see how both groups quickly flocked to Joe Biden, whom they saw as a consistent champion for them and their communities. By not understanding the Jewish and Black communities, Bernie Sanders cost himself both chances at becoming president.
And he never forgave either one of them.
Which is why Bernie Sanders has embraced the most antisemitic candidates Democrats have to offer. Zohran Mamdani. Graham Platner. Abdul El-Sayed. Each separately masking their disdain for the Jewish community due to their "concerns" over AIPAC, Zionism, and Gaza. It's gotten so bad that now Hakeem Jeffries has stepped in to tell Bernie Sanders to cool his jets when it comes to him continuing to embrace and campaign with the worst of the worst. But for Bernie Sanders, it doesn't matter. He feels no allegiance to the Democratic Party. He feels no compassion for the Jewish community. All he feels is the rush when he gets on stage and has 20,000 White, upper-middle-class men and women chanting his name. That's Bernie Sanders' true religion, and it starts and ends with the almighty dollar. Sanders embraces these antisemitic candidates because he needs them to be successful to stay relevant. With no future campaigns of his own, they are all he has to convince the American people that he still matters.
Joel Rubin's words resonate because, like so many before him, Bernie Sanders sold out. And why Rubin feels the most pain is because Sanders sold out his faith, which was the reason that Rubin was initially drawn to his campaign. He saw in Sanders a fellow Jew who, starting off in 2020, actually had a chance at becoming president. But rather than leaning into his Judaism, Sanders kept it at a distance. At a time when American Jews are under the greatest attack they've ever been, Sanders has been an antagonist rather than an ally. He's elevated some of the worst antisemites the Democrats have ever produced. Not once has he spoken out against the rise of antisemitism on the far left. It's extremely hard to condemn the cause of the problem when you yourself are a huge part of that exact cause.
It's taken years, but people like Rubin are finally seeing past the facade that is Bernie Sanders. Sanders' endorsement of Graham Platner opened a lot of eyes, and now that he's gravitating toward Abdul El-Sayed, there can be no denying that Sanders is prioritizing antisemitic candidates. Of course, he will deny they are antisemitic. But Bernie Sanders no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. When you stick by someone with a Nazi tattoo, and you now go all-in on someone who sees Israel as a "rogue state," you can no longer play dumb. Bernie Sanders knows his guys are antisemitic; he simply doesn't care. All Sanders knows is that he personally needs a win, and it doesn't matter how he gets it. If he has to endorse a raging antisemite, but this raging antisemite can win his election, that's all that matters to Bernie Sanders. Nearly 110 years after his family escaped antisemitism to seek solace in America, Bernie Sanders is doing everything in his power to help elect vicious antisemites to the United States Congress.
If only his father could see him now.