Bernie Sanders Snubs AIPAC Over ‘Providing a Platform for Bigotry,’ Pro-Israel Lobby Group Denounces His ‘Odious Attack’

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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, riding high from his string of presidential primary successes, took a strong stance on the pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC, on Sunday.

His Twitter posts criticizing the group came as part of a highly contentious day, which included him telling Anderson Cooper on a 60 Minutes broadcast that he would “absolutely” militarily intervene if China invaded Taiwan while drawing the ire of Florida’s Cuban-American population for praising Fidel Castro in the same interview. Sanders, who is Jewish, has never gone to AIPAC’s annual conference, and he publicly announced his intent to keep that streak alive, while accusing the group of providing a platform “for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights.”

AIPAC issued their own blunt rebuke a few hours later, noting that Sanders had never attended their annual policy conference — scheduled this year from March 1–3 in Washington, D.C. — and calling his comments “outrageous” and “odious.” AIPAC also noted the many bipartisan attendees who had historically attended their conference, including “over 18,000 Americans from widely diverse backgrounds — Democrats, Republicans, Jews, Christians, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, progressives, Veterans, students, members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

This is not the first time AIPAC and Sanders have locked horns. The pro-Israel lobby group was running ads last spring targeting the Vermont senator’s campaign in the key primary states of California, Texas, and Florida. But this latest stinging pushback from AIPAC goes far beyond the typical, “stand with Israel” language it uses when addressing major party political candidates.

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan called it the “strongest statement AIPAC has ever made against a top presidential candidate.”

The Guardian‘s Ben Jacobs concurred, tweeting that AIPAC’s comments were “a pretty remarkable statement from an organization that has long gone out of its way to avoid entanglement in partisan politics.”

Karol Markowicz, a New York Post columnist, mocked Sanders for refusing to go to the “milquetoast” AIPAC event.