Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also said the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been “racist.”

BY JACKSON RICHMAN

(October 28, 2019 / JNS) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, stated on Monday at the annual J Street Conference in Washington, D.C., that a portion of the U.S. military assistance to Israel should go towards humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip.

“I would use the leverage of $3.8 billion,” Sanders said, referring to the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel negotiated by former President Barack Obama. “It is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government, or for that matter, to any government at all. We have a right to demand respect for human rights and democracy.”

The senator, who received a thunderous crowd ovation from start to finish, remarked that some of the $3.8 billion the United States annually gives to Israel in assistance should “go right now to humanitarian aid in Gaza.”

The Gaza Strip has been under control by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas since 2007, when it overthrew the Palestinian Authority. Israel has permitted international humanitarian aid transfers to the Gaza Strip, including from Arab countries such as Qatar.