U.S. presidential elections will be held in November 2020. Trump is running for reelection as a candidate for the Republican Party. As for the Democratic side, they had nominated 30 candidates vying to face off with the president. Only three of them are left standing: Joe Biden, former Obama VP, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Tulsi Gabbard.
On the Democratic side, Biden and Sanders are competing neck and neck. It turns out that Bump or Sanders will appear before Trump. In the states, primaries are still ongoing, and Biden appears to hold a small lead over Sanders. But this is not yet a victory for Biden, nor a defeat for Sanders. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg, who withdrew from the race, all endorsed Biden for president.
Joe Biden represents the mainstream Democratic wing. Sanders excites the party's “Democratic Left” wing. Despite being 78 years old, there is an intense interest in Sanders from younger voters. The mainstream leadership of the party is putting its weight behind 77-year-old Biden. The overwhelming majority of Jewish voters, as well as African, Asian and Hispanic Americans, vote Democrat. Younger voters of these constituents want Sanders to become the next president. Jesse Jackson, a prominent U.S. Black Rights activist and former presidential candidate, anounced his endorsement for Sanders, whom he sees as the only hope of the working class.
Trump insisted that Jewish voters should vote for Republicans, stressing that he supported Israel in a way that no other previous U.S. President had done before. In addition to the Israel Lobby that backs Netanyahu, Christian-Zionist Evangelicals are urging Jews to support Trump. The overwhelming majority of American Jews do not seem to be about to change their traditional stance. Sanders, who is critical of Israel and the Trump administration's Palestinian policies, also hails from a Jewish family.
A vicious smear campaign is targeting Senator Sanders, one of the two candidates vying to win the nomination of the Democratic Party. Christian-Zionists pro-Netanyahu lobbyists are at the forefront of these campaigns. These circles are always trying to highlight the fact that Democrat congresswomen of Somalian and Palestinian origin Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib support Sanders. Because of their anti-Israel rhetoric, these congresswomen became prime targets for the Republicans, the Israel Lobby, and Christian-Zionist circles.
Sanders accused Netanyahu of racism, boycotted the Conference of the American-Israeli Public Relations Committee (AIPAC), the US’s most influential Jewish Lobby, earlier this month. Attending the conferences of the AIPAC was long considered as a highlight for candidates of both parties. Sanders accused the AIPAC of laying the ground for bigotry that completely disregarded Palestinian rights. According to Sanders, the AIPAC had become an extension of the Israeli Right and Netanyahu.
AIPAC, on the other hand, described Sanders's attitude as embarrassing.
Since Americans have always been weary of foreign political interventions, Netanyahu was careful to state that he did not agree with Sanders’ accusations. Speaking at the AIPAC Conference, Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon took aim at Sanders as he hurled insults at the Vermont senator. Nobody believes that Danon would utter a word before consulting Netanyahu first.
Shmuley Boteach, known as "America's most famous Rabbi," criticized Sanders' support for Palestinians in an op-ed he penned for far-Right mouthpiece Breitbart News. Boteach went even further, claiming that Sanders cooperated with his anti-Jewish opponents who are openly hostile towards Israel, American backers and the Jewish people.
Only former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg attended the AIPAC 2020 Conference. This indicates that the AIPAC has begun to run out of steam. Democratic candidates instead attended the conferences of the "J-Street" group, which is mostly affiliated with the Democratic Party. Netanyahu and his supporters can hardly wait for Sanders to lose the race.
