Beyond Bernie: His Failure to Support a Gaza Ceasefire Isn’t the Only Reason to Let Go (original) (raw)

Sen. Bernie Sanders gave me the “ick.” If you don’t know, the ick is when you desire someone, ravishingly, and they do that one thing that turns you off. Maybe it’s bad breath. Maybe it’s toe fungus or too many needy texts. In Bernie’s case it was waffling on the mass murder of innocent children. Ick.

I have not “canceled” Bernie. Or condemned Bernie. He is a decent man. He has deep political experience plus populist support built over decades. For years, Bernie was a North Star guiding activists from sectarian exile. All that being said, the preeminent role he played in the left is over. Time to let go.

Even so, the left must keep the lesson he gave on how to build a mass movement in order to seize state power.

Imagine holding a photo of Bernie as Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” plays. You tell him, thank you for believing in me. You wish him the best. Light the photo on fire and fling it.

Essentially that is what happened when on CNN’s Nov. 5 State of the Union, Bernie said, “I don’t know how you can have a ceasefire, a permanent ceasefire, with an organization like Hamas, which is dedicated to turmoil and chaos and destroying the state of Israel.” By the time of that interview, the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had killed 10,000 Gazans, many women and children in what can now be called a crime against humanity. As this newspaper goes to press, it’s nearly 19,000. By the time you read this essay, the number will be higher. The innocents in Gaza join the roughly 1,200 Israeli citizens, also innocent, slaughtered by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Bernie showed us that left policies had mass appeal. His campaigns put Democratic Socialism on the map. But now it is time to let go.

Bernie’s statement did not go over well. Fair to say people screamed at their cell phones. Prof. Cornel West called it “pathetic.” Briahna Joy Gray, his former press secretary and host of Bad Faith podcast, said it was the “biggest political disappointment of our generation.” Left media was on fire. CNN moderates rejoiced at having Bernie, of all people, to use as a cudgel to browbeat progressives. Ick.

To be fair, the man called for a humanitarian pause, permanent peace and a two-state solution. He opposed an additional $10 billion in military aid to Israel, saying, “What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.” So, he did not transform into a butcher, wiping his apron with the blood of children.

The anger at his response comes from simple questions. Who is going to die when that humanitarian pause ends? More innocent people. If every member of Hamas must be killed before the bombing stops then how does this lead to peace or even that policy unicorn, a two-state solution? It doesn’t.

Bernie’s call for a humanitarian pause instead of a ceasefire is in sharp contrast to other activists like Jewish Voices for Peace. It is the largest Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States, and calls for the end to Israeli apartheid. They filled Grand Central Station in black shirts that read “Not in Our Name”, thunderously chanting against the siege of Gaza. They took over the Statue of Liberty, creating an event that rippled through the news in which they demanded a stop to the killing of Palestinians.

The future can be seen in protests. Millennials and Gen Z fill the anti-Zionist marches in Bay Ridge, over the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Hundreds of actions supporting Palestine pop across the world from Egypt to Ireland. As the left moves forward, Bernie shrinks in the rear-view mirror.

KIBBUTZ MON AMOUR

Remember the 1971 song “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” by the Persuaders? Well the left crossed that line. Or more accurately, it stepped over the line separating the Bernie we wanted to see versus the Bernie that actually exists. The position he always held was that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself while the occupation of Palestinians must end and a two-state solution be made real.

What you have to grasp is that the reasons the left swooned over Bernie but repudiates him now are connected. His defense of Israel and his economic populism are two sides of the same coin. The Bernie we know; finger waving, white tousled hair like a Muppet, deep Brooklyn accent and scourge of the 1 percent, has his origins, decades earlier, in Yiddish Socialism of the Lower East Side and the Israeli kibbutz. In 1963, Bernie worked a few months at Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim as a part of a socialist youth movement that was Zionist and secular. Without pretending to be telepathic, one can guess that a young man of the left does not just up and fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Israel unless he had hoped to find there the living embodiment of a vision. He searched for the seed of a workers’ democracy, however small, in the daily sweaty labor, the communal living and discipline. He left after a few months but the dream he searched for in the kibbutz, whether he found it there or not, became one of the main pillars of his political world view. Workers make the world, often at great risk and deserve dignity for their labor. Bernie would not be Bernie if not for Israel.

Again, the reason the left tried to put a ring on Bernie is connected to his Jewish heritage. He said in an interview with NPR, “When I was a young boy, I can remember seeing people in the community who had numbers that were on their arms.” He added, “It was a very traumatic experience for me as a young man to know that my father’s family were killed by Nazis, killed by Hitler. … We have got to do everything we can to end this kind of horrific racism or anti-Semitism. I have spent much of my life trying to fight that.” Bernie saw how hatred transformed human beings into targets. It drove him to join the civil-rights movement and fight anti-Black racism. So however much BLM activists chided his class determinism and ham-fisted use of new social justice rhetoric, he was sincere.

If every member of Hamas must be killed before the bombing stops then how does this lead to peace or even that policy unicorn, a two-state solution? It doesn’t.

How does one make sense of this? Look in the mirror. Everyone I know has a powerful attachment to a specific place, person or people that challenges their political ideals. Poets have an easier time with this. Walt Whit- man famously said, “I contain multitudes”. It is true. I do. You do. Bernie does. We all do. It is the price of being human.

The real question is not the banal one of betrayal. In the backlash to his refusal to call for a ceasefire is the plaintive, “How could he betray his own principles?” No, the real question is why the disproportionate hurt and anger? Why are we so hung up?

HOW TO BREAK UP

Bernie rescued us. For years, the left was like an emo-teen, wearing Goth makeup and singing “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner on repeat. We were divided by sectarian fights over minor ideological differences. We were in our Oppression Olympics phase. We were a hot mess.

And then came this rumpled man. He announced his 2016 presidential run at a quick press conference before lunch. It was so unassuming, so Bernie. The more he talked, the more we listened. The great transference began. The left’s suppressed hope for relevance was projected onto an elderly Vermont senator. In contrast to Obama’s Hollywood flashiness, Bernie wore Men’s Wearhouse suits. He radiated authenticity. He had shouted the same economic populist message for longer than many of us had been alive.

Bernie got the left closer to the White House than it had ever been. In 2016 and then in 2020, he barnstormed across the nation. When he rose, our hopes rose too. A giddy, delirious joy made us drunk. Universal healthcare? Yes. Student loan forgiveness? Yes. A Green New Deal? Sure.

Bernie showed us that left policies had mass appeal. His campaigns put Democratic Socialism on the map. He played a vital historical role at a crucial moment. He might have put us in a position to save democracy and the planet. But now it is time to let go.

At 82, Bernie is not going to run for president again. He remains relevant, yes, but the halcyon days are over. It is larger than his refusal to call for a ceasefire. It is the inexorable passage of time. We have to fall in love with someone new or some new idea.

So here’s the most compassionate way to do it.

Pick a nice setting. Maybe his favorite restaurant.
Accept it is going to be painful.
Show up sober.
Deliver the news face-to-face. Listen.
Don’t leave things open ended.

When you finish, go have a good cry. Take a walk and breathe. If it helps, know that a lot of love is the transference of repressed hopes. When you are blinded by the glow of a new political figure or movement, remember, you may be falling in love with your alienated dreams. And that’s okay.