Former campaign official for Sen.Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Joel Rubin called out the Vermont senator last week for pushing the "most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates" he's seen in recent years."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. "The goal is to undermine Democratic unity and even rationality on Israel at this stage," Rubin said.SANDERS UNDER FIRE FOR PROPPING UP PLATNER AS DEMS TORCH HIS TOXIC ENDORSEMENT 'PATTERN'Joel Rubin, who previously helped lead Sen.
Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, criticized the senator for embracing antisemitic candidates.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)Rubin, who was also a former State Department official under former President Barack Obama, previously led Jewish outreach for Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign.
However, following Sanders' past support for former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who sported a tattoo resembling a Nazi "totenkopf," a skull-and-crossbones design, Rubin has since concluded that his former boss is now intentionally pushing antisemitism.Rubin went as far as to refer to Sanders as an "outright hostile actor" pushing a "hate-based narrative" surrounding Israel along with several rising Democratic politicians."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."FETTERMAN DEMANDS BERNIE SANDERS APOLOGIZE FOR BACKING ALLEGED 'PREDATOR' GRAHAM PLATNER IN MAINE SENATE RACESen.Bernie Sanders, ...