@zei_squirrel
Bernie Sanders begins this pathetic face-saving attempt with one of the most disgusting genocidal atrocity propaganda lies: That “1200 innocents” were killed on October 7, that “Hamas began this war”, and “Israel had the right to defend itself like anyone”. He also regurgitates his deranged “defensive/offensive arms” propaganda, vowing to forever send what he now says is a genocidal regime infinite arms and funds to continue its genocide but hidden behind “defensive arms”, which includes all the jets and tanks used to bomb and massacre and burn babies alive, the artillery, the missile systems, the essential military infrastructure, while only seeking to temporarily pause less than 1% of irrelevant weapons he calls “offensive”. A pure genocidal fanatic scumbag huckster.
[Image, Bernie Sanders statement:]
BERNIE SANDERS | U.S. SENATOR for VERMONT
September 17, 2025
Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people. That is why I have worked with a number of my Senate colleagues to force votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop offensive arms sales to Israel. The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal government.
@SenSanders
Yes, the war in Gaza is a genocide.
I hope you’ll take a moment to read my op-ed here:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20250918033313/https://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/it-is-genocide/]
[It Is Genocide
September 17, 2025
Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
I agree.
Out of a population of 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has now killed some 65,000 people and wounded roughly 164,000. The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble. A leaked classified Israeli military database indicates that 83% of those killed have been civilians. More than 18,000 children have been killed, including 12,000 aged 12 or younger.
For almost two years, the extremist Netanyahu government has severely limited the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza and thrown up every possible hurdle to the United Nations and other aid groups trying to provide lifesaving supplies. This includes an 11-week total blockade in which Israel did not permit any food, water, fuel or medical supplies to enter Gaza. As a direct result of these Israeli policies, Gaza is now gripped by man-made famine, with hundreds of thousands of people facing starvation. More than 400 people, including 145 children, have already starved to death. Each day brings new deaths from hunger.
But it is not just the human cost. Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s physical infrastructure. Satellite imagery shows that the Israeli bombardment has destroyed 70% of all structures in Gaza. The UN estimates that 92% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. At this very moment, Israel is demolishing what’s left of Gaza City. Most hospitals have been destroyed, and almost 1,600 health care workers have been killed. Almost 90% of water and sanitation facilities are now inoperable. Hundreds of schools have been bombed, as has every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities. There has been no electricity for 23 months.
And that is just what we know from aid workers and local journalists — hundreds of whom have been killed — as Israel bars outside media from Gaza. In fact, Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than have been killed in any previous conflict. The result: there is likely much we don’t know about the scale of the atrocities.
Now, with the Trump administration’s full support, the extremist Netanyahu government is openly pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank. Having made life unlivable through bombing and starvation, they are pushing for “voluntary” migration of Palestinians to neighboring countries to make way for President Trump’s twisted vision of a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Genocide is defined as actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The actions include killing members of the group or “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The legal question hinges on intent.
Israeli leaders have made their intent clear. Early in the conflict, the defense minister said, “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” The finance minister vowed that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.” Another minister declared: “All Gaza will be Jewish … we are wiping out this evil.” Israeli President Herzog said, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Another minister called for, “Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth.” Another Israeli lawmaker said, “the Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there — death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Yet another Knesset member called for “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth.” And, just recently, a minister in Israel’s high-level security cabinet said: “Gaza City itself should be exactly like Rafah, which we turned into a city of ruins.”
The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
I recognize that many people may disagree with this conclusion. The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear. We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people. That is why I have worked with a number of my Senate colleagues to force votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop offensive arms sales to Israel. The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal government.
Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.
But this issue goes beyond Israel and Palestine.
Around the world, democracy is on the defensive. Hatred, racism and divisiveness are on the rise. The challenge we now face is to prevent the world from descending into barbarism, where horrific crimes against humanity can take place with impunity. We must say now and forever that, while wars may happen, there are certain basic standards that must be upheld. The starvation of children cannot be tolerated. The flattening of cities must not become the norm. Collective punishment is beyond the pale.
The very term genocide is a reminder of what can happen if we fail. That word emerged from the Holocaust — the murder of six million Jews — one of the darkest chapters in human history. Make no mistake. If there is no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same. History demands that the world act with one voice to say: enough is enough. No more genocide.]
11:17 AM | Sep 17, 2025
12:41 PM · Sep 17, 2025
Additional information and replies by OP:
1/3
@zei_squirrel
Bernie Sanders has now officially joined AOCIA in adopting the most deranged and insane position of all: He admits it’s a genocide, but he still vows to forever arm and fund it, give them “defensive arms” which includes all the tanks and jets and missile systems, while also opposing sanctions.
That’s utterly insane. That’s completely deranged. Bernie Sanders and AOCIA both support a full total arms embargo and sanctions on Russia, but for a regime they now have been forced to admit is committing genocide with US arms and funds, they won’t even support an arms embargo and sanctions.
That’s like saying: The Nazis are doing the Holocaust and that’s bad, but we can’t impose an arms embargo and sanctions on them, that’s crazy. No, we need to just temporarily pause less than 1% of “offensive arms” and give them all the “defensive arms” they need to continue the Holocaust and also if you even suggest imposing economic sanctions on Nazi Germany you’re clearly deranged.
[Video]
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1968402070899138560/vid/avc1/1920x1080/u2vlGjVG_9k_vAyf.mp4
12:50 PM | Sep 17, 2025
2/3
@zei_squirrel
there is another important lesson here: All those who have been praising Bernie Sanders and AOCIA and laundering their lies are what enabled him to wait until now, 23 months into the genocide, to finally recognize it. By telling people like me “OMG BERNIE IS DADDY OMG WHY YOU PURIST CONTRAPOINTS MEME, YOU DONT WANT POWER CONTRAPOINTS MEME” you helped ensure that he would not recognize the genocide until 23 months into a genocide, and many months after Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and countless genocide scholars had already done so.
And now as I and others keep demanding Bernie Sanders and AOCIA adopt the position of Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Al Green, Summer Lee, MTG and Thomas Massie and support an actual full arms embargo on what they now say is a genocidal regime, you still keep throwing out the deranged “OMG PURISM” to launder them.
Because you don’t actually give a fuck about helping ensure that the minimally moral and politically essential policies to stop the genocide are adopted as the standard by the elected left which then becomes the standard that every politician is measured against ahead of 2026 and 2028.
No, instead you are happy to let Bernie Sanders and AOCIA maintain their totally insane and deranged position that Israel is committing a genocide, but we have to keep arming and funding it, we can’t support an actual complete arms embargo and sanctions on it.
As they keep lying to you in their comms statements on twitter and social media: “STOP ALL MILITARY AID TO NETANYAHU, NOT A SINGLE NICKEL MORE TO NETANYAHU!!!”, which is intentional. That is part of an intentional, deliberate deception campaign to fool their own base into thinking they actually support an arms embargo and sanctions when they don’t, as I have been saying for over a year now and as was recently exposed fully with the MTG amendment and AOCIA’s deranged vow to forever send the genocidal regime “defensive arms” and calling anyone who supports an arms embargo including Rashida and Ilhan “neo-Nazis” who want to mass murder all Jews:
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1870599903812198837
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1946602140056658143
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1946603402206564578
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1947382983809286471
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1947458866045681693
Do you now see that it is possible to push these politicians to adopt positions? Will you now join me and others and demand they do so? Or will you keep shouting like pathetic idiotic sheep: “OMG PURISM, OMG CONTRAPOINTS POWER MEME”.
[Image]
1:09 PM | Sep 17, 2025
3/3
@zei_squirrel
also to be clear, Bernie Sanders has been regurgitating the disgusting depraved “1200 innocents were killed by KHAMAS in their UNPROVOKED OCTOBER 7 TERRORIST ATTACK WHICH STARTED THIS WAR, and Israel like the US and every country had the right to defend itself” genocidal propaganda lie since the start of the genocide. And he knows it’s a lie.
He knows there was an occupation and Gaza was a concentration camp with routine massacres including in the days leading up to October 7, and that he is intentionally erasing all that by saying “KHAMAS STARTED THIS WAR, ISRAEL HAD THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF LIKE THE US AND ANY OTHER COUNTRY”. He knows that saying his precious genocidal Israeli death and rape-cult is like any other country erases the reality of the occupation and Gaza concentration camp where children and everyone was being poisoned and shot and massacred for decades:
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1367401800169619459
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1916848995445473468
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1931928129452274037
https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1270716437984759809
And he knows the “1200 innocents” is a deliberate lie by including Israeli rape-soldiers/police among “innocents”, while also erasing the many civilians intentionally killed by the Israeli death-cult as part of its Hannibal Directive.
But even if you don’t want to talk about that despite the fact that it’s been extensively reported on and proven beyond all doubt that Israel intentionally mass killed its own civilians, why include the rape-soldiers and police among “innocents”?
It is because Bernie Sanders wants to inflate the number of “innocents” as high as possible and in so doing conjure up the image of masses of babies and children and women being killed by evil barbaric brown dark KHAMAS hordes.
In the clip John Mearsheimer, who is not a radical in any way but acknowledges the truth, points out these realities about Gaza, Hamas, the context of October 7 and the Hannibal Directive that Bernie Sanders has spent the entire genocide deliberately obscuring and spreading lies and propaganda about in service of his precious Zionist death and rape-cult, and disgustingly begins his “Ok fine it’s a genocide I guess but I still oppose an arms embargo and sanctions and vow to forever arm and fund it” statement with.
It’s such a disgusting depraved scumbag behavior, and it’s all intentional on his part, born of his lifelong fanatical commitment to Zionism.
[Video]
https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1968604565311295488/vid/avc1/1920x1080/wT_rKDJmMEIrHn8E.mp4
2:15 AM | Sep 18, 2025