Israel Ambassador to UN: We Don’t Want ‘Ignorant Fool’ Bernie Sanders in Israel

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, declared Sunday that Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is an “ignorant” fool, adding: “We don’t want him in Israel.”

The unusually blunt criticism came at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the most prominent pro-Israel groups in the country. Sanders declared a week ago that he would not attend AIPAC, claiming that it was a platform for “bigotry.” When asked what he means, during the Democrat debate in South Carolina, he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.” (The audience applauded.)

Danon, a free-marker conservative known for his blunt opinions declared (via Times of Israel): “Whoever calls the prime minister of Israel a ‘racist’ is either a liar, an ignorant fool, or both,” Danon said. “We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. We don’t want him in Israel.”

Netanyahu’s own reaction was more muted: he said Sanders was “wrong,” but hastened to add that he did not want to interfere in the U.S. elections.

Sanders has also said that he would use U.S. aid as leverage to force Israeli concession, and would consider moving the U.S. embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.

The only Democratic Party presidential candidates who will address AIPAC are former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) — the latter two by video.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

This post was updated to add Biden’s participation.