TEHRAN – Vermont Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie in a Friday interview with Pod Save America said it is not the United States’ proper role to hate a country such as Iran or love another one such as Israel.

“… what we need to do is not say we’re 100% pro-Israel or 100% Pro Saudi Arabia. We hate Iran, we hate the Palestinians–that is not the role that the United States of America should be playing,” he said.

“We got to bring people together and say, you know what? We spend a whole lot of money not only in aid to Israel and to Egypt, we have spent trillions of dollars on the war on terror. Alright, we are going to sit down and by the way, I’ve been critical about Trump every single day of his administration, but one area I’m not critical of. He went to sit down with Kim Jong Un. You know what? I think that’s okay. I think that’s the right thing to do. And I, as president of the United States will sit down in a room with the leadership of Saudi Arabia, with the leadership of Iran, with the leadership of the Palestinians, with the leadership of Israel and hammer out some damn agreements which will try to end the conflicts that exist there.”

“I mean we are giving large sums of money look, let me let me back it up before the tweets start flowing in–I lived in Israel. Actually, I worked in a kibbutz for a number of months. I have family in Israel. I am Jewish. I am not anti-Israel. Okay, I believe that the people of Israel have absolutely the right to live in peace, independence and security. End of discussion–that is what I fervently believe,” Sanders said.

“But I think what has happened is in recent years under Netanyahu, you have an extreme right-wing government with many racist tendencies. The role of the United States and this is not easy–you know, believe me–Clinton tried it, Obama tried it, Jimmy Carter tried it. This is not easy stuff–is to try to finally bring peace to the Middle East and to treat the Palestinian people with a kind of respect and dignity they deserve.”

“Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel pro-Israel pro-Israel. It has got to be pro-region working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area and it’s a similar position–and Hillary Clinton and I had a bit of a disagreement on this in 2016–Saudi Arabia is a vicious ugly dictatorship. That’s what it is, you got to call it out. That’s what it is. They do not tolerate dissent, they treat women like third-class citizens and yet they have been on wonderful ally. We followed them into this terrible war in Yemen where I’m proud to say, I helped lead the effort to get us out of that terrible war.”

SP/PA