De danske medier har skrevet 100-vis af artikler om den meget højreorienterede Donald Trump, og man får nemt det indtryk, at højreorienteret er andet ord for kontroversiel eller højtråbende. Omvendt er det meget lidt man hører om demokraten Bernie Sanders, der var tæt på at slå Hillary Clinton i Iowa, og i dag har en realitisk mulighed for at vinde i New Hampshire. Han bliver næppe præsidentkandidat, for som DR Online afdæmpet pointerer, så tilhører han “en del af den yderste venstrefløj i Senatet”.

Nævnte portrætartikel gennemgår historien kronologisk, om hvordan Bernie Sanders gik fra ‘borgerrettigheder’ til at være en slags ‘demokratisk socialist’, der har den nordiske velfærdsstat som ideal. Intet dansk medie har bragt noget om Sanders’ problematiske fortid, herunder tiden han tilbragte i Kibbutz i Israel. En kibbutz der var for ventreorienteret til Noam Chomsky, der et årti senere gjorde sig selv til apologet for De Røde Khmerer.

Uforlignelige Daniel Greenfield folder sig ud på Frontpage Mag – Bernie Sanders spent months at marxist-stalinist kibbutz.

“Bernie Sanders has a complicated history with Israel… But defenders keep mentioning that he and his anti-Israel brother Larry, who is with the Green Party in the UK, spent time at a Kibbutz in Israel.

When Bernie Sanders entered the race, there was a good deal of speculation in Israel which Kibbutz he was in. … Sanders had told Yossi Melman that he had been at Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim as a guest of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement. Israel had all sorts of Kibbutzim affiliated with various political movements. Hashomer Hatzair was about as bad as it got.

Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim had been co-founded by Aharon Cohen, the Arabist, who was a regular critic of Israel and opponent of its policy. He was arrested for spying for the USSR in the 50s. Hashomer Hatzair was a Marxist organization. … Other left-wing groups described them as Leninist and even Stalinist.

Its founder, Ya’akov Hazan, described the USSR as a second homeland and eulogized Stalin, writing how shocked he and his comrades were, ‘to hear of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the nations of the Soviet Union, the world proletariat and all of progressive mankind, upon the death of the great leader and extolled commander, Josef Vissarionovich Stalin. We lower our flag in grief in memory of the great revolutionary fighter, architect of socialist construction, and leader of the world’s peace movement. His huge historical achievements will guide generations in their march towards the reign of socialism and communism the world over.’

Al Hamishmar, the movement’s paper, had a headline which read, ‘The Progressive World Mourns the Death of J.V. Stalin’. …

While Hashomer Hatzair is described as Marxist-Zionist, its own position was Marxist, not Zionist. Like American Communists, it was the Communist part that mattered. Not the American part. … Hashomer Hatzair pledged its allegiance to the Soviet Union.

As late as 1969, well after Bernie’s 1963 visit, Dissent was describing Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim as ‘Stalinist’.

Western lefties with a Hashomer Hatzair background include Noam Chomsky. Chomsky wrote that he was fairly close to ‘Hashomer Hatzair, but couldn’t join because it was split between Stalinists and Trotskyites.’

Bernie Sanders wasn’t there because he liked Israel. Hashomer Hatzair did not like Israel. It ultimately wanted to destroy it. He was there because he was far left. Perhaps even further left than he has admitted.”