The Vermont senator, who has called for a ceasefire for the past two years, also used the moment to call for an end to the US-Israel alliance
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) welcomed Israel’s release of some 2,000 Palestinian murderers, rapists, and terrorists, adding that Monday’s exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners presents an opportunity for the United States to end its military alliance with the Jewish state.
Sanders, who spent the past two years pressuring Israel to accept a ceasefire deal, said he is encouraged by “the long-overdue release” of Israel’s 20 living hostages alongside “the freeing of almost 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.”
My statement on the release of hostages and prisoners in Gaza: pic.twitter.com/YSwYlDjqsW
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 13, 2025
Sanders failed to mention that this group includes “hundreds of terror convicts serving life terms,” according to the Times of Israel. One Gaza resident Israel released as part of the deal “raped and murdered a 13-year-old boy,” while dozens of others are “responsible for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks.” Another Palestinian set free on Monday was in jail for lynching two Jews.
The Vermont senator, a longtime critic of the United States-Israel alliance, said Americans must now “grapple with our role in this extremely dark chapter.”
“The United States provided most of the weapons used for this horrendous destruction,” Sanders wrote in a statement. “The United States spent more than $23 billion in taxpayer dollars to support Netanyahu’s barbaric campaign. This blanket military support continued despite clear violations of U.S. and international law.”
“This must never happen again,” Sanders said, invoking a mantra often used in reference to the Holocaust.
Sanders, like other prominent Israel bashers, spent the last two years pressuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire that only materialized once President Donald Trump took office. Now that a deal is in place, many of those same voices are casting doubt on Trump’s plan and questioning Israel’s commitment, the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.
“To achieve a lasting peace, Israel must abandon its current extremist course and move toward a genuine two-state solution,” Sanders said.
The senator, using Hamas-provided statistics, added that Oct. 7 did not grant Israel “the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, killing or wounding almost 237,000 Palestinians – more than 10 percent of Gaza’s population – most of them women, children, and the elderly.”
As the Jewish state released Palestinian terrorists Monday morning, Israelis hung a poster on one of the detention facilities reading: “He who threatens a flood is drowned and wiped out.” The message is a reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree, which the group called the Al Aqsa Flood.
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