By Ted Cohen 

A former State Department official who led Jewish outreach for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign has publicly broken with his former boss, accusing the Vermont independent of promoting candidates whose rhetoric and positions fuel antisemitism.

In an interview with Jewish Insider at the Aspen Security Forum, Joel Rubin didn’t mince words, claiming that the Jewish senior Vermont U.S. senator and his movement are harming American Jews by boosting “anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates.” 

Rubin argued that the far-left wing of the Democrat Party is fomenting hostility toward Israel, to the detriment of both the party and American Jews.

“I think what Sanders and the Sanders operation have done is shove into our system the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we’ve seen,” Rubin told Jewish Insider. 

“It’s not by accident, and it’s very disruptive intentionally,” he said. “The goal is to undermine Democratic unity and even rationality on Israel at this stage.”

Rubin specifically criticized Sanders and progressive strategists for the promotion of candidates such as former Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Platner recently withdrew from the race amid myriad scandals, not the least of which was a Nazi tattoo on his chest that came to light shortly after he announced his candidacy.

In his resignation letter to the secretary of state withdrawing from the race, Platner annotated it with the words “Free Palestine.”