US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are seen before a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Shortly after the presidential election, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders released a scathing statement blaming the Democrats for Trump’s victory.

Alongside a slew of criticisms of Democratic policies on healthcare and labor, Sanders tore into the party for their stance on the Israel-Hamas war, writing that “despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government’s all-out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the starvation of thousands of children.”

As usual, Sanders’ statement is deeply off base — both about the situation in Israel, and about the impact of the war on the 2024 election.

Exit polls and voter surveys have painted a clear picture of American priorities in the 2024 election, and the war in Gaza was nowhere near the top of the list.

Instead, the leading issues were the state of democracy, which 34% of voters cited as their main concern, followed by 31% for the economy, abortion for 14%, and immigration at 11%. By contrast, only 4% of voters were most concerned with foreign policy.

Americans also reported notably deep concerns about their leading priorities, with 3 in 4 people saying that they think democracy is threatened and 2 in 3 voters saying that they think the economy is either not good or poor. And nearly half of voters said that they are financially worse off now than they were four years ago — a rate of dissatisfaction higher than any presidential election since 2008.

In other words, American motives for voting the way they did this year are incredibly clear, and they center around the issues that have always mattered the most to everyday citizens. To quote Bill Clinton’s former adviser James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Americans had deep, pervasive worries about their financial and domestic standing this year, and many of them felt alienated by a Democratic Party that spent the last few years more worried about “woke” political issues — and championing terror supporters like Hamas instead of our allies like Israel — than the well-being and financial stability of hardworking American citizens.

This is why Trump beat Harris in every swing state, not just states like Michigan with a high population of Muslim voters. While it may be possible Harris did worse in Dearborn, Michigan, thanks to protest voters from Arab Americans, her underperformance among many other traditionally blue constituencies, like Latinos and Black men, suggest a much wider policy failure from the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, even though Harris was decisively beaten in the state, Michigan elected a pro-Israel Democratic senator.

Sanders’ statement feeds into antisemitic stereotypes, and it is especially noxious given his insistent weaponization of his Jewish identity to viciously criticize the Jewish State.

Sanders has spent the months since October 7, 2023, behaving as a token Jew for some of the most virulently anti-Israel segments of the left, highlighting his own Jewish heritage only insofar as it helps him slander Israel and Zionism, and refusing to condemn the dog-whistling antisemites in his corner of the party.

Charging Israel with the Democrats’ humiliating defeat this year is just the latest example of this tendency, which feeds into the time-honored antisemitic strategy of blaming Jews for self-inflicted issues.

American voters did not come to the ballot box concerned with Benjamin Netanyahu — they voted with their own country and personal interests in mind.

Sanders’ insistence on overlooking this obvious reality, and accusing the “Zionists” for the loss, reflects a concerning level of ignorance and a willingness to throw his own people under the bus for cheap political capital.

Rather than fanning the flames of Jew hate, the senator would do well to turn his concerns inward towards his own party and the myriad ways they have failed the American people. Otherwise, if they don’t learn to speak to everyday American voters, the Democrats will keep losing, and Bernie Sanders will shout his brainless lies into the void.

Sheila Nazarian is a Los Angeles plastic surgeon and star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix original series Skin Decision: Before and After. Follow her on Instagram.