US presidential hopeful says she would condition aid to Israel

A large group of former US presidential elections nominee, Bernie Sanders looking for a new leader instead of Hillary Clinton and filling the void is Jill Stein, presidential candidate for the Green Party of the United States.

The Greens have traditionally been ignored by the media, but they might be about to shuffle the pack.

Unlike Sanders, who tried to avoid addressing the subject of Israel on the campaign trail, Stein has revealed her stance on Palestine, U.S. military aid to Israel, and the Israeli government in an interview with Haaretz.

“There are forces in the United States that are supporting the darker forces in Israel – [people] like Sheldon Adelson, who has been supporting the Netanyahu government, subsidizing it by millions of dollars per month from what I understand,” says Stein.

“So it’s interesting that it’s sort of [this] predatory oligarchy around the world that’s fanning the flames of war. It’s completely unacceptable and unjust that a war hawk in the United States should be inflicting a militaristic policy on Israel. And he doesn’t even live there, so he doesn’t have to live with the consequences of the policy his money is promoting,” she adds.

Stein stresses she would change the Israel-U.S. relations, especially those between the United States and the Netanyahu government.

She would make U.S. support for Israel contingent upon Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians and ending the occupation.

And unlike President Barack Obama, Stein would not allow Israel to receive U.S. military aid while ignoring American calls for a peace deal.

“With all humility,” she says, “I would say to the Netanyahu government that we are turning the page in the United States and are now creating a foreign policy based on law and human rights. That we are going to put all of our neighbors and all of our allies on notice that, in the same way we are turning over a new leaf, we expect them to turn over a new leaf – and that in the future, our support and subsidies will be contingent on supporting international law and human rights.”

“Home demolitions, occupation, assassination, apartheid – many of these things the U.S. government is also doing now, so I say this with all due humility: We need to lead the way, because in countries all over the world this kind of oligarchy is destroying us. We have all become the targets here; injustice anywhere has become a real justice everywhere. We must have a world made of principle that can do away with these needless wars and violations of human rights.”