Abe Foxman calls on Sanders to fire new Jewish community liaison for ‘anti-Israel’ comments

Former ADL director denounces Simone Zimmerman’s ‘ugly characterization’ of Netanyahu, IDF and Israelis in publicized Facebook post.

This article was originally published on Jewish Insider.

Bernie Sanders should fire his new Jewish Outreach Director over past criticial comments on Israel’s conduct toward the Palestinians, former ADL head Abe Foxman told Jewish Insider on Thursday.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday that the campaign’s newly hired Jewish outreach director Simone Zimmerman wrote an expletive-laden Facebook post last year that condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a mass-murderer. “Bibi Netanyahu is an arrogant, deceptive, cynical, manipulative a**hole,” wrote Zimmerman, a former J Street student activist, in the March 3, 2015 post. “F**k you, Bibi … you sanctioned the murder of over 2,000 people this summer.” At a later date, Zimmerman edited the post, replacing “a**hole” with “politician” and “F**k you” with “shame on you.” The Free Beacon obtained screenshots of the original and edited posts.”

Zimmerman’s comments, along with other comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, caused an uproar in the Jewish community, just a week before the April 19 New York presidential primary.

“I am not a ‘right wing extremist’ in the words of ‘Jewish Friends of Bernie’, and I believe Bernie Sanders needs to fire Simone Zimmerman,” Foxman said in an email to Jewish Insider. “No amount of word changes can cure her ugly characterization of the Prime Minister of Israel and the Israeli army and people defending themselves.”