"The most pro-Israel president" in US history must not be replaced by "the most anti-Israel one," US Vice President Mike Pence told the annual AIPAC conference on Monday.
Making the case for US President Donald Trump's re-election, Pence warned that if elected, Senator Bernie Sanders would be the complete opposite of Trump as it pertains to the US-Israel relationship.
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"We must ensure that the most pro-Israel president in history must not be replaced by one who would be the most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation," said Pence at the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, where he slammed Sanders for calling Israel "a racist state" and defaming AIPAC as "a platform for bigotry."
On February 23, Sanders announced that he would skip the AIPAC conference.
"If we can agree on one thing, it should be this: Those who side with Israel's enemies must never be allowed to call themselves friends of Israel," said Pence. "It is wrong to boycott and slander Israel. It is wrong to boycott and slander AIPAC."
Pence also said that "anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism."
The US vice president also said it was troubling that none of the Democratic candidates challenged Sanders on the stage during a recent Democratic debate "when Bernie Sanders smeared Israel."
In his speech, Pence touted Trump's pro-Israel achievements, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the US embassy there; withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal; closing the PLO mission in Washington, D.C.; defunding US assistance to the Palestinian Authority for rewarding terrorists and their families; defunding US funding for UNRWA; combatting anti-Israel bias at the United Nations; deeming Israeli neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria as not illegal; signing an executive order to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses; and eliminating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference ahead of Israel's vote on March 2.
On the US side, the timing was also sensitive, as Pence's comments came ahead of Super Tuesday, with the stage set for a clash between Sanders, the current front-runner, and Joe Biden, whose campaign was revitalized with a solid performance in South Carolina and the support of former candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who withdrew from the race on Monday.
AIPAC has traditionally worked as a bipartisan platform, but in the recent months, it was forced to apologize over a contentious Facebook ad jabbing at "radicals" among Democrats seeking to sabotage the US-Israeli ties.
The conference concludes on Tuesday.
