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Hillary Clinton Backs Israel on Gaza War After Bernie Criticism

Hillary Clinton backed Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza in a television interview Sunday amid a controversy over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders’s claim that it acted “disproportionately” in the campaign.

The Democratic frontrunner told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Jewish state bombed and invaded the Hamas-ruled enclave in self-defense, Politico reported

When “your soldiers are under attack, you have to respond,” she said.

“It’s a very different undertaking for Israel to target those who are targeting them,” she said. “And I think Israel has had to defend itself, has a right to defend itself.”

Sanders sparked a firestorm of criticism last week when he challenged Israel to do more to make peace with the Palestinians and called the Gaza war “disproportionate.”

The Vermont senator, who is Jewish and spent time on a kibbutz as a young man, also asserted that Israel killed about 10,000 innocent Palestinians in the conflict, a figure that is about five times higher than the actual death toll.

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