Senator Bernie Sanders has been in Europe this week, debuting his bestseller It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism in its new Dutch and German translations. He’s spoken at several large public engagements in the Netherlands and Belgium, all of which sold out in a matter of hours and were very enthusiastically received. His last stop on the tour was Germany, where he spoke before yet another sold-out audience, followed by a reception hosted by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, a foundation associated with Die Linke, the German left party.

The gathering was broad and included trade union leaders, climate activists, and members of other parties. Everyone from Die Linke cochair Janine Wissler to the moderate Green Party leader Ricarda Lang was eager to meet with Bernie Sanders.

There was one prominent exception, however. Saskia Esken, leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party, had accepted an invitation to attend the reception from the event’s organizers before suddenly pulling out. Esken made the announcement yesterday morning on BlueSky, saying that she had “Tea to spill.” She continued that because Bernie had not clearly “stood on the side of Israel and against the terror of Hamas” she had to cancel what she described as a meeting with Sanders. The spectacle of a German leader refusing to talk with a prominent Jewish politician based on his insufficient support for the state of Israel was widely commented upon by Germans on social media.