At a town hall in Natick, Massachusetts this week Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told a group of supporters that she supported conditioning aid to Israel, but couldn’t remember whether she voted in favor of the United States’s $38 billion military aid deal with the country.
In fact, she cosponsored a 2018 bill that aimed to enshrine the agreement.
“I first want to thank you for all the causes and issues you support zealously, which is why I campaigned for you and donated to you,” a JVP Action supporter at the event told Warren. “Nevertheless Senator, this Jewish woman would like to know what it would take for you to break your silence and speak out with a full-throat against the ongoing ethnic-cleansing of Palestinians.”
“The U.S. is in bed with Israel in all regards,” she continued. “[Massachusetts] tax payers alone spend $130 million for weapons that Israel uses against Palestinians. This is only one of the egregious ways that we are complicit with this apartheid regime. Please speak out for freedom and justice for Palestinians, who are human beings and need you. You are a powerful person. People listen when you speak.”
“So I appreciate the very kind words,” responded Warren. “I have spoken out and I will continue to speak out. I want to speak out in a way to be heard.”
When asked about the money that Israel received from the United States, Warren said, “I am one of the very few who has talked about how that money should and should not be used and I think we need to continue to do that…I have argued that that money cannot be used for purposes of expanding the settlements.”
“Did you vote for it?”, asked another activist in the crowd. “Did you vote for the $38 billion over ten years?”
“I’m trying to think of how the vote came up,” replied Warren. “I’d have to go back and look at how the vote came up, but we’ve had this vote every year and this is what I have spoken up for.”
“Well speaking up is one thing, but voting against the money is the only thing that Israel is going to listen to,” said the questioner.
“Let me go back and look, but I get your point,” Warren told them.
U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act
The historic $38 billion deal that Warren asked about was negotiated between the Israeli government and the Obama administration in 2016. The agreement gave Israel an annual $3.3 billion in “foreign military financing,” $500 million a year for its Iron Dome missile defense system, and the means to upgrade its fighter aircraft. Obama said that the deal would make a “significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a dangerous neighborhood.”
In 2018 the Senate passed the U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act, which codified the agreement. The Senate bill had 72 cosponsors, one of whom was Warren. Her support for the legislation was consistent with her previous positions on the issue. In 2014 she voted in favor of $225 million in Iron Dome funding. When challenged on the vote during a town hall meeting in Cape Cod, she defended her decision. “Israel lives in a very dangerous part of the world, and a part of the world where there aren’t many liberal democracies and democracies that are controlled by the rule of law,” she said,” And we very much need an ally in that part of the world.”
Conditioning Aid
While running in 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary Warren began suggesting that U.S. aid to Israel should potentially be conditioned. “We must find ways to make tangible progress on the ground toward a two-state solution,” she said in a speech at the 2019 J Street conference. “Sometimes that might mean finding ways to apply pressure and create consequences for problematic behavior as previous Democratic and Republican presidents have done.”
“For example,” she added, “if Israel’s government continues with steps to formally annex the West Bank, the United States should make it clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation.” Shortly after making that speech Warren told The Hill that “everything was on the table” if she became president and Israel continued to build illegal settlements.
Warren was also asked about Israel’s military aid as part of a presidential candidate questionnaire from the New York Times. “I will reverse the Trump administration’s new policy on settlements, which upends 40 years of bipartisan precedent, and make clear that Israeli settlements violate international law,” she told the paper. “And if Israel’s government continues with steps to annex the West Bank, the U.S. should make clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation.”
At J Street’s 2021 conference Warren made similar comments. “If we’re serious about arresting settlement expansion and helping move the parties toward a two-state solution, then it would be irresponsible not to consider all of the tools we have at our disposal,” she told attendees. “One of those is restricting military aid from being used in the occupied territories. By continuing to provide military aid without restriction, we provide no incentive for Israel to adjust course.”
Despite Warren’s statements about conditioning aid, she has yet to introduce any legislative measures connected to the concept. For example, Rep. Betty McCollum’s (D-MN) repeated efforts to stop the United States from funding the detention of Palestinian children have never generated a Senate companion bill.
At an October 2021 event a JVP Action leader called on Warren to introduce such legislation. “Right now there’s a bill on congress that creates the conditions for justice and freedom for all. It’s called the Palestinian Children & Families Act, H.R. 2590,” she explained. “It works to ensure that U.S. taxpayer funds are not used by the Israeli government to imprison Palestinian children in a military detention system, which they do at the tune of 700 kids a year… You certainly stand up for the human rights of Americans..and our friends at the border. It’s time to stand up for the Palestinian kids. Palestinian children wonder when they will be free. When will you write a companion bill to H.R. 2590?”
Warren said she didn’t support U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to expand settlements or annex more Palestinian land, but she didn’t address the issue of McCollum’s bill in her response.
Warren compromises her ethics for political considerations, especially for Israel’s crimes and corruption of US politicians. Apparently she thinks people won’t notice.