By Michael Arria
October 22, 2019 "Information
Clearing House" - Last month, the progressive think tank Data for
Progress released
report showing that a net majority of Democratic
voters are receptive to the idea of cutting aid to
Israel in order to curb their human rights
violations.
These statistics certainly didn’t line
up with the Beltway consensus on the issue, where
it’s assumed that touching the issue could amount to
political suicide. When the report was published,
only two presidential candidates had floated such an
idea: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who said he’d
block any funding that might be used to annex
the West Bank, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders,
who has floated the idea of conditioning aid to
impact Israel’s policies
multiple times.
We can now add a third name to that list:
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
On a Saturday, Warren said she was open to the
idea of conditioning aid if Israel continued to
expand its settlements:
Right now, Netanyahu says he is going to
take Israel in a direction of increasing
settlements, [but] that does not move us in the
direction of a two-state solution. It is the
official policy of the United States of America
to support a two-state solution, and if Israel
is moving in the opposite direction, then
everything is on the table…Everything is on the
table.
There’s no details here, but there weren’t really
for Buttigieg or Sanders either. While Warren and
Buttigieg have floated the idea in response tangible
developments (settlement expansion, West Bank
annexation) Sanders has said that he’d have the
option on the table to assure that Israel treats the
“Palestinian people and that region with respect.”
That’s obviously pretty vague, but it does leave
open the possibility of aid being conditioned for
various infractions, as opposed to just the ones
identified by Warren and Buttigieg.
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There’s obviously a sizable
possibility that this is all just hollow
rhetoric from the candidates, but it’s
part of a notable shift nonetheless. In
addition to public opinion seemingly
shifting on the issue, there have also
been recent legislative attempts to hold
Israel accountable for its human rights
abuses. Chief among them is
H.R.2407, a piece of legislation
introduced by Minnesota Rep. Betty
McCollum. The bill would would amend the
Foreign Assistance Act so that United
States’ taxpayer money would no longer
be used to detain children in foreign
countries, including Israel.
Shortly before leaving office Barack Obama
signed a $38 billion military aid package with
Israel, which is scheduled to last through 2028.
Responding to a question from Congresswoman Tulsi
Gabbard during last week’s Democratic debate in
Ohio, Elizabeth Warren
answered, “So, look, I think that we ought to
get out of the Middle East. I don’t think we should
have troops in the Middle East. But we have to do it
the right way, the smart way.” The
comment drew criticism from Joe Biden.
This article was originally published by "Mondoweiss"-
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==See Also==
Pro-Israel org says Warren campaign assured them that
anti-occupation staffer wouldn’t be working on Middle East policy
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