Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) can be seen telling a group of IfNotNow activists at a July 8 campaign event in New Hampshire that she agrees with their call to “push” Israel to end the “occupation” of the Palestinians.
One of the activists, identified in a NowThis Twitter video as Becca Lubow, tells Warren, “Hi. We’re American Jews. We really love the way you’re fighting corruption. We’d really love it if you also push the Israeli government to end the occupation.”
Warren replies, “Yes, yes. So I’m there.”
Lubow can also be seen telling Warren that she would love to see Warren break “from the AIPAC-funded status quo.” Warren then says, “Yeah, I hear you.”
Sen. @eWarren says she’d push Israel to end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank pic.twitter.com/RuT0Xgdr6a
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 9, 2019
IfNotNow celebrated Warren’s remarks in a statement.
“In the past, Warren has regularly spoken of Israel as a strong ally in a tough neighborhood and has appeared at AIPAC events and used right-wing talking points,” the progressive organization said. “But as her career has gone on, her views on the issue have grown to be farther in line with her progressive values: She was one of the 60 Democrats to boycott [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s [2015] speech in Congress, she supported the Iran Deal, spoke out against the [Jerusalem] embassy move, and opposes efforts to criminalize the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement.”
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Journal in a phone interview that Warren needs to elaborate more on her “occupation” remarks since many Palestinians view all of Israel as occupied territory.
“One-liners talking about ending the occupation might be very soothing, might be an easy throwaway line to get support from certain people, essentially, it’s completely meaningless,” Cooper said. “It has no meaning because if you ask two people what it means, they have three definitions.”
IfNotNow defines the “occupation” on their website as “as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.” Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
The Warren campaign also hired IfNotNow co-founder Max Berger as the campaign’s Director for Progressive Partnerships in June. Berger came under fire for tweeting in 2013, “Confession: I would totally be friends with Hamas.” The tweet, as well as other tweets from Berger since June 16, have been deleted.
Chris Hayden, the deputy communications director of the Warren campaign, told Jewish News Syndicate that the tweet was “out of context,” pointing to a July 8 tweet from Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel saying that it was a joke:
Oppo is oppo, sure. But @FreeBeacon regularly publishes satire (like the jokey "winners" on their Men of the Year list). Berger was obviously getting in on a Twitter joke; it's ridiculous to claim he just was revealing his pro-terror sympathies.
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) July 8, 2019
Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Director Melissa Weiss, an avowed Democrat, didn’t find it to be particularly funny:
Folks. “I would totally be friends with Hamas” is an inappropriate and not funny thing to say regardless of context. That isn’t even debatable. It’s objectively not funny.
— Melissa Weiss (@melissaeweiss) July 9, 2019
Berger has a history of anti-Israel comments, including tweeting his support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, accusing Israel of conducting a “pogrom” in the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and saying that “Israel is like the south before 1963.” He also called Birthright “right-wing propaganda” and defended Imam Omar Suleiman, who has called for a Third Intifada.
Cooper told the Journal that Warren needs to make it clear on if she’s in the same “radical” camp on Israel as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who told IfNotNow activists in June that he also supported ending the Israeli “occupation.”
“In combination with this guy [Max] Berger and this throwaway line that she put out ending the occupation, she owes her supporters and the rest of the American Jewish community and the rest of Americans a specific definition and context on what her Middle East policy will be,” Cooper said.
Warren did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.
