Elizabeth Warren is a former law professor whose specialty is bankruptcy law. She knows how to read and make sense of complicated codes, rebarbative regs, and the most taxing of tax texts. But when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, she shows no signs of having understood, or even of having read, the most essential documents: the Mandate for Palestine, Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, U.N. Resolution 242. And she has shown herself to be ignorant not just of these essential texts, but of the Islamic basis of the conflict, the vicissitudes of that conflict’s major and minor wars, the only possible way to assure a durable peace, the changing view of the “Palestinians” and Israel, both in Washington and in the Arab capitals.
At a February campaign event in New Hampshire a member of the audience — in a most grating and unpleasant voice – asked Warren a question:
“I’m an American Jew and I’m terrified by the unholy alliance that AIPAC is forming with Islamophobes and antisemites and white nationalists and no Democrat should legitimize that kind of bigotry by attending their annual policy conference,” a woman attending a town hall with Warren in Derry, New Hampshire said Thursday. “And I’m really grateful that you skipped the AIPAC conference last year and so my question is if you’ll join me in committing to skip the AIPAC conference this March.”
The Jewish anti-occupation group IfNotNow said that the questioner, identified as Sarah O’Connor, was acting on its behalf.
And Elizabeth Warren waved her arms and replied “Yeah!”
At that point it was clear what Elizabeth Warren ought to have done. She ought to have said this:
Just a minute. I am not endorsing AIPAC, but your charge is simply ridiculous. AIPAC has not made an “unholy alliance” with “Islamophobes and antisemites and white nationalists” – that’s an absurd charge. And I think everyone of common sense and decency knows it is absurd.”
But that’s not what presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said to Sarah O’Connor. She said “Yeah!”
And then, with a mien and in a tone meant to indicate her let’s-drill-down thoughtfulness about the matter at hand, she said:
Let’s talk just a little bit more about policy in Israel. ‘cause I think this is really important. The way I see this is that for America to be a good ally of Israel and of the Palestinians we need to encourage both parties to get to the negotiating table, and we’re not doing that if we keep standing with one party and saying “ we’re on your side we’re going to give you all the things you asked for for all kinds of political reasons domestically here and domestically in Israel. The two-state solution is not somethin’ people have just thought up. It has been the official policy of the United States of America for nearly 70 years and the official policy of Israel. We need a solution in Israel that is a long-term peace solution. And that means something that provides protection for the Israelis and provides self-determination and dignity for the Palestinians. We need to encourage the parties to come together. That’s what we want to see them do. And to have them negotiate out the right answer that’s going to work for them. The details –the settlements, the occupations, the uh capitol – that’s what the parties should negotiate. And we are ot a good friend of either party when we disrupt that process and keep it from. going forward. So as president of the United States I will do my best to work out a long-term solution good for every one. Thank you. Thank you.
Let’s look sentence by sentence at Warren’s response:
Let’s talk just a little bit more about policy in Israel. ‘cause I think this is really important.
Right. This policy “in [sic] Israel” is “really important.” This is the least controversial remark by Warren in her entire exterior monologue.
“The way I see this is that for America to be a good ally of Israel and of the Palestinians we need to encourage both parties to get to the negotiating table, and we’re not doing that if we keep standing with one party and saying “ we’re on your side we’re going to give you all the things you asked for, for all kinds of political reasons domestically here and domestically in Israel.”
But why should America want to be “a good ally of Israel and of the Palestinians”? Does America have a duty of being a “good ally” or friend on both sides of every quarrel or conflict? What have the Palestinians done to show that they have ever been, or could ever be, a “good ally” of America? Under their leaders, from the pro-Nazi Hajj Amin el Husseini all the way to the Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Abbas, what have the “Palestinian” people demonstrated they have in common with us? How can people who have been taught by their Qur’an to believe that they are the “best of peoples” (3:110) be a good ally to those they are also taught are “the most vile of created beings” (98:6)? Shouldn’t we always ally ourselves with those countries that share our civilizational values, are democratic, uphold human rights (freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of the press, freedom of religion) and not with those that share none of our values, and have an uninterrupted political history of corrupt despotisms? Why should we want to be a “good ally” of those whose identity – the “Palestinian people” – has been fabricated for propaganda purposes, and whose chosen weapon of warfare for many decades has been terrorism, with Israeli men, women, and children murdered in schoolrooms, at bus stops, in nature preserves, on beaches, in pizza parlors, at Passover services, at university canteens, and in private homes? The “Palestinians” have been taught in more than one hundred Qur’anic verses to wage violent Jihad, that is “to fight” and “to kill” and “to smite at the necks of” and “to strike terror in the hearts of” all non-Muslims, including Americans.
Could we possibly be a “good ally” of such people? Why this insensate desire by Warren to be “a good ally of Israel and the Palestinians”? Should America have been “a good ally of Czechoslovakia” and a “good ally of Nazi Germany” in September 1938? Should America have been a good ally of Franco’s fascists and of the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War? Should America now strive to be a “good ally of Maduro” and a “good ally of Guiado” in Venezuela? Should America be just as “good an ally” of Pakistan as it is of India? Should we try to be a good ally of both North Korea and South Korea? That way madness lies.
Warren might have said something like this:
Israel is, and always has been, our ally. It is a country we Americans admire for the pluck, and bravery, and talent of its citizens. Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of the survivors of the Nazi death camps joined the hundreds of thousands of Jews already in Mandatory Palestine, who had been returning to the area to rebuild their ancient homeland since the late 19th century. They fended off Arab attacks all through the 1920s and 1930s, enduring the Arab Revolt from 1936-1939. During Israel’s war for independence, and into the early 1950s, more immigrants arrived. 900,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab lands, and at least 700,00 of them were resettled, penniless because they had had to leave billions of dollars worth of property behind, in Israel, that took in these refugees, some from backgrounds that were positively medieval, and integrating them into an advanced Western society. And then, in the 1990s, another million refugees arrived from the Soviet Union, who soon adapted to an economic system very different from that they had experienced their entire lives.
The Israelis really did make the desert bloom – that phrase was no exaggeration — through their new techniques in soil conservation, that so impressed the celebrated American agronomist Walter C. Lowdermilk, and with their other advances in agriculture, such as drip irrigation. And here is this tiny country, which everyone now thinks of as the Start-Up Nation, with its achievements in many different fields, including defense technology — drone warfare, cybersecurity, anti-missile defense systems, laser warfare, even tanks; medical advances, such as 3-D hearts, pillcams, and new treatments for cancer; water management, conservation, and even water creation, including a new method for extracting water from the air, and so much more.
The Israelis accomplished all this while successfully defending themselves in three major wars (in 1948-49, 1967, and 1973) and a half-dozen smaller wars: against Egypt in the Sinai in 1956, in Lebanon against the PLO in 1982, and against Hezbollah in 2006; and in Gaza against Hamas in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014. And Israel has been forced as well to wage a continuous war of self-defense against Muslim terrorists, a war without let-up, while also building a nation. How could we not admire such a country, that shares our values, finds a way to overcome every new difficulty, and has become an example for other states around the world to emulate?
Yes, that’s what Elizabeth Warren could have said. Israel certainly deserves such praise. But she didn’t. She doesn’t want to seem, and certainly not to be, too favorably inclined towards Israel. It wouldn’t be fair to the Palestinians. They have all tried so hard – Haj Amin el Husseini, Yassir Arafat, Khaled Meshal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, Mahmoud Abbas – to do the decent thing. She wants to be a “good ally” — equally good — to Israel and to the Palestinians. Yes, I know what you’re going to say. Such a position is intolerable, given how very differently the two parties behave. But she’s Elizabeth Warren. She knows all about consumer protection law. Bankruptcy law. The Uniform Commercial Code. But history is not her strong suit. Nor is international law. Her mental universe, I’m afraid, remains bound by Ames, Langdell, Pound, and Wasserstein. What did you expect?
Hugh Fitzgerald says
I took the liberty of modifying Molly Bloom’s last words, not just repeating Warren’s “yeah” in place of Molly Bloom’s “yes” but also, in the final assertion, changing “I will yes” to “I mean yeah!” Forgive me this trespass.
Hawkeye says
Why did you block the jihad watch Facebook PAGE? We posted we are not affiliated with you in any way, you sir are a asshole
marc says
I very rarely block anyone from our facebook page, you can use the contact form on the right, choosing the tech support option.
I am sure if i blocked you it would have been for good reason, but for now I have no idea what profile you are accusing me of blocking, I can make mistakes so am happy to check.
For future reference, vulgarisms will get you a permanent ban here on the website, please keep it civil.
Rob says
‘Elizabeth Warren the $3 woman’. She can put the 3 bucks with the five loaves and two fishes she already has. Success right there!
mortimer says
Hugh Fitzgerald is correct: Warren is completely unprepared intellectually to speak on Israel’s conflict with the Pallies. To all appearances, she hasn’t read the basic OUTLINE of the dispute over land … even to familiarize herself with the BASIS of the arguments on both sides.
This is irresponsible. It is not good enough for a professor of law to make SPONTANEOUS, UNPREPARED and UNSTUDIED comments about international affairs.
This is the same woman who claimed to be native American for political purposes BEFORE having a DNA analysis. When her DNA facts were available, she was shown to be presumptuous.
Warren is seen to be a PRESUMPTUOUS HUMBUG outside her area of expertise. She should not be trusted.
James Lincoln says
mortimer, you are correct.
She “doesn’t know that she doesn’t know” – and that’s very dangerous.
And, more shocking, refuses to conduct “due diligence / truth seeking ” regarding the “relationship” between Israel and the so-called “Palestinians”.
mortimer says
Warren claims there are ‘occupations’. In 1921, the British government decided that Jews would be able to purchase, settle and occupy land to the west of the Dead Sea and Jordan River. That authorization has not been rescinded, even though Transjordan illegally seized and illegally annexed the West Band for almost 20 years.
The Jewish National Home was authorized by the League of Nations and Israel recognized by the UN, so Israelis are ‘occupying’ an authorized Jewish homeland.
The present Pally leadership are nothing more than conspiratorial kleptocrats who have found a devious way to line their pockets from international aid monies.
If Warren truly is an expert on bankruptcy and money mismanagement, she should follow the money trail of the Pally kleptocrats.
jewdog says
She reminds me of some engineers I have known who can tell you all the subtleties of semiconductor gate conductance but then think that a Sunni is a weather phenomenon. She obviously has no real interest in the topic and covers her ignorance with platitudes and cant. She should stick to taxes.
libertyORdeath says
Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible (old and new testaments) = 971
Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Qur’an = 0
Norger says
Sooo.. . Those “Palestinians” we saw celebrating 9/11 are our “allies?!” NEVER!!!
Scott in PA says
I would liken Elizabeth Warren more to The Citizen than Molly, considering what she has in store for the Israelis.
somehistory says
She believes that she is smart…and cool (after all, she drank beer from a bottle)…but she is so incredibly stupid. Being a lawyer, professor, and knowing tax laws, doesn’t mean she is “smart.”
Politicians use many words; and some of the reasons: to cover what they don’t know, to give a “solution” that they don’t have, to change the direction of the thought processes of those listening, to get votes and money from those who are deluded into thinking the politician understands the questions and has the answers.
She said that the two parties would have to get together and come up with solutions.
” We need to encourage the parties to come together. That’s what we want to see them do. And to have them negotiate out the right answer that’s going to work for them. The details –the settlements, the occupations, the uh capitol – that’s what the parties should negotiate.”
Then, she said she would provide that if she gets elected to be president.
“So as president of the United States I will do my best to work out a long-term solution good for every one.”
She makes me gnash my teeth.
James Lincoln says
somehistory says,
“Politicians use many words; and some of the reasons: to cover what they don’t know, to give a “solution” that they don’t have, to change the direction of the thought processes of those listening, to get votes and money from those who are deluded into thinking the politician understands the questions and has the answers.”
Unfortunately, true.
I like to think of it as a kind of political “legerdemain”. This is absolutely infuriating to individuals who follow factual evidence-based logic – always searching for the truth.
Think “honest” engineers, airline pilots, physicians, law enforcement detectives, student STEM majors, etc.