Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) took a hard line on Israel Saturday saying "everything is on the table" in imposing a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"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," Warren said during a press availability with reporters Saturday.
In a formulation more commonly deployed by previous presidents in threatening the use of force against America’s enemies, Warren repeated the phrase but did not clarify precisely what pressure—military or otherwise—might be brought to bear.
"Right now, [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] 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," Warren was quoted as saying.
Warren's remarks come as the left wing of the Democratic Party has increasingly embraced boycotts of the Jewish state.
Her remarks are likely to raise eyebrows in the Jewish and pro-Israel communities, which, while largely Democratic, continue to favor the U.S. alliance with the region's only democracy.
U.S. support for Israel has historically been a bipartisan issue. The aid the United States sends to Israel is largely used to bolster the country's defense systems and is reciprocal in nature, meaning the technology developed is shared with and often employed by America.
Pro-Israel groups criticized Warren in recent months over the hiring of an aide who worked with IfNotNow, a group highly critical of the Jewish state.
That staffer, Max Berger, "has spread hatred of Israel, protested against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), demonized pro-Israel American Jews, and promoted INN-organized ‘Liberation Seders,'" according to the watchdog website Canary Mission, which documents the activities of anti-Israel activists across the country. "He has also defended anti-Israel agitators and supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement."
Warren is still "a bit of an enigma to the pro-Israel advocacy community," the Israeli daily Haaretz wrote in June.
"She lacks the long history of warm ties enjoyed by other contenders like [Joe] Biden, or even senators such as Cory Booker or Kamala Harris," the paper said. "But neither is she viewed as being in the forefront of Israel's critics on the progressive left."
One pro-Israel leader in Massachusetts, Warren's home state, told Haaretz that "the Oklahoma City-born Warren possesses the Harry Truman-esque ‘Midwestern view of the U.S. and Israel of her generation.'"
"He believes that her commitment to the well-being of the Jewish state ‘is real,'" Haaretz reported. "However, he admits to being worried about the resilience of that commitment and her thoughtful, nuanced position in today's hyperpartisan atmosphere and the fierce battle for securing the progressive wing's support."
