U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren seemed to suggest in a public appearance that it was “fair” to compare what Israel did in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust carried out against six million Jews.
Some progressives and others on the left have touted Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, as a possible presidential candidate alternative to Hillary Clinton because of Clinton’s vote as a senator for the Iraq War and because she has cashed in on her Wall Street contacts after exiting the State Department. In general, moreover, the left in America and around the world has increasingly become hostile to the state of Israel, the only multicultural democracy in the Middle East. Israel invaded Gaza in attempt to put an end to rocket attacks on its citizens and to dismantle Hamas terror tunnels.
On Monday, Warren spoke at Tufts University in Boston, where she had the following exchange with an audience member, in a video disclosed by The Weekly Standard.
Questioner: I’m not a student, I’m not an alumnae, but was in faculty life. I was also a Holocaust refugee and I’m extremely concerned that Jews don’t do to another people what was done to them. [applause]
Warren: I think that’s fair .
Questioner: You recently said that you believe that Israel has the right to self-defense. Do you also believe that the Palestinians have a right to self-defense?
Warren: Of course. So, and the answer is yes. The direction we ought to be moving is not toward more war. The direction we need to be moving, as I said, I believe we need to move to a two-state solution where both peoples can be secure and safe within their own borders. So, I’m there.”
According to Front Page Magazine , the individual posting the questions at the Tufts event is a fake Holocaust survivor who has a track record of being anti-Israel.
After the video was posted, Warren’s office issued a statement claiming that “The Weekly Standard grossly mischaracterized Senator Warren’s response, in which she expressed her strong desire for an end to violence in the region and her support for a negotiated solution that creates safety and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Watch the video below and draw your own conclusions.
Commenting on the Warren remarks, Thomas Lifson of The American Thinker opined that “I don’t remember the Jews of Germany promising to drive the Germans into the sea, nor do I remember them shelling Germans randomly. One hundred percent of the aggression came from the Nazis, and the Jews, having been disarmed by Hitler’s gun control laws, were completely unable to fight back. So how on earth can any comparison be made with Israel attempting to halt the rocket attacks emanating from Gaza? It is so insane that it defies the imagination… One side, Israel, wishes to live in peace, and would happily do so if Hamas (and Hezb’allah and the Palestinian Authority) would give up their mission to eradicate Israel. But the other side does not wish to live in peace with Jews. The stated goal is elimination of Israel. Until that changes, no peaceful coexistence is possible. That is the fundamental reality that Warren is oblivious to…”
In her 2012 election campaign against then-Sen. Scott Brown, Warren never fully refuted accusations that she falsely claimed Native American heritage in order to qualify for affirmative action hiring at prestigious colleges.
In a long piece about media coverage of the Gaza hostilities, former AP correspondent Matti Friedman wrote in late August that, among other things, “Israeli actions are analyzed and criticized, and every flaw in Israeli society is aggressively reported…”
For alternative viewpoints about the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces, watch these videos from Australian journalist Andrew Bolt and retired British Col. Richard Kemp.