Image by getty images

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) vigorously defended her vote for increased funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.

“America has a very special relationship with Israel,” Warren, a leader among liberal Democrats touted as a possible presidential contender, said last week when challenged about her vote at a Cape Cod town hall meeting.

“Israel lives in a very dangerous part of the world, and a part of the world where there aren’t many liberal democracies and democracies that are controlled by the rule of law,” she said. “And we very much need an ally in that part of the world.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Warren has accrued popular support on the democratic left for her backing for sweeping banking reforms and strengthening the social safety net.

She has not focused since her 2012 election on foreign policy issues, and her robust defense of Israel marked one of her first forays into the issue.

A man at the Aug. 20 meeting had challenged Warren on the vote, likening the funding for the defensive system to the controversy in Ferguson, Mo. over the police shooting of an unarmed black youth, according to a report in the Cape Cod Times.

Congress overwhelmingly voted to approve the $225 million in supplemental funding for the program during the recent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

When another person at the meeting noted the high civilian death toll among Palestinians, who suffered more than 2,000 deaths in the conflict, Warren said Israel did not seek to kill civilians, as opposed to the Hamas rulers of Gaza.

“When Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to schools, they’re using their civilian population to protect their military assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself,” Warren said.

She also said that Israel’s relatively low death toll — 71 at war’s end this week — was a result in part of the efficacy of Iron Dome.

Both critics and defenders of Israel appeared to be present at the meeting, according to the newspaper report, with applause for both views.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount