Biden: Putting Conditions On Aid To Israel Is ‘Absolutely Outrageous’

Democratic presidential candidate and former vice President Joe Biden addresses a crowd at Wilson High School on October 26, 2019 in Florence, South Carolina. Image by Sean Rayford/Getty Images
(JTA) — Presidential candidate Joe Biden says it would be a “gigantic mistake” to condition aid to Israel on stopping settlement expansion.
The former vice president told a Wall Street Journal reporter it would be “absolutely outrageous” for the United States to take that approach — a position that puts him at odds with his leading rivals for the Democratic nomination.
Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, in recent days have all indicated a willingness to use American aid to force policy changes by Israel. The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion annually in military assistance.
Sanders led the charge when he told the annual conference of the liberal Mideast policy group J Street earlier this week that he would tell Israel it must ” fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza” if it wants continued U.S. military support. He also said some of that money should go toward humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
Warren has been less specific, but she told J Street that if Israel proceeds with moves to annex parts of the West Bank, the United States “should make it clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation.” Buttigieg sounded a similar line, saying it was important “to ensure that U.S. taxpayer support for Israel does not get turned into taxpayer support for a move like annexation.”
Biden’s responses were precipitated by Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui asking if he agreed with his fellow Democrats on the aid question, and on Thursday afternoon she tweeted his remarks.
NEWS: Here is @JoeBiden’s full response when I asked him about leveraging US aid to Israel. He strongly disagrees with idea pushed by @BernieSanders and somewhat embraced by @SenWarren and @PeteButtigieg. (Backstory: https://t.co/TrnqwUjit3) pic.twitter.com/LhCpLFprzg
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) October 31, 2019
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.
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!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Think every Palestinian in Gaza is Hamas? This week’s protests prove you’re wrong
-
Opinion A Palestinian Oscar-winner’s arrest shocked the world. For these Jewish activists, it was terrifyingly normal
-
Opinion In the Trump administration and Israel, a grotesque display of virility coupled with a loss of humanity
-
Fast Forward Cornell’s new Jewish president says he is ‘very comfortable with where Cornell is currently’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.