Warren: 'I will reverse the policy on settlements'

(JNS)—Responding to a New York Times survey last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pledged to reverse U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision in November on Israeli settlements, while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would keep the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

Warren said that “the continued expansion of Israeli settlements and the increasing normalization of proposals for Israel to annex parts or all of the West Bank are the most immediate dangers to the two-state solution.”

“I will reverse the Trump administration’s new policy on settlements, which upends 40 years of bipartisan precedent, and make clear that Israeli settlements violate international law,” she continued. “And if Israel’s government continues with steps to annex the West Bank, the U.S. should make clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reiterated his stance that he would condition U.S. assistance on Israel not annexing or expanding settlements.

Billionaire Tom Steyer said he would condition U.S. assistance to Israel on settlements, in addition to pledging to reverse Trump’s relocation in May 2018 of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said the U.S. embassy should remain in Jerusalem.

“The status of Jerusalem should remain a part of any negotiated two-state solution, and we should be mindful of both Palestinian and Israeli negotiators before deciding where the embassy should be,” said Yang.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have already stated they’d keep the embassy in Jerusalem, while Warren said last week that the embassy should be decided in negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Sanders said that moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv “would be on the table if Israel continues to take steps, such as settlement expansion, expulsions and home demolitions, that undermine the chances for a peace agreement.”

On Iran, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Warren and Steyer reiterated they would re-enter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from in May 2018, while Bennet and Bloomberg said they would re-enter the agreement without preconditions.

Yang and Patrick said they “would seek a ‘grand bargain’ to resolve nuclear, missile and counterterrorism disagreements.” In August, the former said in a debate that “We have to re-enter that agreement and renegotiate the timelines because right now the timelines don’t make sense.”