Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Netanyahu had been indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
“Netanyahu is accused of accepting bribes, trading government favors, and manipulating a free press. Like his pal Donald Trump, he'll stop at nothing to enrich himself and stay in power. This blatant corruption has no place in any democracy—I'll fight it at home and abroad,” Warren wrote in a tweet.
This is not the first time that Warren has criticized Netanyahu in connection with his legal troubles. In March, Warren said the United States should “call out” corruption in Israel under Netanyahu.
“Corruption — in Israel, in the US, or anywhere else — is a cancer that threatens democracy. We need to fight back. And we can start by having the courage to call it out wherever it occurs. Even among our allies,” she wrote at the time.
“First embracing right-wing extremism. Now manipulating a free press, accepting bribes, and trading government favors,” Warren charged, accusing Netanyahu of delivering a “cut to the heart of a functioning democracy.”
In other instances, Warren’s criticism was related to Israeli policy, specifically vis-à-vis the Palestinian Arabs.
In the past, Warren has called on the Israeli government to respect the rights of Palestinian Arab protesters on the Gaza border. The protests, dubbed the “March of the Return”, have been occurring on a weekly basis since March 30 of 2018 and have been orchestrated and encouraged by Hamas.
Warren also voted in favor of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and skipped Netanyahu’s March 2015 speech to Congress in which he spoke out against the agreement.
Shortly after she announced her presidential bid, Warren said that the United States should be pushing Israel and the Palestinian Authority toward a two-state solution.
Last month, she suggested that the US should withhold aid to Israel as a means to pressure it to stop “settlement construction”.