Here is Chuck Schumer
Senator Chuck Schumer has made this statement (i.e. attributing the lack of peace between Israelis and Palestinians to Palestinians' disbelief in the Torah) on at least two occasions:
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June 2010: During an event hosted by the Orthodox Union in Washington, D.C., Schumer remarked that the "Palestinian people still don't believe in a Jewish state, in a two-state solution." He elaborated, "They don't believe in the Torah, in David." Schumer further argued that, because Palestinians elected Hamas, Israel is justified in economically pressuring them until they reconsider their stance.
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March 2018: In a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference (this is the speech from which the tweet above is excerpting), Schumer stated that "too many Palestinians and too many Arabs do not want any Jewish state in the Middle East." He continued, "Of course, we say it's our land, the Torah says it, but they don't believe in the Torah. So that's the reason there is not peace."
Let us start counting the multiple levels of ignorance in this claim.
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According to the Quran, Muslims are instructed to treat 3 additional books as the revealed truth: (1) The Injil (Arabic for Gospel, and derived from the Greek for Good News. This is the Gospel, as revealed to Jesus Christ). (2) Zabur (book of Psalms) & (3) Tawrat… which is (no prize for guessing here)… the Torah. You have to be very ignorant, or bigoted, to assume that Palestinians don't believe in the Torah.
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And according to the Torah, God does not just gift the land to the Jews, but to their descendants. This much can be seen from the actual text of the promise. The key moments include:
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Genesis 12:7 – God's first promise to Abraham (then Abram):
"The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him."
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Genesis 13:14–17 – After Lot separates from Abraham, God reaffirms the promise:
"Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever."
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Genesis 15:18–21 – The Covenant of the Pieces, where God specifies the land’s boundaries:
"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates...’"
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Genesis 17:7–8 – The promise is reiterated as an "everlasting covenant":
"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you... The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you."
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Genesis 26:2–4 – God extends the promise to Isaac:
"Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham."
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Genesis 28:13–15 – The promise is reaffirmed to Jacob (later named Israel):
"I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying."
Notice what God does not do? God does not specify that the land is to be gifted to the descendants provided they remain Jews (or howsoever you define Jews). In fact, Palestinians have not stopped believing in the Torah (despite what Chuck Schumer might think), so you can make a valid claim that they remain “Jews”.
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But forget about definitions. The promise is made to Abraham, and his descendants. And who are the descendants of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. As NN Taleb notes (some of his other tweets links up to the evidence).
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There is a very simple reason why there is no peace in the Middle East. It is because of idiots like Chuck Schumer (I am assuming he is not bigoted), who don't know even simple truths about people he doesn't identify with.
