Elizabeth Warren travels to Israel

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is traveling to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan during the congressional recess in a move that could stoke presidential speculation. 

{mosads}The Jerusalem Post reports that Warren was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon. 

A Warren aide told The Boston Globe, which first reported the trip, that Warren was also set to meet with Palestinian and Jordanian officials. 

While a foreign trip is a staple of presidential campaign preparations, Warren has otherwise insisted she is not running, and given few other indications to the contrary.

The trip has been in the works since August, meaning it does not seem to reflect a sudden shift in Warren’s thinking.

“She is visiting the Middle East because the United States has an important interest in the region,” Warren spokeswoman Lacey Rose told the Globe. 

It will be Warren’s first foreign trip as a senator, and was organized by the State Department and Senate Banking Committee, according to the Globe. Warren is the only senator on the trip, and is with her legislative director, Jon Donenberg. 

Warren, who was named to a new post among the Senate Democratic leadership after the midterm elections, is less well known on foreign policy than on her signature issue of economic inequality, the area that has inspired some liberals to urge her to run for president.  

In September, she voted against authorization to arm and train Syrian rebels, putting her at odds with her potential rival, Hillary Clinton. 

“I do not want America to be dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, and it is time for those nations in the region that are most immediately affected by the rise of ISIS to step up and play a leading role in this fight,” she said in a statement at the time.

In February, she gave a foreign policy address warning of the dangers of civilian casualties.

On the issue of Israel, she appeared supportive of its military actions over the summer in Gaza. She said at a town hall in August, according to the Cape Cod Times, that civilian casualites are “the last thing Israel wants.”

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