A bipartisan group of Vermont House lawmakers went to Israel last week on a four-day trip sponsored by the Jewish state as it faces growing criticism in America and abroad for its conduct in the Gaza war.
Three Democrats — Reps. Matt Birong of Vergennes, Will Greer of Bennington, and Sarita Austin of Colchester — and two Republicans — Reps. James Gregoire of Fairfield and Gina Galfetti of Barre Town — attended the “50 States, One Israel” conference organized by Israel’s foreign ministry. In total, 250 lawmakers from all 50 states attended the event, which Israel has celebrated as the largest-ever delegation of U.S. lawmakers to the Middle Eastern country.
“Democrats and Republicans alike: We value and cherish your support. And there is an active effort to erode it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told attendees during the conference’s keynote address.
Israeli leaders encouraged the visiting lawmakers to sponsor legislation back home targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Four of the five Vermont conference goers sponsored a pro-Israel bill last legislative session that would have included “negative references” to “the right to self-determination in the Jewish people’s ancestral and indigenous homeland” in the state’s definition of antisemitism.
But interviews with Vermont’s delegation to the conference show just how divided opinions of Israel have become as the war has progressed.
Some of the Vermont attendees remain staunch defenders of Israel and its government. Austin, who is Jewish, said in an interview that Israel’s existence and safety remains paramount for her. While the suffering of Palestinians was “horrific,” she said, it was ultimately not the Jewish state’s fault.
“All Hamas has to do is return the hostages and surrender,” she said.
But two of the five Vermont lawmakers who attended the trip — Galfetti and Greer — sought to distance themselves from the Israeli government, and even argued the country’s actions in Gaza constituted a genocide.
“By going to Israel, I was not going in support of Netanyahu’s government and, certainly, not the genocide taking place in Gaza nor the ground offensive that has taken place as well in the past week,” Greer wrote in a statement. Instead, Greer said in an interview, the trip was an opportunity to “express, very loudly, through diplomatic channels, frustration.”
The trip comes as Israel faces mounting condemnation from the international community, and as a growing number of Western nations recognize Palestinian statehood. The United Nations' Human Rights Council concluded last week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. (Israel has called the U.N. report “fake” and said it is full of “lies.”) In the wake of the U.N. inquiry, all three members of Vermont’s Congressional delegation, two of whom are Jewish, have called Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza a genocide.
The trip included stints in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and a tree-planting ceremony in Ofakim, an Israeli city that was attacked by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023. An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed that day in a series of armed incursions in southern Israel, and about 250 were taken hostage.
At least 65,000 Palestinians have died in the subsequent war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and a U.N.-backed panel has said that the aid distribution system set up by Israel, which controls the flow of food and supplies into Gaza, has led to famine.
Galfetti said she attended with “her eyes wide open,” that the state-sponsored event was “a curated trip put on by the Israeli government.” But she said she was still capable of coming to her own conclusions.
“I've always strongly believed that the Israeli-United States relationship should remain strong, but what Netanyahu has done has gone way too far — and he's created a genocide in Gaza,” she said. Galfetti added that Netanyahu had a “personal interest” in prolonging the war to avoid a long-running trial on corruption charges.
She emphasized that America should continue to both support Israel and hold it accountable. But she argued the Israeli government’s conduct in the war was undermining the country’s legitimacy.
“He's putting the Israeli project in jeopardy by catering to the extremist parties within his government that are propping him up right now,” she said of the prime minister.
Gregoire said he attended the trip to Israel because he wanted to get a first-hand account from Israeli government officials and residents about the war. He also said he hadn’t had time to read the U.N. report and couldn’t comment on it.
“Whether the name, the label, sticks or not, I don't know. But I do know far too many people have been killed,” he said.
Birong declined an interview with Vermont Public, citing safety concerns. But in a prior interview with The Rake, a left-wing blog, he defended Israel’s actions in Gaza, and argued the country had “gone above and beyond what any modern military has done” to limit civilian casualties.
“The Palestinians have seen population growth. So with that, I kind of have a hard time with the genocide label,” Birong said.
An article published in The Lancet this January estimated life expectancy in the region had fallen by 30 years since the war started.
