More than three weeks after war between Israel and Hamas erupted in the Middle East, members of Vermont’s congressional delegation on Wednesday reaffirmed their stance that Israel has a right to defend itself — and reiterated their calls for a pause in the violence to allow humanitarian aid into the region.
The conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israelis on Oct. 7 and Israel responded with a blockade, bombardment and the beginnings of a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
“The loss of civilian life is really extraordinary,” U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told VTDigger Wednesday morning, adding that there was “no end in sight.”
According to the Associated Press, citing information provided by the Gaza Health Ministry and Israeli officials, more than 8,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 21,500 injured in Gaza, while more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed and 5,400 injured.
Citing conversations he and fellow senators have had with United Nations officials, Welch warned that “with the lack of electricity, water, food and fuel, (one can) assume that deaths (in Gaza) from starvation and disease will increase beyond what’s happening from the bombings.”
As Israeli tanks and armored vehicles continued their push into Gaza, Welch and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cosigned a letter to President Joe Biden on Wednesday expressing “serious concerns about what this invasion and potential occupation of Gaza will mean, both in terms of the long-term security of Israel and the well-being of the Palestinian residents of Gaza.”
“Israel’s proposed invasion will likely bring difficult, street-by-street fighting against entrenched
Hamas fighters in a dense urban environment still populated by many civilians,” the senators wrote in a letter also signed by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “Hamas will continue to use human shields and its extensive tunnel network, and will likely resort to insurgent tactics.”
Wednesday’s letter is Sanders’ latest public statement on the war, but Vermont’s senior senator has not granted an interview to VTDigger — nor, it appears, to any other media outlet — to answer questions about the conflict. And as many fellow progressive members of Congress call for a ceasefire, Sanders has not.
Neither Welch nor U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., have called for a full ceasefire in the region, either, and none of Vermont’s members of Congress have proposed withdrawing U.S. military support to Israel.
In their letter to Biden on Wednesday, Welch and Sanders wrote, “Israel suffered a barbaric attack and is well within its rights to defend itself in keeping with international law, including the protection of civilians.”
Balint, too, in an interview with VTDigger on Wednesday reiterated that she believes Israel has a right to defend itself and said she believes the U.S. should continue offering Israel military aid in order to do so.
“Israel is literally surrounded by countries that want to destroy it, and it’s smaller than the size of Vermont. Imagine Vermont surrounded on all sides by enemies,” Balint told VTDigger. “So it has to have that aid to defend itself. It’s in the midst of an existential threat.”
While she supports aiding Israel, Balint said the U.S. government “must be clear that, although Israel has the right to defend itself and to destroy Hamas … it cannot use American dollars to kill thousands of innocent men, women and children in Gaza. It can’t come at the expense of innocent lives.”
Asked if authorizing more military aid to Israel would send the message that the U.S. is responsible for civilian casualties, Balint said she needs to “review the details” of any spending package before determining how she would vote.
“As I said, I do not want American dollars to go to kill innocent people in Gaza. But… Hamas continues to fire thousands of rockets into Israel, and the way that (Israel) defends itself is through the Iron Dome, and that is defensive,” Balint said, referring to the county’s air defense system. “And that’s also part of what we send to Israel to defend itself against its enemies, is making sure the Iron Dome is working.”
The Biden administration has proposed an emergency aid package to support Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars, but Congress is divided on the matter. House Republicans have floated their own proposal to send more aid to Israel — and not Ukraine — at the expense of domestic funding to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
It’s a move that Welch and Balint called “cynical” on Wednesday. Both committed to vote against any such package should it come to a vote. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., “sees it for what it is,” Welch said.
“What the House is doing — very cynically, I might add — is trying to set a really horrible precedent,” Balint told VTDigger. “No previous speaker of the House in modern history has pitted American support for allies against domestic expenditures. They’ve never said that you can either have global security or you can fund things on the homefront. And so this is already going down a really dark road.”
Clarification: This story has been updated to more clearly describe Sen. Bernie Sanders’ stance on a ceasefire.
