Ill-advised is the most charitable description we can think of for the participation of Vermont and New Hampshire lawmakers in last month’s “50 States, One Israel” junket that was bought and paid for by the Israeli government. It can be justified as a fact-finding mission only if facts are defined as those found, selected and presented by the Netanyahu regime.
VtDigger reports that 250 legislators representing all 50 states went on the trip. According to the Israeli government, they “witnessed the magnitude of the October 7 tragedy, experienced Israel’s innovation and cutting-edge technology, tasted our incredible cuisine, and met with Israel’s leaders.” They also listened to a musical performance dedicated to Charlie Kirk.
Certainly, being exposed to the savagery of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks through a visit to the site of the Nova Music Festival massacre must have been moving as well as educational, both in the factual and moral sense. It also provides important context for Israel’s response.
But it is beyond our powers of imagination to understand how American lawmakers could enjoy that “incredible cuisine” in the certain knowledge that the Israeli government is inflicting a humanitarian catastrophe on Palestinians in Gaza, employing American-made and -supplied munitions to rain death and destruction on civilians and the infrastructure of civic life.
That is also a brand of savagery, one that the legislators were not allowed to witness. Nor can this blackout have been a surprise to those who took the trip since Israel has denied access to independent foreign journalists throughout its campaign in Gaza.
One of the Vermont legislators who participated, state Rep. Will Greer, D-Bennington, described the trip as an opportunity to share with Israeli leaders concerns raised by his constituents, including the lack of food being allowed into Gaza. However well-meaning, this strikes us as incredibly naive, especially in comparison with the propaganda bonanza the trip yielded to the Israeli government.
It also appears that the Israeli government was not shy about identifying the desired quid pro quo for its largesse, which included airfare, lodging, meals and transportation within the country. It has been reported that Israeli officials asked the lawmakers directly to spread “the Israeli narrative.” That narrative consists at least in part of equating any criticism of the Israeli government’s policies and actions with antisemitism. This is a dangerous idea already being peddled by the Trump administration.
And The Jerusalem Post reported that the Americans were urged to pass state laws to block the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that aims to exert economic pressure on Israel. This is not to suggest that lawmakers can be bought for so cheap a price as an all-expense paid trip, but it will necessarily cloud any support they offer for such measures in the future, even if they would have been inclined to back them without visiting Israel.
We can certainly understand the impulse for Israeli leaders to extend this invitation to American lawmakers at a time when that nation’s moral authority is at low ebb internationally as a result of its actions in Gaza. Whether those actions meet the definition of genocide, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing is not our call to make at present, but we do assert that they are morally abhorrent to many who have long regarded Israel not only as a state, but also as an idea and an ideal.
That disappointment and dismay is reflected in a new New York Times poll indicating that a majority of Americans now oppose providing more economic and military aid to Israel and that for the first time, more Americans sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, albeit by a small margin. Both results reflect a dramatic decline in support for Israel from the end of 2023.
While there’s no substitute for seeing for yourself, the legislators who went on the trip should have realized that seeing only half a picture is a distortion of reality in which they were wittingly or unwittingly complicit.