After controversial Israeli trip, Foushee may blunt some criticism with letter to Biden

As Congress considers providing emergency aid to Israel, Rep. Valerie Foushee was among several lawmakers last week who asked President Joe Biden in a letter for assurances that that aid will not be used to perpetuate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

“Foreign military aid generally should only be conditional under extreme circumstances,” the letter, signed by 13 Democrats led by Rep. Troy Carter, from Louisiana, states. “We are watching such extreme circumstances unfold and look forward to working with you to ensure any aid provided will not further deepen the crisis in Gaza.”

Emerson Goldstein, an organizer with Jewish Voices for Peace Triangle, said there is a lot of good in the letter and it would have been unthinkable seven months ago to have lawmakers calling for any kind of conditioning or end to aid to Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

“That is huge,” Goldstein said.

But she added that the letter is both heartening and devastating because of what it took to get there. And she has concerns about certain aspects of the letter.

Foushee’s signature on the letter comes while she’s facing backlash for taking a congressional delegation trip to Israel on April 1, where she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. She also met with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah.

Foushee did not comment for this article due to scheduling, according to her spokesman, who pointed McClatchy to online statements.

Should US aid to Israel include conditions?

The letter said that Foushee and the other Democrats who signed it are closely watching Netanyahu’s actions as they consider whether to provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

The letter recognizes that Israel is a U.S. ally and has a right to defend itself from Hamas, a group the U.S. government considers to be a terrorist organization.

But it also blames Netanyahu, saying he’s responsible for addressing the basic needs of people in Gaza. The letter includes among those needs: adequate nutrition, clean drinking water, electricity and safety for innocent civilians.

“The conditions are intolerable, and the Israeli government is responsible for addressing this humanitarian crisis, on par with the government’s duty to self-defense,” the letter states.

Goldstein called placing the blame on Netanyahu “dangerous rhetoric,” and urged lawmakers to look at the root cause.

“We know the clock here did not start on Oct. 7,” Goldstein said. “We know that Netanyahu is not the source of the problem here. The source of the problem is decades of dispossession, ethnic cleansing and now an ongoing genocide in the apartheid state.”

Hamas hostages

The letter also recognizes that Hamas continues holding hostages captive. It is currently believed that there are 133 hostages, including eight Americans.

And among those Americans is Keith Siegel, a Chapel Hill native who lives in Israel and has dual citizenship. Foushee represents Chapel Hill.

Siegel was captured with his wife, Aviva, on Oct. 7 while driving. Aviva was released after 51 days in captivity, during a humanitarian pause, but her husband was not.

A potential new ceasefire is under negotiation, with demands for another 40 hostages to be released, including women, the sick and elderly men, but Hamas told officials they’re not sure they have 40 living hostages, CNN reported.

As that news broke, Aviva Siegel traveled to Washington, calling on the Biden administration and members of Congress to help her husband and the other hostages.

She spoke to members of Congress and reporters inside the U.S. Capitol complex about her time in captivity and what it is like now knowing the torture Keith continues to endure. From North Carolina, only Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from Snow Hill, and Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro, who is Jewish, and organized the event, attended her address.

Targeting Foushee and her trip

Goldstein said that Foushee was targeted by Jewish Voice for Peace Triangle early because of the large base of Jews living in her district.

JVP went to her office, held acts of civil disobedience and protested. And Goldstein said she saw Foushee be responsive to that.

So when Foushee announced she had traveled to Israel to meet with its leaders, JVP was disappointed, Goldstein said.

Indy Week first reported on Foushee’s trip, organized by American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, whose super-PAC, United Democracy Project, was a major financial backer of Foushee’s campaign.

Her campaign support from AIPAC was controversial during her election and have followed her since.

AIPAC describes itself as an organization of 3 million “pro-Israel Americans working to strengthen bipartisan support” for the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. But the organization is considered a powerful lobbying group and drew ire from Foushee’s predecessor, Rep. David Price, a retired Democrat, who told an Israeli newspaper that, “It wasn’t that long ago in the Democratic caucus, including the leadership of the party, if AIPAC said ‘jump,’ we’d say ‘How high?’

AIPAC touts Foushee on its website as one of eight pro-Israel candidates who helped defeat someone the organization felt would undermine the relationship between Israel and the United States Davis is also on that list.

The candidate Foushee defeated, in the 2022 Democratic primary election, was Durham County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nida Allam, who is Muslim, and who this week sharply criticized Foushee for traveling to Israel and meeting with Netanyahu.

AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann told McClatchy in a written statement Friday that after Oct. 7, the trips to Israel provide members of Congress “with a deeper understanding of the threats that Israel faces from Iranian terrorist proxies on its borders.”

“AIEF-sponsored trips,” Wittmann said, referring to the American Israel Education Foundation, “help educate bipartisan political leaders about the importance of the U.S. - Israel relationship through firsthand experiences in Israel, briefings by experts on Middle East affairs, and meetings with Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum. The trips are uniquely policy focused and comprehensive on a wide array of issues concerning U.S.-Israel cooperation including regional security, technology, health and science.”

Following Foushee’s trip, she released a statement that diplomacy is needed to bring both sides to together for meaningful negotiations “for a comprehensive and lasting peace agreement.”

“Fostering diplomatic dialogue and facilitating deescalation efforts is the only way to reach a bilateral ceasefire, ensure the release of all remaining hostages, alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and achieve the ultimate goal of a permanent two-state solution,” Foushee wrote.

She called for the global community to condemn Hamas’ actions, for Israel to abide by humanitarian law and for aid to be provided to Gaza.

More protests, more peace?

Just days later, on April 6, Ross and Foushee held a joint fundraiser in the Triangle and JVP disrupted it while calling for the congresswomen to oppose funding to Israel. Goldstein said they didn’t want to disrupt the event for those who were attending, but were pleased that four attendees came out of the event to join their protests.

Goldstein said one of the banners that was being held outside the event said to stop arming Israel, and on Friday, after reading Foushee’s letter, she wondered aloud about its effect.

She said JVP members watched Foushee drive past the banner.

“I’m glad that she is listening to her constituents,” Goldstein said. “I think this does seem like a responsiveness to that, quite directly, and it’s great to see that, but there is no progress that we make towards peace right now that does not or cannot come with the sadness of knowing that we’ve seen 40,000 deaths, so many of them children, in the past six and a half months, and at any time our representatives or our president can say, ‘stop.’”