Last month, we reported on Triangle-area congresswoman Valerie Foushee’s trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We then published a letter to the editor from Durham County commissioner Nida Allam citing our reporting that was critical of Foushee’s trip. We received messages both critical and supportive of Allam’s letter, and we’re publishing a collection of them below.
From reader Stanley Robboy in Durham:
Commissioner Allam’s recent letter in Indyweek (4/9/24) is remarkable for what it lacks.
The one statement in the letter with which I believe we all would agree is that “Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve to live in peace.” That should be true not only in the Middle East but also in America and worldwide. All people of all races and colors, whether Black, White, or Brown, living in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, America, or Africa, should all live in peace.
That is how we grew up. With World War II over and the Nazi regime decapitated, hope and opportunity blossomed.
Many of my and my wife’s cousins lived happily in Israel when Oct 7 shattered their world. Hamas, which rules Palestine, launched a surprise attack in multiple areas simultaneously. One focus was the Nova music festival; 364 young adults were killed, many savagely. About 40 were taken hostage after some had been raped. Multiple nearby kibbutzim were also attacked. Twenty-one of my and my wife’s cousins were killed, and seven were taken back to Gaza. In total, Hamas killed about 1200 people and took 250 hostage. Gruesome phone messages intercepted recorded a Hamas soldier calling home to his parents, boasting gleefully, “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.” Imagine if Orange County similarly attacked Durham County. How, in your role as County Commissioner, would you react?
Commissioner Allam, why did you omit critical context from your letter? Hamas had been firing missiles indiscriminately into Israel, focusing on killing innocent civilians and instilling a reign of terror among the Israeli population. In the past year, using balloons as weapons carrying lit oil ignited large fires indiscriminately in Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas terrorized its own citizens. Being LGBTQ brought death.
You state that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) leveled the Al Shifra [sic] Hospital, implying it was little more than a vindictive act. A captured Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman confessed how Hamas terrorists had taken over every hospital in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks. In fact, over 500 detainees captured in the complex proved to be active terrorists. Some were senior commanders in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He explained Hamas occupied rooms and wards in every hospital across the coastal enclave, even exploiting the internet connectivity and electricity to conceal its operations. Weapons and ammunition were found hidden in children’s beds, x-ray machines, and operating rooms, to mention a few. Ambulances transported guns and soldiers.
Lastly, your letter impugns the integrity of Representative Valerie Foushee. We, as citizens, cherish democracy and the choice to vote our conscience for whom we feel would be the best to represent the community as a whole and for each of us individually. That’s what democracy is all about. The beauty of our system is each candidate can put forth their views, and we, as voters, respond. Not long ago, you and Foushee campaigned to represent our [congressional] district. You both campaigned hard and we, the voters, examined your records, not only with what you said at the time but also with what you had been saying earlier. Our pasts live with us, and we vote.
You now imply any single organization in this country can purchase a candidate. That is not true. Many of us who are US citizens wish for election reform. Elections are too costly, and all candidates must seek contributions. Maybe you might want to list who bankrolled your campaign. But please give our candidates credence. Candidates who run for high office are, by and large, accomplished and have worked diligently in preceding years to achieve the status where they can run and compete. We, the citizenry—the voters—listened to your messages, took them seriously, and voted our consciences as to who would best represent us and the community. We decided based on economics, the social issues affecting us all, and who would provide the best leadership.
Your letter of deception is why your candidacy failed.
Commissioner Allam, Where is your Honor?
From reader Noor Abualhawa:
Nida Allam wrote a powerful and brave letter opposing Valerie Foushee’s travel organized by AIPAC, a foreign agent who directly influences American elections. Outside the question of Palestine and Israel, this is questionable behavior by an American elected official. Taking a trip funded by a foreign lobby group who you also happen to receive donations to your campaign from?
Valerie Foushees constituents have also made it explicitly clear: they oppose US involvement in the ongoing war, they oppose Netanyahu’s leadership, and they oppose our elected officials being bankrolled by foreign agencies. Rather than align herself with her constituents, Foushee directly shirked the will of her voters and posed gladly next to a man who runs a country currently on trial for genocide.
This op-ed was well-written and said what needed to be said to Foushee. Foushee is a coward and does not work for the American people.
From reader Nancy Kalow in Durham:
I am writing in support of Nida Allam’s April 9 letter regarding Representative Valerie Foushee’s AIPAC-funded trip to Israel. In December, Valerie Foushee, my congressperson, signed a letter to President Biden calling for bi-lateral ceasefire, so I was disappointed to learn about Foushee’s cordial visit with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during which he asked for support to “finish the job”—at odds with her signing a letter for ceasefire. I am a Jewish grandmother and I stand with many Jewish people against the murder, starvation, and displacement of people in Gaza, the senseless wholesale destruction of universities, hospitals, libraries, and homes in Gaza, and the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. I would like to see all hostages and all political prisoners released. It is not antisemitic to object to Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians over the past century which we’ve all witnessed most acutely in the last 200 days.
From reader Rania Masri:
Thank you, Nida Allam, for speaking so clearly and powerfully about the hypocrisy in Rep Foushee’s actions, and her support for a genocide. Not only has Rep Foushee seemingly disregarded her constituents’s overwhelming support for a ceasefire in Gaza, but she also disregarded her own statement in support for a ceasefire.
And earlier this week, Rep Foushee voted to spend US taxpayer dollar— $14.1 billion to be exact—just for weapons to supply Israel in its ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. (These billions are in addition to our annual blank check of $3.8 billion to Israel). For the past 200 days in Gaza, Israel has been killing or injuring one child every ten minutes. This is what our money is funding, what our weapons are doing: shredding the bodies of Palestinian children.
Meanwhile, our national debt is $34.5 trillion, and our largest national expenditure last year was on the interest to that debt.
Meanwhile, health care costs in the US remain our number one cause for bankruptcy! With the $14 billion to Israel, five million children in the US could have received free or low-cost healthcare for an entire year. Rather than fund care for Americans, Rep Foushee has chosen to fund the killing of Palestinians. Despite the cries from the majority of her own constituents!
Backtalk: “This is questionable behavior by an American elected official”
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Last month, we reported on Triangle-area congresswoman Valerie Foushee’s trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We then published a letter to the editor from Durham County commissioner Nida Allam citing our reporting that was critical of Foushee’s trip. We received messages both critical and supportive of Allam’s letter, and we’re publishing a collection of them below.
From reader Stanley Robboy in Durham:
Commissioner Allam’s recent letter in Indyweek (4/9/24) is remarkable for what it lacks.
The one statement in the letter with which I believe we all would agree is that “Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve to live in peace.” That should be true not only in the Middle East but also in America and worldwide. All people of all races and colors, whether Black, White, or Brown, living in the Middle East, Far East, Europe, America, or Africa, should all live in peace.
That is how we grew up. With World War II over and the Nazi regime decapitated, hope and opportunity blossomed.
Many of my and my wife’s cousins lived happily in Israel when Oct 7 shattered their world. Hamas, which rules Palestine, launched a surprise attack in multiple areas simultaneously. One focus was the Nova music festival; 364 young adults were killed, many savagely. About 40 were taken hostage after some had been raped. Multiple nearby kibbutzim were also attacked. Twenty-one of my and my wife’s cousins were killed, and seven were taken back to Gaza. In total, Hamas killed about 1200 people and took 250 hostage. Gruesome phone messages intercepted recorded a Hamas soldier calling home to his parents, boasting gleefully, “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.” Imagine if Orange County similarly attacked Durham County. How, in your role as County Commissioner, would you react?
Commissioner Allam, why did you omit critical context from your letter? Hamas had been firing missiles indiscriminately into Israel, focusing on killing innocent civilians and instilling a reign of terror among the Israeli population. In the past year, using balloons as weapons carrying lit oil ignited large fires indiscriminately in Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas terrorized its own citizens. Being LGBTQ brought death.
You state that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) leveled the Al Shifra [sic] Hospital, implying it was little more than a vindictive act. A captured Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman confessed how Hamas terrorists had taken over every hospital in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks. In fact, over 500 detainees captured in the complex proved to be active terrorists. Some were senior commanders in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He explained Hamas occupied rooms and wards in every hospital across the coastal enclave, even exploiting the internet connectivity and electricity to conceal its operations. Weapons and ammunition were found hidden in children’s beds, x-ray machines, and operating rooms, to mention a few. Ambulances transported guns and soldiers.
Lastly, your letter impugns the integrity of Representative Valerie Foushee. We, as citizens, cherish democracy and the choice to vote our conscience for whom we feel would be the best to represent the community as a whole and for each of us individually. That’s what democracy is all about. The beauty of our system is each candidate can put forth their views, and we, as voters, respond. Not long ago, you and Foushee campaigned to represent our [congressional] district. You both campaigned hard and we, the voters, examined your records, not only with what you said at the time but also with what you had been saying earlier. Our pasts live with us, and we vote.
You now imply any single organization in this country can purchase a candidate. That is not true. Many of us who are US citizens wish for election reform. Elections are too costly, and all candidates must seek contributions. Maybe you might want to list who bankrolled your campaign. But please give our candidates credence. Candidates who run for high office are, by and large, accomplished and have worked diligently in preceding years to achieve the status where they can run and compete. We, the citizenry—the voters—listened to your messages, took them seriously, and voted our consciences as to who would best represent us and the community. We decided based on economics, the social issues affecting us all, and who would provide the best leadership.
Your letter of deception is why your candidacy failed.
Commissioner Allam, Where is your Honor?
From reader Noor Abualhawa:
Nida Allam wrote a powerful and brave letter opposing Valerie Foushee’s travel organized by AIPAC, a foreign agent who directly influences American elections. Outside the question of Palestine and Israel, this is questionable behavior by an American elected official. Taking a trip funded by a foreign lobby group who you also happen to receive donations to your campaign from?
Valerie Foushees constituents have also made it explicitly clear: they oppose US involvement in the ongoing war, they oppose Netanyahu’s leadership, and they oppose our elected officials being bankrolled by foreign agencies. Rather than align herself with her constituents, Foushee directly shirked the will of her voters and posed gladly next to a man who runs a country currently on trial for genocide.
This op-ed was well-written and said what needed to be said to Foushee. Foushee is a coward and does not work for the American people.
From reader Nancy Kalow in Durham:
I am writing in support of Nida Allam’s April 9 letter regarding Representative Valerie Foushee’s AIPAC-funded trip to Israel. In December, Valerie Foushee, my congressperson, signed a letter to President Biden calling for bi-lateral ceasefire, so I was disappointed to learn about Foushee’s cordial visit with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during which he asked for support to “finish the job”—at odds with her signing a letter for ceasefire. I am a Jewish grandmother and I stand with many Jewish people against the murder, starvation, and displacement of people in Gaza, the senseless wholesale destruction of universities, hospitals, libraries, and homes in Gaza, and the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. I would like to see all hostages and all political prisoners released. It is not antisemitic to object to Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians over the past century which we’ve all witnessed most acutely in the last 200 days.
From reader Rania Masri:
Thank you, Nida Allam, for speaking so clearly and powerfully about the hypocrisy in Rep Foushee’s actions, and her support for a genocide. Not only has Rep Foushee seemingly disregarded her constituents’s overwhelming support for a ceasefire in Gaza, but she also disregarded her own statement in support for a ceasefire.
And earlier this week, Rep Foushee voted to spend US taxpayer dollar— $14.1 billion to be exact—just for weapons to supply Israel in its ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. (These billions are in addition to our annual blank check of $3.8 billion to Israel). For the past 200 days in Gaza, Israel has been killing or injuring one child every ten minutes. This is what our money is funding, what our weapons are doing: shredding the bodies of Palestinian children.
Meanwhile, our national debt is $34.5 trillion, and our largest national expenditure last year was on the interest to that debt.
Meanwhile, health care costs in the US remain our number one cause for bankruptcy! With the $14 billion to Israel, five million children in the US could have received free or low-cost healthcare for an entire year. Rather than fund care for Americans, Rep Foushee has chosen to fund the killing of Palestinians. Despite the cries from the majority of her own constituents!
What a shame!
Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.