Updated: Congresswoman Foushee posted a statement addressing the Israel trip and meeting with Netanyahu to her official website following multiple requests for comment. Read the statement here.
U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee traveled to Israel last week to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a small congressional delegation organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a lobbying group.
Foushee, who represents Durham and Orange Counties, sat almost directly across the table from Netanyahu on Wednesday as he requested help in “ensur[ing] that Gaza doesn’t pose a threat to Israel again.”
Foushee was one of nine congress members to meet with the Israeli prime minister, according to a release from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The delegation also included the U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, who represents North Carolina’s Triad region. Foushee’s office did not issue a press release about the trip and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.*
The release from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs linked to what appears to be a partial recording of the meeting that was posted by the Israeli prime minister’s official YouTube channel.
“I’m delighted to see all of you,” Netanyahu told congress members at the meeting. “You’ve been long-time friends of Israel. You’re great supporters. It’s very important for us to maintain bipartisan support at all times, but especially in these trying times.”
Foushee, who received more than $2 million in bundled campaign contributions from AIPAC in 2022, met with Netanyahu at a time when his government has killed more than 30,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, in Gaza in the span of five and a half months. Israel launched its ongoing bombardment, siege, and ground invasion of Gaza after a surprise Hamas attack on October 7 saw 1,200 Israelis killed and 253 taken captive. More than 100 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead by Israeli officials.
“Our armies have performed remarkably well, and with remarkable minimization of civilian casualties,” Netanyahu said at the meeting.
Acute malnutrition has doubled among Gazan children under the age of 2 in the past thirty days and at least 23 children have starved to death, according to UNICEF. On March 25, two days before the congressional delegation met with Netanyahu, 12 Gazans drowned while trying to retrieve aid parcels that had been airdropped into the sea.
Netanyahu told congress members that they shouldn’t be worried about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“We’re told, ‘you can’t do this, if you go into Rafah you’re gonna have a humanitarian catastrophe. You’re gonna have 30,000 civilian deaths.’ That’s not true. That is simply not true,” Netanyahu said. “‘Oh, the people won’t have a place to go’—well, there’s all of the Gaza Strip north of Rafah. People moved down. They can move back up.”
“People just move,” he said. “They move with their tents.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to the city of Rafah in southern Gaza late last year in response to evacuation orders Israel issued in the northern part of the strip. Three-quarters of Gaza’s total population or about 1.5 million people are now believed to be sheltering in Rafah with little to no access to food, water, or medical care. In February, Israeli forces announced plans for a ground invasion into Rafah, a move the U.S. opposes.
Netanyahu said he needed congress members’ support in fulfilling the plan that Israel “set out at the outset, with the support of President Biden and the administration.”
“This is almost mass hysteria that has been built wrongly,” Netanyahu said. “We have to finish the job. It would be like leaving part of the Nazi army in place.”
The Triangle branch of advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace has condemned Foushee’s recent visit to Israel, asking her to “stay true to her call for ceasefire.” In December, Foushee quietly signed onto a letter calling for a “bilateral ceasefire in the ongoing Middle East conflict” after facing pressure from constituents.
*On April 1, after the INDY published this story, Foushee posted a statement about the trip and meeting with Netanyahu to her congressional website.
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