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Welch calls speech ‘political stunt,’ Sanders calls Israeli PM ‘war criminal’
Guy Page
Vermont is the only state in the Union whose entire Congressional delegation boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress Wednesday, July 24.
According to VDC sources, both of the senators from Maine, the State of Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Vermont declined to attend. However, Vermont was the only one of those states in which each (in Vermont’s case, only) member of the House of Representatives also boycotted the speech.
Vice-President Kamala Harris also did not attend, departing from the historic precedent of both Speaker of the House and Vice-President sitting behind speakers to the joint meeting of Congress.
Each Vermont member of Congress explained their non-attendance on social media.
Sen. Peter Welch
“While I welcome a constructive discussion on how to end the conflict in Gaza and achieve lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, I’m not interested in participating in a political stunt. I will not be attending Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address,” Welch said on X.
Pushback on his X post was strong.
“It is disrespectful for any sitting member of the U.S. Congress to boycott Netanyahu’s speech today,” said Rachel Feldman, a state employee and former chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Phil Scott. “It’s disrespectful to Netanyahu, but more so it’s disrespectful to the people of the United States of America and your constituents in Vermont.”
“By not attending, you are literally participating in a political stunt,” Eitan Fishberger said.
Other commenters supported Welch’s decision: “Thank you senator. I know you will face backlash but you are on the right side here and have the support of the American people with morals.”
Another person shared a screenshot of an OpenSecrets.org page showing Welch has received $133,000 in campaign contributions from pro-Israel groups from 1990-2024.
Rep. Becca Balint
“I will not be attending Netanyahu’s address and will instead join families of the hostages taken in the October 7 attack,” Balint said on a July 24 X post. “I vehemently object to giving the Prime Minister a platform when his failed leadership has brought so much death and destruction to Palestinians and Israelis.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Vermont’s senior senator and longtime critic of Israeli government policies stated bluntly: “Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be addressing Congress.” In another X post he wrote: No, Netanyahu should not be welcomed into the U.S. Congress. On the contrary, his policies in Gaza and the West Bank and his refusal to support a two-state solution should be roundly condemned. As I stated last month, I will not be attending his address.”
In speech, Netanyahu describes Oct. 6 surprise attack
As reported by (and excerpted from) the July 24 edition of The Center Square, In his speech before lawmakers, Netanyahu explained in detail Oct. 7, the day when about 3,000 Hamas militants entered Israel and “butchered 1,200 people from 41 countries, including 39 Americans.”
That attack sparked a fierce response from Israel, which has been conducting missile strikes in Gaza for months to destroy the extensive network of underground tunnels the terror group uses to move weapons and supplies – and even pathways into Israel itself.
Thousands of Palestinian civilians, however, have been killed by bombs and crossfire, drawing rebuke from progressives and setting off a wave of protests across the country.
Many have placed the blame squarely on Netanyahu, saying he should do more to protect civilians, with many calling for a ceasefire.
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Categories: Congress
Beyond Shameful, all three of them do NOT represent the whole populace of Vermonters. Vote, Vote, Vote them all Out in November. Vermont is going down the river and over the falls very quickly in so many ways, and it seems very strange how the majority of the VT Legislature who vote for the destruction of Vermont and Vermonters are somehow immune themselves to the destruction. Hmmmmm.
“When an ally is at war, the least its leader deserves is a hearing. The law-makers who boycotted the speech by Israel’s Prime Minister to Congress on Wednesday revealed more about themselves than they did about Benjamin Netanyahu.” The WSJ says it so well.
A definition of Lenin’s word: “A useful idiot or useful fool is a pejorative description of a person, suggesting that the person thinks they are fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their action…”
Who could describe our delegation better? But maybe one of them does know what they do. Who?
These are Vermont’s ” three stooges ” that we have in DC, showing their real colors, Vermont’s inept fools showing no respect for the PM, as he addresses the US with his concerns over Hamas, policies that these three clowns would wet themselves over if they had to deal with these situations………………… pathetic clowns !!
Hamas started this conflict, they wanted a war and they’re getting one, something our
clowns cannot comprehend, they side with protestors carrying Hamas flags burning the US flag ……………… We deserve better representation.
VT only sends socialist with wrong headed agenda’s to Washington. VT used to have strong yankee sensibilities and was fiscally responsible. Dem’s and Progressives just tax, tax, tax and spend.
A ceasefire will simply give Hamas opportunity to regroup.
Re: Sen. Welch says – “I’m not interested in participating in a political stunt.”
Really? And just what do you call boycotting the Benjamin Netanyahu speech?
‘Projection’ is the process of displacing one’s feelings onto a different person. The term is most commonly used to describe defensive projection—attributing one’s own unacceptable urges to another. – – Psychology Today
Senator Welch is disingenuous, to his constituents and to himself. It wasn’t a political stunt to listen to Ukraine President Zelensky. And remember, Welch told everyone President Biden was at the top of his game – when he knew otherwise – and then Welch defied the will of the people who voted for Biden in the Democrat primary.
Welch knows better but thinks no one can see through his charade. The emperor has no clothes. Welch, obviously, isn’t at the top of his game either.
The question remains, however, are Vermont voters at the top of their game?
Re: Sen. Welch says – “I’m not interested in participating in a political stunt.” Really, is this the same Peter Welch who was part of a “sit in'” in the Senate chamber when the Senate did not address gun control legislation in thre manner he thought they should . Peter Welch is a disingenuious ____ ___ !
“Vermont is the only state in the Union whose entire Congressional delegation boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress” And I’m sure that all the fruitcakes are very proud of that .
Give them a break. I’m sure they’ve been “working hard and long hours trying” to get the Vermonter’s who elected them and flooded out “last year” their their money.
We who embrace the defense and autonomy of the state of Israel can only hope that these clowns and all of their party faithful all pay dearly at the polls for their advocacy of islamic radicalism and the cause of hamas.
And really what would you expect from our two senators and one congresswoman who I am sure have We Stand With Ukraine signs on their front lawn. And in Bernie’s case lawns.
“Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. An error of knowledge is not a moral flaw, provided you are willing to correct it; only a mystic would judge human beings by the standard of an impossible, automatic omniscience. But a breach of morality is the conscious choice of an action you know to be evil, or a willful evasion of knowledge, a suspension of sight and of thought. That which you do not know, is not a moral charge against you; but that which you refuse to know, is an account of infamy growing in your soul. Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any break of morality.”
Ayn Rand
Thanks for that quote, James. I’d never seen it before, and it describes so well the massive cognitive dissonance that is so prevalent nowadays. It is helpful to apply the wisdom and truth contained in this quote to the moral issues we face today and throughout history. For example: slavery, what the Nazis did, Jim Crow laws, the demonic and sadistic butchery of babies, women, and families by Hamas on October 6, sex trafficking, pharmaceutical and surgical mutilation of children, and abortion, to name a few.
When the majority of German churches heard the screams of Jewish persons crammed in cattle cars on the way to their torture and deaths in the concentration camps, they were encouraged to “sing louder” to drown out the reality of what they were hearing and seeing, thereby thinking they could avoid their responsibility to their neighbors and assuage their guilt through empty and dead religious ritual or self-righteous virtue signaling.
Fill in the blanks with the other moral issues mentioned above.
We either squarely and humbly face our responsibility in allowing moral evil to continue, and repent of our failure to stand against it, or we deny, blameshift and project, or make excuses by calling it something other than the moral evil it is.
“If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small. Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. Don’t excuse yourself by saying, ‘Look, we didn’t know.’ For God understands all hearts, and He sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve.’”
Proverbs 24:10-12 NLT
Father, please help us all to walk in humility, love, and the fear of the Lord. Please empower and embolden us to be strong and courageous in these days to oppose and confront evil, as well as to stand with and rescue those who are being lied to and used for selfish purposes.🙏🏻
The pandering platitudes of grand empty posturing and feigned grandstanding on both sides of the aisle. How much palm grease has entered into their bank accounts or their associates bank accounts from AIPAC? What’s in their stock portfolios? What does it mean when Bibi stands in our House making threats and accusing American citizens of being financed by Iran and calling us names? All to uproarous applause from our represenatives? Hey Bibi, who delivered pallets of cash to Iran? Who delivered weapons and money to bomb your neighbors into the stone age? When it becomes clear the financing of war is covered and shorted by the same people – the blood money dripping from all of their hands as they clap, cheer or hide from the Truth.
Most of us all ready know how Senators and Represenatives become multi-millionaires on a salary of $100,000 +/- a year being a meat puppet for foreign allies and enemies alike.
What did Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) mean when he said if his conviction stands it is a threat to every member of the Senate? Did he mean excepting bribes is part and parcel of being a US Senator? Did he mean it is a threat to their “democra$$$y[sic]?
Netanyahu is a war criminal. What’s shameful is that he was allowed to address Congress.
Agreed, Mark.
We’re programmed to believe that these Zionists are the same entity as the Biblical Israel, which is not true, they’re not the same entities.
We’re programmed to believe that all Muslims are terrorists, which is not true. While Palestinians are predominately Muslim, there are also Christian, Jewish, and secular Palestinians who strive to live in friendship and peace with each other.
We’re programmed to believe that the now tens of thousands of Palestinians slaughtered by the IDF are militant men when the truth is that the vast majority killed are innocent men, women, and children.
Unfortunately, the horrific truth in Palestine is wholly different than what we’re fed by a media establishment we know to be dishonest. It might be a game-changer if more Americans watched the exceptional on-the-ground reporting of independent Western journalists like Canadian Eva K. Bartlett and American Patrick Lancaster (U.S. Navy vet) among many other independent journalists.
I’m no fan of our tone-deaf toward conservative constituents Congressional delegation but they did get this one right. Now, if only they’d come to their senses about the Ukrainian issue and why it is Russia was forced to act.
More projection.
It’s fine to speak for yourselves, Mark and Alan. But I will thank you for not including me in your ‘royal we’. My understanding of Zionists, Biblical Israel, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Palestinians, Ukraine, and Russia, ‘programmed’ as you claim it is, does not resemble anything you apparently presume is the case.
And I do pay attention to various activist reporters/bloggers like Bartlett and Lancaster.
Bartlett is, arguably, a pro-totalitarian communist sympathizer. Her reporting on the so-called ‘human-side’ of North Korea, for example, is blatantly one-sided.
Lancaster, on the other hand, while often mentioned in the same breath as Bartlett, does expose legitimate goings-on in Zelensky’s Ukraine (as does Tucker Carlson for example), a country as politically volatile and corrupt as any, explaining why Lancaster is often the target of ‘deep state’, U.S. neo-cons, like the current Biden-Harris administration. But, in my opinion, even Lancaster’s reporting is oversimplified in the context of a longer history of the region.
None the less, and your presumptions notwithstanding, we aren’t all ‘programmed’.
Mark, can you please explain why you think Netanyahu is a war criminal? Thanks.
Susan Collins attended Netanyahu’s speech, though Angus King did not attend the speech.
Vermonts congressional delegation has the same attitude as the Vermont Legislature.
We believe in and support free speech and different opinions. Unless you disagree with us, then we won’t listen to you.
You just described the entire Dem/Prog party. The all inclusive, equity folks who value and defend democra$y [sic], yet install a Jezebel without one single vote from their own party. Oddly enough, even the Young Turks are smelling the sulfur and pointing out the hypocrisy. Welcome aboard one and all!
I would even go so far as to say that our three iVermont representatives to Congress, by their tacit condemnation of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the State of Israel, and their worthless virtue signaling, have become complicit in the evil satanic butchery committed by Hamas against innocent people on October 7. They have become the “useful idiots’ about whom Karl Marx spoke.
If they were living in the 1940s, the way they are acting would be like their boycotting or condemning the leader of any country who was trying to protect its citizens from and destroy the Nazis. Same evil, different century.
What happened in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s reveals that Sanders, Welch, and Balint are now presently on the wrong side of history by their failure to learn from it.
The fewer democrats present the better…the last head of state that got introduced to the audience by our mentally-vapid president Biden was named as his nemesis, as President Putin…