Updated at 6:59 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) is now in support of a cease-fire in Gaza, a more forceful call to end the violence there than she had previously articulated.
Balint announced her decision on Thursday in a commentary
published on VTDigger.org. Last week, she came under pressure from hundreds of protesters during a fundraiser she held in Burlington.
In Thursday's piece, Balint, who is Jewish, noted that she had repeatedly called for an end to the violence and for an increase in aid to Gaza. She said she'd been in a "state of anguish" since the "
devastating Hamas terrorist attack on Israel" last month.
"That anguish has only grown as the ensuing siege has killed thousands of civilians in Gaza who were already struggling under Hamas rule and Israeli blockade," she continued.
"I want Vermonters to know that I am using the influence and power of my position to bring an end to this horrific violence and suffering," Balint wrote.
Some 1,200 Israelis were killed — and hundreds more kidnapped — during a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7. Retaliatory air strikes by Israel have killed an estimated 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Balint called for the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for more humanitarian aid to filter into the territory, where 2 million Palestinians have been under bombardment for weeks.
“What is needed right now is an immediate break in violence to allow for a true negotiated cease-fire,” she wrote. “One in which both sides stop the bloodshed, allow critical access to humanitarian aid and move towards negotiating a sustainable and lasting peace.”
Balint’s call for a cease-fire puts her in a small —
but growing — group of Congressional members who have done so. And it is a reversal from her stance of a week ago, when she told supporters at a Burlington fundraiser that she supported a “humanitarian pause” in the hostilities but no cease-fire. Some 200 protesters interrupted that event, chanting, “Becca, Becca, you can't hide! We charge you with genocide!"
click to enlarge - File: Luke Awtry
- Protesters outside Balint's fundraiser
At the time, Balint said a cease-fire was impractical because Hamas would not honor one.
"A cease-fire can only happen when two parties are willing to do it," she said.
Balint hasn’t necessarily wavered on that point. She noted in her commentary that “a lasting bilateral cease-fire can only work if Hamas does not continue to rule in Gaza.” But she also called out Israel for killing civilians.
“I do not claim to know how to solve every aspect of this decades-long conflict,” she wrote. “But what I do know is that killing civilians, and killing children, is an abomination and categorically unacceptable — no matter who the civilians are, and no matter who the children are.”
Sophie Pollock, a Balint spokesperson, said the congresswoman was traveling and unavailable for an interview. But Pollock said Balint considered the commentary "
a way to be able to speak directly to Vermonters in the most full and complete way possible and to share what her thinking has been over the last month."
Pollock noted that while Balint is now calling for a cease-fire, the congresswoman hasn't signed on to an open letter to President Joe Biden about the conflict, nor has she supported a Progressive-led cease-fire resolution introduced in the House.
"They share the same beliefs and the same goals," Pollock said. "But I think, at the end of the day, it is that the resolution is not necessarily a complete picture, and it doesn't fully address the issues needed to actually achieve the goals of protecting civilians, ending violence, and getting to a place of lasting peace and security."
On Wednesday, Balint held a Zoom meeting with Jewish Voice for Peace, a group of activists who organized last week's Burlington protest. During the meeting, Pollock said, Balint articulated many of the same points she made in her Digger commentary.
On Thursday, the group applauded Balint for her action.
"We are further encouraged that she is the first Jewish member of Congress to take this important step toward a sustainable peace," they wrote. "We hope others will follow. It was a courageous, important step and we are grateful for her response."
Balint was among a group of House Democrats who visited Israel in August. That trip was funded by AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group that is now preparing to spend up to $100 million defeating Progressive members of Congress such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for their criticism of Israel’s military response in Gaza,
Slate reported on Wednesday.
Calls for a cease-fire, though, are growing by the day. More than 100 Congressional aides walked out of work
in support of one, and activists have staged rallies around the country, including in Vermont.
Protesters surrounded the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, and a
group shut down traffic on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco on Thursday.
Neither U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) have called for a cease-fire. But on Tuesday, both men met with top United Nations officials in New York City to hear more about the situation on the ground in Gaza.
“Our goal remains to do everything we can to stop the indiscriminate bombing which has caused massive civilian casualties, bring in desperately needed humanitarian aid, and protect innocent people in Gaza,” the senators said in a joint statement. “This is a humanitarian catastrophe and we need action now.”
Asked for comment on Thursday, Welch did not call for a cease-fire. But, in a written statement, he said that the U.S. should consider withholding aid to Israel if it wouldn't protect civilians.
"Israel must stop bombing civilians in Gaza," Welch said. "Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that has caused enormous harm to Israel and to the Palestinian people. Israel also has an obligation to pursue Hamas in a way that places the highest priority on protecting civilian life, in accordance with the laws of war.”
In a statement of his own on Thursday, Sanders, too, did not call for a cease-fire.
"I am not quite sure how you negotiate a ceasefire with a terrorist organization that is dedicated to perpetual war," he said of Hamas.
Instead, Sanders said he was in favor of something similar to Welch: attaching
"conditions to any supplemental spending bill for Israel that comes before Congress."
"The issues that must be addressed in that bill are: an end to indiscriminate bombing and a significant pause so that massive humanitarian assistance can come into the region; the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes; no long-term Israeli occupation of Gaza; an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a freeze on settlement expansion; and a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution in the wake of the war," Sanders said in his statement.