Deluzio calls for renewed peace efforts after visiting sites devastated by Hamas
“I remain convinced that it is in our national interest to have a secure and free Israel, much as it is in our interest to have security and stability for the Palestinians."
Rep. Chris Deluzio returned from his recent trip to Israel hoping for a secure future for both Israelis and Palestinians, but he doesn’t envision that future to include Hamas.
“I remain convinced that it is in our national interest to have a secure and free Israel, much as it is in our interest to have security and stability for the Palestinians,” said Deluzio, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 17th congressional district. “I think it’s been fascinating to see Gazans rising up in the last week or so against Hamas. And I think Hamas’ continued persistence to carry on this fight is the principal roadblock to peace and sovereignty for Israelis and Palestinians alike. … I cannot fathom a future where Hamas remains in control in any meaningful way in Gaza where that can happen.”
Deluzio traveled to Israel from Feb. 16-21 on a trip organized by J Street’s Len Hill Education Travel Program, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — the most senior Democrat on the House appropriations committee — and accompanied by Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street. Other members of Congress on the trip included Andrea Salinas of Oregon, Sylvia Garcia of Texas, Eric Sorensen of Illinois and Jim Himes of Connecticut.
Deluzio last visited the Jewish state in the summer of 2023 — a couple months before Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, which launched the current war — along with 23 other members of Congress on a trip organized by the American Israel Education Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with AIPAC. The trip was led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
At the time, Deluzio, whose district encompasses all of Beaver County and parts of Allegheny County, including Mt. Lebanon and Ross Township, said the trip gave him insight on “the road — however rocky — to lasting security and peace of two states, side by side.”
This time, Deluzio and his colleagues toured a country in the midst of crisis, visiting locations that were devasted by Hamas terrorists, including Kibbutz Kfar Aza and the Nova music festival site. They also met with families of hostages.
“Look, it’s easy to observe from afar what the trauma of Oct. 7 might be, but it’s something altogether different to feel the gravity and the weight of that trauma, to hear from families who have borne so much of the suffering, and that is not something I think I could experience in a way other than seeing it,” Deluzio said.
The representatives also met with high-level political leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and some of the leaders of Israeli opposition parties, Deluzio said.
The most recent ceasefire, which began on Jan. 19, was still in effect when the congressional cohort toured the country, but Deluzio said he was “not very optimistic of things holding, and I’m, of course, saddened that that proved correct.”
While he was there, the congressman said, he saw Hamas “parade hostages and coffins in pretty gruesome public displays.”
“I think the news of the Bibas children and family having their bodies returned — initially returned erroneously — also happened around when I was there and leaving,” he said. “And so the sense of, I think, despair and frustration with where this ceasefire was, the fact that there remain so many hostages, and a broader debate that was beginning to unfold of what could be a future in Gaza after Hamas — I think now, with the ceasefire ended, that seems so much more distant, even than it did then.”
One “key observation” Deluzio made during his visit to the Jewish state “had to do with the Iranians, who I think have long been and remain such a destabilizing influence in the Middle East. And that goes back even to my deployments to the region, when I was in uniform back in the early 2000s.”
Iranian proxies, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, have been weakened, he said. Assad has fallen in Syria and the Houthis are under siege. What impact that has on the region is yet to be seen.
“I think of the Iranians as being very diminished,” he said, adding that Iran has “done a lot to derail the peace agreements, or Abraham Accords, between Israelis and some of the Arab states. And so, what a diminished Iran might mean for getting them to the negotiating table to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon — that has been a key takeaway for me thinking about where things are regionally.”
The congressman has been supportive of sending American military aid to Israel, but he also led an effort last May urging the Biden administration to find Israel not in compliance with U.S. aid law through “the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”
After his recent trip to the Jewish state, Deluzio said he is committed to continue sending American military aid to Israel, but he also expects “our friends in Israel to follow U.S. law.”
“And I expect and hope that there can be some return to a brokered peace agreement in the short term that can lead to a longer term peace, even though we are now in a place where the ceasefire has failed,” he said. “I hope that there can be a framework similar to that, to get the remaining hostages returned.” PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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