BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Idaho Rep. Ilana Rubel didn’t anticipate much backlash over a September trip to Israel, she told the Idaho Statesman.

When she was invited by the country’s foreign ministry to join the state-sponsored trip, Rubel, a Boise Democrat and the House minority leader, sought assurance that the Israeli government wouldn’t represent her attendance as an endorsement of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or its war in Gaza, she wrote in a Statesman op-ed.

But when photos from the trip, where Rubel joined four Republican Idaho lawmakers, showed up online, young liberals in the state voiced outrage.

“We strongly disagree” with Rubel’s choice to participate in the trip, the Idaho Young Democrats said in a statement on their Facebook page. A separate letter s

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