An estimated ten-thousand people gathered Monday evening for a ‘United For Israel’ rally calling for the return of the more than 200 hostages being held by Hamas. Those in attendance also mourned the loss of the 1,400 lives taken on October 7.
The event marked 30 days since Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.
The crowd lined Central Park West from 82nd to 86th streets, and speakers included Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Daniel Goldman and actress Debra Messing.
The rally was organized by the UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. It was also co-sponsored by a number of additional Jewish groups.
Photos by @dannydalynyc
Debra Messing speaks at United For Israel rally.
I wonder if those mourning Israel’s killing of at least 9,000 Gazan civilians since Oct. 7th — solely as punishment for Hama’s attack and humiliation of the IDF — could get an NYPD permit to entirely block CPW on a Monday evening?
The death of every single civilian is at the hand of Hamas. Without the attack, without the kidnapping not one life would have been lost.
Not one? Well that’s certainly true, as many more than ‘one’ innocent Palestinians are killed every year at the hands of Israel.
Tom:
The “thinking” of Janice and the like is that time only started on Oct. 7th and ended on Oct. 8th.
Or worse, the deaths Palestinian civilians don’t count at all — ever.
Jay:
Well said!
Tom, please get your facts straight and don’t use language that incites and misguides, whatever your intentions are. Israelis do not go killing Palestinians in Gaza every day. There are some incidents of confrontation in West Bank by some settlers that Israel tries to deal with. You cannot control everyone’s actions. But the death in Gaza (prior to October 7th that you are claiming) is probably due to Hamas sending rockets into Israel and 1/3 of their rockets failing and killing some. They do these rockets from hospitals, schools and places where civilian lives are in danger. They do not care. Take the example of the rocket that caused the explosion in the parking lot of the hospital that they blamed on Israel while it was documented that it came from the Islamic Jihads. They blamed this on Israel and said 500 people died which was not true. The story about 500 people dead went away except I guess being repeated by congresswoman Tlaib. You cannot rely on anything that comes out of Hamas. There were like 3000 Hamas terrorists that went into Israel on October 7, thousands died on that day when Israel fought to eliminate the threat. Those thousands are in the number but they are terrorists that went in to butcher Israeli children, women. and families. Please educate yourself before you speak if you want to help.
We cannot argue with Anti Semites. There is no point in stating facts. We know the facts and the distortions, and the smile on the faces of the people tearing down our hostage posters.
This is a very ugly time and I am fearful for our children and Jews around the world. The attacks on private citizens around the world , is all we need to know about the true motivation of these people. Hamas made it very clear they do not want a cease fire, they want the death of every Jew even if they have to kill every innocent Palestinian to accomplish this.
May all those who have perished be a blessing. Never Again.
Janice:
See my response below.
The 9,000 were not killed “as punishment.” That’s a horrid distortion of an already tragic situation. And why wouldn’t the mourners of the Gazans get a permit? Of course they would.
David,
No distortion involved: It’s collective punishment. It’s a war crime.
And no Gaza supporters would not get permit to entirely block CPW on a Monday.
Yes, they could and there have been several pro Palestinian rallies in New York . All sides have the right to gather and to request permits to use specific public spaces.
Would be nice to meet you Jay. I don’t believe Will Rogers would say that, but he was much nicer and better-intentioned than me.
Israel is following every rule of war, and in fact is going above and beyond the rules of war to warn civilians of impending strikes in multiple different ways. Hamas are the ones shooting at civilians trying to go to Southern Gaza to get out of the line of fire.
Hamas has vowed to kill all Jews (it is in its charter) and Israel is well within its rights to defend its citizens from actual and anticipated attacks. The fact that you are holding Israel to a higher standard than any other country means that you don’t think Jewish lives matter as much as any other lives. As a reminder, there was a ceasefire on October 6. Hamas broke it in the most brutal way – what did they think Israel would do to respond? Of course they knew Israel would fight back, and Hamas doesn’t care about the Palestinians. It just uses them as human shields.
If they want to protect the hostages they should join anti-war protestors in calling for a ceasefire and an end to the blockade. The Israeli hostages are being bombed, starved, and denied water too, not just the Palestinian civilians also being held hostage by Hamas. Without that this is just a pro-war protest using the hostages as props.
1400 living in Israel are dead, 10000 Palestinians are dead, I pray the killing stops and the hostages are returned to their families.
K:
Kind of a safe bet that Hamas is making a real effort to feed/hydrate the hostages while keeping them safe from Israel’s bombs and tank rounds.
Hamas is doing so to keep the hostages as leverage. Israel has already refused to restore water and food + electricity if Hamas were to release 200 hostages.
Janice:
“Without the attack, without the kidnapping not one life would have been lost.”
Correctin: Not one life would have been lost on Oct. 7th 2023.
I assure you that Israel has and would have continued killing Palestinian civilians — oft sans provocation. And yes, Hamas once in a while would have managed to kill individuals in Israel.
The Oct. 7th “failures” IDF did NOT happen in isolation
Your comment is revelatory. There is no justification for the level of savagery visited on innocent civilians. Women, babies and by the way non Jews and non Israelis.
The simple statement that this was not in isolation is reprehensible given what was done.
Hamas are murderers and believe that every life they have squandered in Gaza was a desired outcome.
Thank you for your service, Jay, I mean this genuinely.
My heart goes out to Israel. They were brutally destroyed physically and mentally by subhuman savages. There should be no ceasefire until all the hostages are brought back to Israel. There should be no pity for a country that destroys innocent lives. It’s a good thing we had strong soldiers fighting for our country during ww2. We would have lost the war if we had a segment of Americans criticizing American soldiers and not showing support. War is violent and not always fair, but the good people must win
Bringing up ww2 and using genocidal language in the same breath. You should be embarrassed.
Embarrassed? Because our soldiers fought so bravely and we won. The savages then we’re the Nazis.
WW2????…Let’s not go there..American’s of every stripe fought against the evils of Nazi Germany as well as Japan… and yet, SOME soldiers returned only to find their status as second class citizens was still intact… They did not decide to kill, behead, burn anyone.. A religious war, sadly, can last for generations… (ask the Irish and the Brits… “War is hell / when will it end / when will folks start getting together again”… Marvin Gaye
There is only one issue here. The goal of Hamas. We know what that is, along with all those who bankroll their violence. You see in the comments an attempt at equivalency. The acts of savagery have no equivalency.
Hamas wants to kill every Jew and gladly martyr every single Palestinian, this was said in an interview. They will keep killing and do not want a peaceful resolution.
This is what Israel is up against. That’s why I stand by my statement that every life lost is part of Hamas’ agenda.
We see the only path forward.
Killing every Jew has historical repetitions that have not and never will succeed. Most civilised and rational thinking people realise what needs to be done. It is the aftermath of this war when Hamas is (hopefully) a nonentity, that the truth of two groups living side by side, forever intertwined and “humanly blended” will have to face the harsh reality that the battle between, The Torah, The Koran and the Bible will never be extinguished using guns, land grabbing, misguided global politics and most importantly preventing the voices of reason a chance to be heard…Wars never end, they just evolve into something waiting to continue ..
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