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By Ray Hanania
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The Chicago City Council was scheduled on Wednesday, Jan. 31, to consider a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel’s extremist government and the Hamas extremist organization.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Hamas have been battling each other for more than two decades, using violence against civilians and terrorism.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked and killed more than 1,200 Israelis — mostly civilians — in a horrendous and despicable act of violence.
But since then, Netanyahu has launched an equally despicable, on-going war of revenge targeting civilian neighborhoods, killing 26,000 people–including 14,000 women and children.
Both the Arab and Jewish community have been primed for emotion, squaring off to advance their narrow arguments. Only a few are in the center condemning both sides, as I do.
Condemning both sides is the appropriate thing to do. But the pro-Israel movement has far more leverage with politicians and the American news media than Palestinians. More details of the Oct. 7 massacres are reported than details of the daily, endless violence against Palestinians.
Pro-Israel advocates have used their influence to mute political and media criticism of Israel. They pushed President Joe Biden and Congress to provide $14.3 billion in financial aid and provide the weapons used to kill Palestinians.
Pro-Palestinian advocates have resorted towards massive and disruptive protests because most politicians turn a deaf ear to them, especially Illinois legislators and some Chicago aldermen who have enjoyed trips to Israel sponsored and funded by Netanyahu’s government.
The pro-Arab groups are at a political disadvantage in America, including in Chicago.
The right thing to do would be to approve both resolutions at last week’s City Council. One introduced more than a month ago by 33rd Ward Ald. Rossana RodrĂguez-Sánchez urged a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war. In addition to an ever-increasing civilian death toll, Israel’s revenge-assault has destroyed 80% of homes and businesses in Gaza.
Many pro-Israel activists are driven by revenge, anger and in many cases hate. If you say that, you are falsely bullied as anti-Semitic.
The second resolution commemorated the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The Holocaust is one of humanity’s greatest horrors, killing more than 6 million Jews during World War II. Many Arabs support the resolution’s passage.
If the issue were just about protecting civilians, both resolutions could have been approved without engaging in a political battle.
But Holocaust resolution sponsor Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) couldn’t stop herself from linking the Holocaust to the Israel-Gaza conflict, falsely saying Palestinian activism is fueling anti-Semitism.
Silverstein never referenced Israel’s horrendous carnage and daily massacres of Palestinians. Pro-Palestinian activists at the council booed Silverstein’s ignorant comment.
Fortunately, Mayor Brandon Johnson and several courageous members of the Chicago City Council, including 25th Ward Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, spoke out about the injustice and the killings of Palestinian civilians.
Silverstein got the Ceasefire resolution delayed until this week. According to Politico, Silverstein “firmly opposes” the ceasefire resolution and she is working to water it down.
How do you oppose a ceasefire in which civilians are being massacred unless you are a human monster of the worst sort?
In her letter to every alderman in the City Council, Silverstein also attacked pro-Palestinian activists who reacted to her hateful comments during the vote on Jan. 24.
They rightly booed Silverstein when she tried to connect the Holocaust resolution to a defense of Israel’s violence against Palestinians, asserting Palestinian activism and the conflict are fueling anti-Semitism.
Silverstein was wrong to weaponize the Holocaust for her selfish, extremist political agenda. Had she even offered one word of compassion for the thousands of Palestinians whom Israel continues to massacre everyday because there is no ceasefire, the tenor of the protesters would have been different.
But pro-Israel activists don’t care about morality, fairness or protecting civilians. They only care about politics and protecting the interests of Israel’s government, a foreign government and country.
Aldermen who allow Silverstein to water down the ceasefire resolution, and who are silent, should be ashamed of themselves.
It’s not justice. It is injustice. It is shameful politics that allows the continued killing of innocent civilians, mostly women and children.
Don’t use your own injustice to close your eyes to the injustice you support against others.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is an ugly conflict. It is truly tragic that Americans have been dragged into this as pawns who, when they express their views, are demonized, vilified and slandered.
Aldermen should pass the ceasefire resolution without Silverstein’s political and one-sided interference, because it is the American thing to do.
Ray Hanania is a former Chicago City Hall reporter and award-winning columnist. Visit hanania.com for more opinion.