Illinois Officials Stand With Israel At Solidarity Event In Glencoe

GLENCOE, IL — As the reported death toll from the conflict between Israel and Hamas approaches 2,000, Chicago area residents and officials gathered at North Suburban Congregation Israel Tuesday morning to stand in solidarity with Israel.

Yinam Cohen, Israel's general counsel for the Midwest, told an assembled crowd of hundreds that the United States and Israel are each other's greatest allies.

"From President Biden to an overwhelmingly united American Congress, we know that America has our back," Cohen said.

"We also stay united in our grief. At least 11 American victims are among the victims and more Americans are among the abducted who are now held hostage in Gaza," he said. "Members of the Chicagoland community are unfortunately also among those waiting for news regarding their loved ones within Israel."

An Evanston mother, Judith Raanan, and her daughter, recent Deerfield High School graduate Natalie Raanan, are missing and feared captured during a terrorist raid on a kibbutz near the Gaza-Israel border. And Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old son of Chicago natives Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg, was attending the Supernova music festival near the Gaza border when he reportedly had his arm blown off by a grenade before being taken hostage.

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Congressman Brad Schneider said he had been scheduled to be in Israel at a conference celebrating the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab nations known as the Abraham Accords, a diplomatic push began under former President Donald Trump.

Schneider said Hamas will know that Oct. 7 — the day the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip launched the largest cross-border attack Israel has faced in 50 years — was no victory.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization, no different than Al-Qaeda or Islamic State," Schneider said. "Twenty-two years ago, the United States went to war halfway around the world after 9/11. Oct. 7 is 9/11 for Israel, proportionally on a far greater scale, and Hamas is not halfway around the world, but entrenched on its border."

Hamas has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., U.K., European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan, among others.

"Let me say this to those who cheer Hamas, who dance at the cold-blooded massacre of more than 1,000 people, who mock kidnapping, rape and torture," said the congressman, one of 26 Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives. "You cast your lot with barbarians, with terrorists. Hamas attacked Israel, started this war, Hamas will be defeated."

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker said more than 150 people had been captured by Hamas after its fighters stormed into Israel, occupying Jewish villages for the first time since the establishment of the Jewish state.

"To anyone who thinks otherwise, let me be clear: There are many peace-loving Palestinians, and we must honor them. But Hamas? Hamas is a terrorist organization, an army of murderers backed by Iran," Pritzker said.

"Their mask has been removed. Executing innocent children and the elderly, well, there's a special kind of hell for that. And now the whole world can see the images and videos of the invasion, the slaughtering of Israeli families and the kidnappings of loved ones is sickening," he said.

Hamas representatives have demanded the release of the approximately 4,500 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails in exchange for the release of the hostages, according to the AP. A Hamas spokesperson on Monday threatened to kill a civilian hostage every time the Israeli military targets civilians in Gaza "without prior warning."

"We pray today for the strength and safety for the men and women of the Israeli defense forces as they embark on this most difficult and important mission," Pritzker said. "Each step of the way, they should know, and the people of Israel should all know, that America and Illinois unequivocally stands with them in their battle to end the ongoing Hamas attacks. We stand with Israel."

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Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza described the Hamas attack as coordinated and unprovoked.

"It wasn't a military attack. It was a massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians at the hands of brutal terrorists, taping it, celebrating their terror, joyously posting it on TikTok for the world to see. It was a display of pure evil, and it must be stopped," Mendoza said.

The attack on the music festival is thought to be the worst massacre of civilians in Israel history. At least 260 people were killed and an unknown number were taken hostage after dozens of Hamas fighters targeted about 3,500 young Israelis who had gathered for the electronic dance music festival outside a town about 3.3 miles from the wall that separates Israel and Gaza.

"In the days and weeks that follow, it is important to remember that Israel did not invite or provoke this war," Mendoza said.

"The hundreds of young people reveling in music when they were brutally massacred, they did not invite or provoke this war. The innocent women, children and elderly peacefully asleep in their homes when they were assaulted, murdered or taken hostage, they did not invite or provoke this war," she added. "Barbaric Hamas terrorists started this war, and Israel will prevail and live on."

The Glencoe solidarity gathering is the second to be held in the North Shore since the start of the conflict — dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm by Hamas and Operation Iron Swords by the Israeli military.

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On Monday night, Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois and Chicago area Chabad centers held a Show Up for Israel gathering at the Holiday Inn in Skokie, where the Chicago Tribune reported an overflow crowd filled the hotel ballroom.

At Tuesday morning's gathering, officials assured the Jewish community that law enforcement were taking any potential threats seriously.

"I want to assure all of you that I have put our state police and law enforcement across the state on alert for our own synagogues and gathering places for Jews across Illinois," Pritzker said.

"There is no immediate threat that the FBI or law enforcement has detected here, but they are remaining vigilant, as should all of you," said the governor, who is Jewish. "We who believe in peace and freedom and human rights for Israelis, for Palestinians, for all humankind, must reject those who use terror as their weapon."

Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg released a statement on social media condemning the Hamas attack and assuring the public that his office's recently appointed homeland security director, Michael Jackson, was collaborating with police chiefs and municipal leaders to prevent violence.

"He is in frequent collaboration with our federal partners to learn the latest intelligence, which is disseminated to law enforcement countywide, and acted upon," Idleburg said. "While there are no credible threats of violence directed to Lake County, including our houses of worship, we are communicating with leadership at these organizations. Our deputies will be conducting extra patrols at our schools and houses of worship throughout Lake County."

Police in Evanston also announced additional patrols at houses of worship.