Letter to the Editor: Newburgh City Council’s ceasefire resolution

To the Editor,

Newburgh City Council recently passed a resolution supporting a “ceasefire” in the war in Gaza.  Hamas started the war with a brutal attack on Israelis on 10/7/23.  The Hamas attack ambushed unsuspecting Israelis resulting in the murder of 1200 of its citizens and the kidnapping of 220 hostages.  Newburgh’s City Council and “ceasefire” resolution supporters ignored these FACTS and did not even acknowledge them in the resolution or comments.

Prior to the meeting, I mentioned to an acquaintance Newburgh’s intent to pass a “ceasefire” resolution. He asked if it was “going to stop the gangs from killing each other in Newburgh.”  When I clarified the proposal he shook his head and asked “don’t they have better things to do?”

The point is that the Council’s “ceasefire” resolution demonstrates the inability of Newburgh’s leadership to pay attention to issues they were elected to address.  Newburgh’s problems are many, yet the Council ignored them to pass a divisive resolution that further undermining Newburgh’s credibility with the governments and the community it counts on for support.  Newburgh citizens want the garbage picked up, streets repaired and a safe environment to raise their families; they don’t give a damn about events 5,700 miles away.

Added to these failures, the resolution demonstrates the Council has no understanding of the issues in the war between Hamas, the brutal dictatorship that rules Gaza, & Israel.  In point of fact, Newburgh’s resolution actually supports Hamas’s military objectives in Gaza.  Council members voting for this resolution (and two members of council, to their credit, DID NOT) were clearly manipulated by a small vocal group of anti-Semitic Hamas supporters at the expense of Newburgh and its community.

As bad as all that is, the most disgusting component of this resolution is its underlying anti-Semitic racism.  In the 10/7/23 attack, Hamas terrorists murdered…