The leader of the state’s largest Jewish organization is speaking out in the wake of the Dover City Council’s passage of a “ceasefire” resolution regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
These resolutions do “nothing more than weaponize those who hate Israel, which leads to attacks on the Jewish community around our state,” says Tracy Richmond, Board Chair of the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire (JFNH).
Dover’s City Council passed its ceasefire resolution Wednesday night in a 7-1 vote by a show of hands, not with a formal roll call vote. While the resolution says, “Hamas launched a barbaric, and deadly, massacre against Israeli civilians,” it also calls Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack “a massive and disproportionate military campaign.”
“What I’m asking for is to open our eyes, open our mouths, and raise our hands to stop the killing and stop the starvation,” said Councilor April Richer, one of the two authors of the resolution, which blames Israel for 30,000 deaths in Gaza.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: That number comes from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between Hamas terrorists and Gaza civilians and is almost certainly inaccurate.)
Dover now joins Durham and Lebanon in issuing resolutions regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
When Lebanon passed a resolution calling for “an immediate and permanent end to the current armed conflict between Israel and Hamas,” Councilor Devin Wilkie accused Israel of “warfare, discrimination and other atrocities that are being committed using our tax dollars.”
On Thursday, Richmond released a statement to NHJournal.
“First, I want to unequivocally state that I pray for peace in this conflict and mourn all lives lost on both sides of this Hamas-created war launched on innocent civilians during a ceasefire.
“It’s unfortunate that individual communities anywhere in the world think their resolutions do anything more than distract their towns from conducting the real work they are elected to oversee. A resolution such as the one brought before the Dover City Council does nothing more than weaponize those who hate Israel, which leads to attacks on the Jewish community around our state.
“Just this week, there was vandalism at Temple Israel in Portsmouth, and these types of resolutions only encourage this behavior,” Richmond said.
Neither Richer nor Councilor Robert Warach, who co-authored the resolution, responded to NHJournal’s requests for comment about Richmond’s statement.
Dover, Durham, and Lebanon are all deep-blue cities President Joe Biden carried by wide margins in 2020. But Biden has recently turned his ire toward Israel, threatening the Jewish nation with loss of America’s support if it didn’t change its military response to the Hamas threat.
In New Hampshire, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas told a radio host he believes it’s possible Israel intentionally targeted aid workers killed in Gaza by an Israeli missile attack, despite the Israeli military declaring it a mistake and immediately taking responsibility.
“I think Israel has every right to defend itself, but obviously, no nation should be targeting civilians,” Pappas said.
Supporters of Israel say threatening America’s ally over its military actions emboldens Hamas and makes it even harder to get the release of the approximately 130 hostages the terrorists still hold — or have already killed.
On Wednesday, just hours before Dover’s vote, Hamas rejected Biden’s plan for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, instead insisting on its own new proposal, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“I will once again remind Granite Staters that Israel has come to the table each and every time to offer a ceasefire opportunity, and those have been rejected time and time again by Hamas,” Richmond said.
“As we enter another weekend without our hostages home, I, too, pray for peace and that Hamas will allow the ‘ceasefire.’”
