KENTUCKY HOUSE MAJORITY CAUCUS
October 13, 2023
Standing with Israel
By this point, I am sure you are aware of the horrors that have taken place in Israel this week. If you are not, allow me to give you a quick summary. In the early hours of the morning last Saturday, Israeli civilians woke up to the sounds of explosions and gunfire as Hamas, a radical Palestinian terror group, stormed the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. After smashing through the barricade, Hamas fired upon civilians indiscriminately. Mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. Grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, and uncles. Cousins, nieces, and nephews. Not one was spared. When the dust settled and Israel repelled their terroristic invaders, they found more than 800 innocent civilians slain, with eleven dead American citizens among them.
I was struck by, when seeing the news of these horrors on my news feed, how clear it was to see the objective evil of what transpired in Israel over the weekend. The most troubling of many such stories being Hamas’s indiscriminate slaughter of festival goers at a music festival near the Israel/Gaza border. The people who gathered at the festival were there to celebrate music and peace. Some of them were tourists, others, foreign nationals returning to their homeland. Some people just wanted to dance. None of that mattered when Hamas opened fire. They killed 260 people, and took dozens as hostages. And for what? Because the people were Israeli? Because the people were Jewish? Any answer to that question, quite rightly, feels like an unsatisfactory conclusion to come to.
This is because, in no uncertain terms, what the Hamas terrorists did in Israel over the weekend was evil in its clearest form. It requires no explanation. There is no excuse. It is nothing short of a horrifying tragedy, one that I condemn in the strongest sense of the word. But it is not as though everything that transpired in Israel over the weekend was tragic. When the world could have turned a blind eye to the plight of the Israelis, they instead joined with them, offering support. With small exception, most everyone no matter their race, creed, or political affiliation has chosen to stand with Israel. This, constituents, is what I encourage you to do as well.
Not because you might be Jewish. Not because you might be Israeli. Not because of any deep-seated reason, other than the fact that you. like me, love goodness and hate evil. Standing with Israel, especially considering recent events, should not be something that requires mental gymnastics. If one were to take away all the window dressing and remove any way of identifying who was who, every headline put out would read 800 civilians murdered. More than 20 American lives lost. Standing with Israel means standing against that.
More importantly, though, it means standing with a nation and their right to defend themselves. It means standing with a group of people as they mourn a tragedy. It means standing with people in your community as they struggle. It means standing against terrorism. It means standing against acts of senseless violence. It means standing against inexcusable evil. So, I ask you as you move through your week, and through the coming weeks, to stand with Israel. Stand against terror. Stand for good.
As always, I can be reached at home anytime or through the toll-free message line in Frankfort at 1-800-372-7181. You can also contact me via e-mail at Chris.Freeland@lrc.ky.gov. You can also keep track of interim committee meetings through the Kentucky Legislature Home Page at legislature.ky.gov.