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* Tribune last week…
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson backed calls for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza Wednesday ahead of a hotly contested vote on a City Council cease-fire resolution set for next week.
Asked if he supports the resolution from Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd, Johnson said he condemned the actions of Hamas when fighting began.
“But at this point now, I believe we’re looking at 25,000 Palestinians that have been killed,” he said. “The killing has to stop. So, yes, we need a cease-fire.”
* Gov. Pritzker was asked yesterday about the city council resolution and the mayor’s support of it…
We all have to recognize that there are an awful lot of people who’ve been affected by the war between Hamas and Israel. The attack by Hamas, of course, was the starting point for all of this. Many people died. Many people are still being held hostage and they need to be released. And that needs to be a precondition for ending the hostilities. What Israel is going after is, of course, the terrorists. And I think we all feel that the innocent civilians, whether they are Palestinians, or Israelis, you know, want to be protected as best that they can be. And we’d all like the the hostilities to cease, but we also need the results that are necessary for that cessation.
Pritzker then went on to say that the resolution will have “no effect on the foreign policy of the United States.” Asked why he believed that, particularly with the Democratic National Convention coming in August, the governor said…
The reality is people are just trying to make a statement on their own and using the City Council as some way to amplify their statement as individuals. You know, it’s just not going to have an effect. There are so many aspects of this conflict. Remember, the Iranians have made their militants part of this, they clearly have provided the weaponry, and many of the tools that Hamas used in their attack against Israel. There’s a lot going on here that is not recognized by the City Council’s resolution and for that, I’m sad. But the reality is, I don’t think it’ll have any real impact, other than to make a statement that there are people in the city council who feel strongly one way or another.
Please pardon all transcription errors, and take like five deep breaths before commenting on this one. Thanks.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:19 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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As always, Pritzker sounds like the adult in the room and City Council leadership (the mayor and DSA aldermen) sound like a college debate society.
Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:23 pm
How about another ordinance banning foie gras?
Comment by No Contest Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:27 pm
Pritzker showed humanity for the murders in Highland Park. Why not show humanity for the thousands of innocent lives and the many more that will die as a result of a bloodthirsty army?
That’s because he is playing politics. Presidency matters more to him than humanity.
Comment by HarveyGuy Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:31 pm
“But the reality is, I don’t think it’ll have any real impact, other than to make a statement that there are people in the city council who feel strongly one way or another.”
100%. He absolutely nails it. This is just virtue signaling for left wing DSA types. Look at me - I care…even though I know absolutely nothing of the history of the region.
Comment by New Day Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:36 pm
Great to see Pritzker moderating and being the much needed voice of reason combating the lunacy coming out of Chicago.
Comment by DuPage Moderate Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:38 pm
I’m looking forward to the City Council’s upcoming decision on Flaming Moe’s Day./S
Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:42 pm
=I believe we’re looking at 25,000 Palestinians that have been killed=
Is this the Facebook news generation in power now? Johnson is simply repeating the numbers Hamas has publicized. Israel disputes those numbers.
JB is the adult in the room.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:46 pm
HarveyGuy, I think you missed this part:
“And I think we all feel that the innocent civilians, whether they are Palestinians, or Israelis, you know, want to be protected as best that they can be. And we’d all like the the hostilities to cease, but we also need the results that are necessary for that cessation.”
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 2:58 pm
Great statement by the Governor and a statement that sounded like it’s from TikTok from the Mayor. No fact check, just throwing a number provided by a terrorist organization out there.
Tomorrow is going to be ugly and divisive and I’m not excited to see this vote on an extremely nuanced, foreign policy issue take place.
Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:22 pm
“The reality is people are just trying to make a statement on their own and using the City Council as some way to amplify their statement as individuals. You know, it’s just not going to have an effect.”
This needed to be said. Thanks Governor!!
Comment by northsider (the original) Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:33 pm
An American mayor’s opinion on the foreign and martial policy of another country has about as much standing as a foreign country’s head of state and/or government having an opinion on the financial policies of an American city.
Focus on Chicago, mayor.
Comment by TJ Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:42 pm
Disappointed in JB on this one. Mayor Johnson is correct. Using the hostages as justification of continued military action after several weeks of indiscriminate bombing and destruction by the IDF is simply absurd.
For JS Mill and any others who dispute the Palestinian death toll - suppose the 25k number is, in fact, Hamas propaganda. What’s the real number, then? And is that number acceptable to you?
Comment by Mark D Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:48 pm
== That’s because he is playing politics. Presidency matters more to him than humanity. ==
Actually, if he wanted to lean into the politics of this situation, he would probably have said the opposite. Instead, he’s being pragmatic, reasonable and realistic.
Comment by Shytown Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:51 pm
JSMill according to reporting israel does not dispute the death count https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3w4w7/israeli-intelligence-health-ministry-death-toll#
Comment by Macon Bakin Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 3:58 pm
===Using the hostages as justification of continued military action after several weeks of indiscriminate bombing and destruction by the IDF is simply absurd.===
No, it’s honest. The trigger of the current Israeli military action (setting aside the many other historical issues), was the October 7th attack by Hamas. It’s also honest and accurate to point out that Hamas uses hospitals and civilians as shields, making the destruction of this terrorist network more deadly for Palestinians.
Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Hamas could end this round of violence tomorrow by releasing all of the hostages. Palestinians would be better served by abandoning Hamas and working with partners like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on a two-state solution to this decades long catastrophe.
And there is nothing the City Council can do to change this, except to inflame the debate locally.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:00 pm
I often get annoyed by the “don’t-you-have-something-better-to-do?” argument that gets bantered about when a relatively unimportant legislative proposal is made, like renaming a bridge or declaring an official state snack. Legislators are capable of doing more than one thing at a time.
But I find myself thinking the City Council should be focused on other things right now. I mean, renaming a bridge takes very little time or effort and rarely engenders an ounce of acrimony. That is certainly not the case with this resolution. A whole bunch of time, effort and acrimony are involved with something that will have absolutely zero impact. Meanwhile, the city is facing multiple once-a-generation challenges. Time to move on.
Comment by Roman Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:06 pm
“That’s because he is playing politics. Presidency matters more to him than humanity.”
Or, and stay with me here, maybe he’s not buying into the two dimensional caricature that is largely devoid of context that is being peddled by Johnson and the lefties. Yes, more than 15,000 Palestinian civilians have allegedly been killed (I use that figure because we know the official death toll includes at least 10,000 Hamas fighters) and that is unspeakably awful. Conditions in Gaza are deplorable and far too much civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. But, Israel was attacked. More than 1200 men, women and children were slaughtered including well documented cases of rape, mutilation, beheading, children murdered in front of their parents and parents murdered in front of their children. All have been documented. That is the US equivalent of 45,000 civilians people slaughtered. And Hamas has vowed openly and repeatedly to commit 10/7 acts again and again and again until every last Jew is wiped out “from the river to the sea.”
No country in the world would tolerate that kind of threat. Since Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, Hamas has received billions and billions of dollars of Western and Arab aid and it has used much of it to construct a network of 450 miles of tunnels or about three times the size of the London subway system in territory a fraction the size.
So yea, this is awful. Really awful. But maybe JB has a bit more knowledge about the facts which is why he’s not embracing this completely worthless and divisive resolution that will have no impact whatsoever.
Comment by New Day Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:19 pm
=== Israel is at war with Hamas, not the Palestinian people. ===
This is a talking point, not an observable reality. Israel has rendered northern Gaza uninhabitable and has rescued almost no hostages. Hamas remains largely unaffected. It’s long past time for a diplomatic solution, but instead Israel and US are intent on escalating the conflict, which is pure nihilism at this point.
Comment by Mark D Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:20 pm
JB is the adult in the room. Mayor Johnson and his DSA/CTU/UWF allies are weighing in with an American woke lens on the issue of oppressed v oppressor with this resolution, and it’s disappointing. Most of the Arab nations surrounding Israel with over half a billion in population have at one point or another called for the annihilation of Israel, a country with just 9 million. But yeah, one of the world’s smallest minority groups is the oppressor.
Comment by pragmatist Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:27 pm
JB giving the answer of a good adult in the room is good. But it is important not to ignore the impacts that the resolution is having. It is inflaming tensions, giving voice to antisemites on the far left, and therefore making Jews in Chicago less safe. Passage or not of this resolution won’t have a impact on the Israeli government or Hamas at all, but it is too late to take back the damage this is doing for the Chicago Jewish community. This is just another example of why the City Council as it exists now is an unserious body, with unserious people who are not focused on the issues really impacting the City.
Comment by CornAl DoGooder Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:41 pm
Last week an incredible amount of disrespect from the DSA, CTU and UWF folks in the crowd during Alderwoman Silverstein’s Holocaust Remembrance Resolution. The Mayor did nothing he would say please calm down or would the Sergeant at Arms calm people down. Not once did he say you will be asked to leave the chamber if you can’t respect democracy. They did this through her speech and others who stood in support.
This is a feature not a bug for the Mayor. Use taxpayer money to pay people to flood your venue with taxpayer-funded “organizers”.
CTU, DSA, and UWF will pack the room tomorrow. They will yell over anyone who doesn’t 100% agree with their viewpoint. They will be encouraged by the weakness of their puppet Mayor BJ. They will not be reprimanded by the Mayor for turning City Hall into a mess. The Mayor wants them to yell at his detractors because he knows he doesn’t have the backbone to stand up.
Watch the mayor’s press conferences. He is a weak man on the verge of tears every time he talks and the press pushes back on him. He wants to be liked so badly. He distracts through multiple levels of nonsense citing past “accomplishments” as if that abdicates responsibility for current situations.
Tomorrow at City Hall will be a catastrophe.
Comment by Frida's boss Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:46 pm
“ Pritzker then went on to say that the resolution will have “no effect on the foreign policy of the United States.”
I’m with JB on this one. Local and state leaders should focus efforts on things where they can actually make a difference.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:47 pm
I appreciated what the governor said. It was pragmatic, because let’s face it does it matter what the city of Chicago votes on this? It was also human with his mentioning neither side wants random death-dealing by others as a matter of course.
Hamas built an awful lot of tunnels. And they built them under hospitals among other infrastructure. The damage caused by bombs to take out those tunnels is on Hamas. Hamas intentionally chose to make their people into human shields.
Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 4:59 pm
“ Hamas remains largely unaffected”
IDF claims to have killed 9000 hamas fighters. Hamas is a non state terror organization that one can’t sanction or negotiate with - Oct 7th they Beheaded, slaughtered and raped innocents - they sponsor schools where Jews are considered as non human. They espoused an p political world with non Israel “ from the river to the sea” Until Hamas is destroyed or the Palestinian people disavows them as leaders the conflict will go on.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 5:04 pm
Frida and Cermak_rd are spot on.
Johnson caught the car. Now, he doesn’t know what to do with the car, so the mayor and his allies are focusing on new cars. It’s going to be a long and terrible 3.5 years.
Comment by pragmatist Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 5:07 pm
“Hamas remains largely unaffected.”
You mean other than the 10,000 dead Hamas fighters? I mean sure, the billionaire Hamas leaders living in Qatar are unaffected (https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/news/hamas-leaders-worth-11bn-live-luxury-lives-in-qatar/). But on the ground they are having an impact.
Comment by New Day Tuesday, Jan 30, 24 @ 5:30 pm
The Governor nailed it in his comments.
Comment by Tinman Thursday, Feb 1, 24 @ 1:24 pm