Every Sunday for months, Westporters have marched downtown to remember the hostages held by Hamas since the deadly October 7 attack on Israel.
Yesterday, more than 100 residents of all ages stood on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge. The memorial marked 300 days since the 250 hostages were taken. About 100 are believed to still be held captive.
The group held signs. They reaffixed posters bearing the Israelis’ names and faces to the bridge.
They were not alone. Passing drivers honked horns, in solidarity.
(All photos/Dori Bomback)
Glad to see this. Heartbroken that it’s necessary.
It is so heartbreaking, but they shouldn’t carry the Israeli flag which is indicative of support for Bebe….Bebe who knew a year in advance what was going to happen, and could have gotten the hostages back if he just promised to stop bombing Gaza – but he is bloodthirsty and Hamas, too, are liars.
In my eyes, as a Jew, Bebe and Hamas are both terrorists and sadly I don’t see any progress being made til they’re both out of there.
The hostages need to be brought home, but these protesters need to be clear about what’s happening on both sides – both sides are wrong.
Sadly, these gatherings don’t move the needle, they should be speaking with the Israeli Embassy and letting them know while we support getting the hostages back, the American Jews do not support this bloodthirsty war Bebe is waging. This shouldn’t be happening at all.
Great comment. If someone carried a Russian flag through town today, would anyone think they were simply expressing pride in their Russian heritage?
I find the bridge protests to be purely performative.
So I guess now we’ve gotten to the point where a privileged few get to judge what the waving of an American ally’s flag does or does not represent.
While I’m not looking forward to another Trump presidency, guess we should all get ready for comments like “they shouldn’t wave the American flag which is indicative of support for Trump” from this elite Westport aristocracy.
It is worth noting that Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, Bibi’s older brother, lost his life leading the Israeli team that effected the rescue of Israeli hostages that were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and taken to Entebbe, Uganda in 1976. That kidnapping was unprovoked as were the actions of October 7 by Hamas that launched current hostilities. You can only turn the other cheek so long.
Funny you say turn the other cheek. Palestinian’s have had to do it for 75 years but October 7th right ? Not October 6,5th and so on. BTW, the hostages look fabulous compared to Palestinian hostages.
Exactly, why stop at October 7? Or even 1948? Arabs in Palestine have a long history of anti-Jewish violence, predating the State of Israel. They conducted pogroms on Jews in 1920, 1921 and 1929, and the virulently anti-semitic Grand Mufti supported anti-Jewish violence throughout the 1930s. Then of course all neighboring Arab countries attacked Israel immediately upon its founding, with many Jews being expelled from these countries (in numbers larger than Palestinians displaced in Israel). So yeah, there’s been a lot of turning the other cheek by Jews in the middle east for a hell of a long time prior to October 7.
Also love how you’re labeling Palestinian prisoners, many who perpetrated violent acts or murders, as “hostages” – disgustingly equating them to the actual innocent civilians taken hostage by Hamas (I’ll even be charitable and except Israeli soldiers from the classification of “innocent civilians”). But can’t say I’m surprised as it’s just another way you and your ilk twists the truth to make the Palestinians into the victims 100% of the time, with zero acknowledgement of how they’ve actually inflamed the conflict for decades.
Cease fire and get them back. That simple. Agree Bebe is the one who keeps the hostages…hostages. It allows him to advance his agenda.
Matt – many of the Palestinian prisoners are minors who are picked up for minor offenses and detained without being charged. It is as if it is a plan to accumulate inventory for future prisoner swaps.
Palestinians have been getting squeezed, especially by the expansion of settlements, for decades. Now, starving them out of Gaza seems to be a convenient side effect for the Netanyahu administration’s response to the actions of Hamas on October 7.
Netanyahu (obviously, not especially popular in Israel) continues to take a “the beatings will continue until morale improves” approach to the Palestinians. Who, with a functioning brain, thinks that is a strategy that can lead to an effective long term and peaceful solution in the region?
Minor offenses are still offenses, and the fact that you’re comparing these prisoners to the civilian hostages taken by Hamas is ludicrous.
Agreed that Bibi remaining in power and settlements do not help matters. But at least I can admit this, whereas you’re unable to acknowledge that Hamas and other extremist Palestinian factions also bear significant responsibility for what’s happening in Gaza right now.
Thank you Matt for your informative reply to this uninformed Westporter.
BTW, Netanyahu is not his name. He’s Polish.
What person in his right mind would “choose” a name like Netanyahu? Only a Polish person tired of being the object of tasteless (but funny) jokes?
Why would this even matter? I’m of Polish descent (not proudly) – 2 million Polish Jews were killed in the Holocaust. My family sought religious freedom in the US and perhaps Netanyahu did so in Israel. Jews have been exiled from nearly every single country in the Middle East for simply being Jewish (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, etc.) Then 6 million of us were killed in Europe, again, simply because we’re Jewish. In the 30’s we were not white enough, now we’re labelled as too white, supremacists, imperialists. It’s simply anti-Semitism shape shifting once again. We now have a homeland in Israel (legally and historically). Get off your high horse, learn some history, and stop with you little uninformed political one liners.
Thanks Matt, well said. Also, a quick Wikipedia search shows Bibi’s mother was born in what is now Israel, what was then part of the Ottoman Empire, pre-WWI. But either Mr. Meuchner didn’t know that or he chose not to mention it since it doesn’t fit with his narrative.