Chicago Votes for Hamas Mayor Brandon Johnson supports a cease-fire . . . in Gaza, not Chicago.
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson cast the tie-breaking vote. Skeptics wonder when the mayor will support a cease-fire on the West Side.
The Council resolution calls for a “permanent ceasefire to end the ongoing violence in Gaza . . . for humanitarian assistance including medicine, food and water, to be sent into the impacted region; and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
In a statement last week, Mr. Johnson said he supports a cease-fire in Gaza because “the killing has to stop” and because he “want(s) to save lives.” He cited numbers from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry that the war has killed some 25,000 Palestinians.
The resolution created a flag-waving ruckus in Chicago City Hall Tuesday but has zero effect on Israel or Hamas. Its more proximate effect is to endear Mr. Johnson to the left and put Chicago in the same category as cities like San Francisco, Oakland, Atlanta and Detroit that have also aligned themselves with the Palestinian cause.
In the Windy City, the resolution was helped along by the Chicago Public Schools system, which offered students grace time to join Tuesday walk-outs supporting the cease-fire. Mr. Johnson said he was “incredibly proud” of students for “exercising their constitutional rights” and “speak(ing) up for righteousness.”
We hope those students got home safely from the walk-outs. Chicago had 617 murders in 2023, and its murder rate is five times that of New York City. On some weekends in the warmer months, dozens of people are killed by gunshots or stabbings. Two high school students were killed in the Loop last week in the early afternoon.
Amid national notice of this mayhem last summer, Mr. Johnson said critics had to live in Chicago before they had the right to criticize. Israel might ask the same of Mr. Johnson.
Comments are closed.
