In Washington, demonstrators chanted slogans against Israel

Tens of thousands of Israeli supporters gathered in the American capital on Tuesday to express support for the war against Hamas, voice their opposition to the ceasefire and condemn the global rise in anti-Semitism.

Large rows of demonstrators carrying placards and Israeli flags gathered at the capital’s National Mall amid heavy security and under clear blue skies in an event intended, at least in part, as a response to recent large rallies in the United States demanding an immediate end to Israel’s military offensive.

According to The Guardian, speakers including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, former Soviet dissident and Jewish Agency executive chairman Natan Sharansky and senior US Congressional figures led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were warmly welcomed as they pledged that Israel and its close ties to the United States will survive last month’s Hamas attack, which Israel said killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 240.

Isaac Herzog, speaking via video link from Jerusalem, said Jews were being attacked for being Jews, calling it “a disgrace to all civilized people and nations.”

In a telling sign of the prevailing mood, the loudest applause of the day went to newly installed Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told the crowd: “These calls for a ceasefire are outrageous.”

His comments were met with chants of “No ceasefire!”

As The Guardian notes, “Many progressive groups in the US, including Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, have made demands for a ceasefire amid a growing backlash against Israel’s military operation in Gaza, resulting in which, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, killed 11,320 people, including 4,650 children.”

Many in attendance acknowledged concern over the rising death toll in Gaza but said they laid the blame squarely at the feet of Hamas.

Composer Judah Klausner, visiting from New York, cited a recent threat by Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, to repeat the October 7 attacks “for a second, third, fourth time” as a compelling reason to rule out a ceasefire.

“This is the logic that Israel faces in its ceasefire with Hamas. One of their leaders threatened to return again and again. Israel right now is a crime scene – criminals usually don’t return to the scene of the crime,” he said.

And Paul Stewart, 67, a retired engineer and lawyer visiting from Vermont, said: “I don’t think there should be a ceasefire because Israel has given the Palestinians the opportunity to leave, but obviously Hamas has some influence over them and tells them to stay.”

Tuesday’s event was organized by and attended by ideological representatives of broadly pro-Israel Jewish groups in the United States, including some progressive organizations fiercely critical of the previous far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including J Street and the Peace Now movement.

“Much of the Israeli left supports war against Hamas so that it can be eliminated and allowed to return to a two-state solution. That’s the hope, says Matthew Weinstein, 60, a public policy analyst in Salt Lake City and head of J Street’s Utah office. – But Bibi [Нетаньяху] must go. He is as bad for Israel as Hamas is for the Palestinians. He has already stated that he opposes the two-state solution.”

Progressive elements were critical of the decision to give a speaking slot to John Hagee, an evangelical pastor with a history of controversial statements, including that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would be “the work of the Antichrist.”

The huge crowd, which Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries estimated at 100,000, included several Christian Zionists, including 85-year-old Kim Smith, who traveled from Rondo, Virginia.

Jeffries lashed out at progressives at his own Democratic conference who had been vocal in their advocacy of Palestinian rights and demands for a ceasefire.

“Let me be clear: Israel has the absolute right to defend itself against Hamas terror,” he said, echoing the Biden administration line. “We must support Israel in its efforts to decisively defeat Hamas and ensure that this brutal terrorist organization never rises again.”