We stand with Israel.

We stand in solidarity with the Jews and the civilized world to eliminate the terrorist organization Hamas, which committed the heinous, murderous acts in Israel on Oct. 7th.

As a matter of course, in the accumulation of atrocities that is our shared history as human beings, we suffer the tragedy of our fallen condition, which pits people against one another.

But we agree with Temple Beth-El Rabbi Arnold Gluck, who at a vigil in Hillsborough on Thursday night said nothing justifies Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, and their infamy of October 7th. “It was not just the latest round in the ongoing conflict between the Israels and the Palestinians,” the rabbi said. “It was a ruthless and barbaric violation of the norms of civilization, whose goal was to murder kids.”

Amen.

We understand the coming days will contain great suffering.

We are prepared to assemble the greatest alliance – a true alliance of nations – to address an international humanitarian crisis.

We stand with President Joe Biden as he works with our allies, among them Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We call on Congress to resolve its shameful leadership gap and elect a speaker, and we call on the resignation from office of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to assert our full, righteous complement of elected congressional leadership from New Jersey.

We have an important role to play.

Our much-beleaguered state has a fine history of giving sanctuary to those besieged peoples of the world, among them Jews and Arabs seeking better lives for themselves and their families.

Our primary documents in America, which guarantee the freedom of speech and the freedom of worship to all, serve to safeguard religious and non-religious people everywhere, while simultaneously ensuring our collective loyalty to our beloved country of the United States.

Scarred by the Nazi Holocaust, many Jews came to our land in search of freedom, and have profoundly reinforced our sense of history, the priority of history, and our rejection of living in ignorance of history, and our commitment to protect the innocent, and to protect the finest traditions of our civilization.

The Arabs in our communities also enrich our lives with culture, beauty and majesty.

Paterson exists in vital part as a testament to the greatness of the Muslim people in our midst.

We proudly stand with both groups, Jews and Muslims, in the most refined spirit of our laws.

InsiderNJ mourns the loss of innocent life everywhere, and at this moment, the loss of innocent Palestinian lives as Israel retaliates for the obscenity of Oct. 7th.

We also mourn – and will not forget – the overwhelming loss of Jewish blood, including Itay Gliskoidf, a New Jersey native of Bergen County, and a member of the Israel Defense Forces, killed on base; and Lior Abramov, an aspiring DJ formerly of Hopewell, killed at a music festival.

We who will never fail those among us killed on September 11, 2001, know, unequivocally, that Hamas cannot be allowed to continue.

Murderous extremists must not be left unchecked. Recognizing that cowards and murderers who kill innocent young Israelis at a music festival will just as quickly try to blend in with innocent Palestinians to escape culpability, we know more innocents will die.

We refuse to oversimply this accelerating crisis, or to accept innocents as collateral sacrifice.

It will worsen.

Finally, we will strengthen.

We, grounded in the rule of law, in the excruciating lessons of the Holocaust, 9/11, and our deepest beliefs, in the name of humanity, commit ourselves to life – to life – and for that, Hamas must not survive.