Another 250,000 watched via lifestream

“We have indeed made history today with over 290,000 of us gathered here on the National Mall. This is the largest pro-Israel gathering in history,” William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told attendees of the “March for Israel” on the National Mall in Washington on Tuesday.

Daroff, whose organization represents 50 member groups, added that another 250,000 watched the march on livestream and on C-SPAN.

He added that bus drivers refused to transport 900 participants from the Detroit Federation who arrived at Dulles International Airport when the drivers learned they were going to a pro-Israel event.

“Look what we can do in just over a week. Imagine what we can do,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, which represents 146 Federations.

“Today’s crowd brings together every sector of American life. People of all faiths and creeds, of all races and backgrounds, to say together with unity and strength, ‘We support Israel’s fight to rid itself of the terror threat and restore safety and security to its people,’” Fingerhut said.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), one of the most vocal pro-Israel voices in the U.S. Congress, addressed the crowd saying “I want to be crystal-clear: A ceasefire with a terrorist organization is not a peace agreement. It’s a death sentence for Israelis,” said Torres, in a speech that drew much applause. “Everyone who wants Israel to cease to exist is calling for a ceasefire. Our answer to them is ‘No!’”

Torres noted that his district includes a large Jewish community but said he attended the rally “as an American to defend one of our greatest U.S. values, the U.S.-Israel relationship,” which is “an American value encoded in our national DNA.”

The congressman said the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks were “a crime against the Jewish state, indeed against humanity, so barbaric it cannot be ignored.”

“It cannot be unpunished. Hamas must be brought to justice,” he said. “Israel has a right to defend itself, and America has a duty to stand with Israel in her struggle for survival and self-defense.”

Torres called on Israel to do to Hamas what the United States did to ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Nazis. 

“No one expected the U.S. to enter a ceasefire with Japan after Pearl Harbor or Al-Qaeda or the Taliban when 3,000 were murdered on 9/11,” he said. “Those who insist that Israel should no longer defend itself are holding the Jewish state to a dangerous double standard that no other country would ever impose on itself.” 

Torres noted that the junction of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the modern Israeli state and the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, during which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Among the many other speakers were the actresses Debra Messing and Tovah Feldshuh, social-media influencer Montana Tucker, and Jewish students from Columbia University and George Washington University who relayed how antisemitism among students is growing on campus. 

Feldshuh told the crowd: The actress told the attendees that “we are now engaged in a battle reaching beyond any Arab-Israeli conflict. We are engaged in a battle fighting for a civilized world. We stand here knowing that the halls of our universities should be havens of enlightenment and moral clarity, and not places where Jewish students, Jewish faculty or any minority feels outcast and afraid of being physically abused.”

She warned college and university presidents that remaining silent would be complicity. She quoted Albert Einstein: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them and do nothing.

PHOTO: Israel Rally

CAP: The estimated 300,000 attendees at the “March for Israel” rally in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, 2023. Photo by Elishama Marmon.

PHOTO: Ritchie torress

CAP: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) addresses an estimated 200,000 people at the “March for Israel” rally in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, 2023. Source: Screenshot.