For Immediate Release
Date: 10/10/2023
Chairman Wagner and Orange County Board of Supervisors Issue Statement Condemning Hamas Attack on Israel
(Santa Ana, CA) – Chairman Wagner and the Orange County Board of Supervisors have issued the following statement following the tragic terror attack by Hamas on Israel:
Every year, the County remembers the Holocaust and the Board of Supervisors reaffirms our commitment to “Never again”. For that to mean anything more than words, we must act in the moment to stand for civilization and against antisemitic terrorism. That moment is now.
On Saturday, October 7th, on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas undertook a brazen attack of Israeli territory storming communities along the border with the Gaza strip. Their targets weren’t soldiers, but families and friends gathering peaceably in celebration of their sacred holiday. The barbaric invaders mercilessly butchered families in their homes. Women, children, elderly, and even infants were brutally massacred in what is now the most deadly killing of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
No decent human being can equivocate in the face of such inhuman evil.
Among the dead are 14 American citizens, and an unconfirmed number of Americans are among the hostages taken by Hamas. We are not untouched by this travesty.
In no uncertain terms we condemn Hamas, Islamic terrorism, and stand with our ally Israel in what is amounting to its 9/11. We call on all Muslim leaders in Orange County to join us in this condemnation.
This is not a time for moral relativism or wishy-washy statements about understanding both sides. One side is responsible for this tragedy. Men, women, children, the elderly, the young — Jews and innocent all of them — were slaughtered with the warped and twisted misuse of the phrase "Allahu Akbar" ringing in their ears. That is a perversion of religion, not an act of faith.
Instead, it is now time for all civilized people to join with other decent people around the world to unequivocally condemn this barbarism. Terrorists must receive no solace in America.
We call upon Hamas to release its hostages, lay down its arms, commit to peace, and rejoin the civilized world. We must make the phrase “never again!” mean that nowhere on earth is safe or provides respite for the perpetrators of bigotry and barbarism.
