Waukegan officials are finding that not all politics is local, as the adage goes. International affairs now also qualify.
The City Council is being asked to take a stand on the deteriorating situation in Gaza by placing a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict on the agenda of an upcoming meeting.
Usually concerned with mundane and routine governance topics such as garbage contracts, public safety issues, infrastructure and banning synthesized industrial hemp, the alders find themselves being asked to get involved in a war half a world away.
Dozens of backers of a resolution for a pause in the Gaza war stormed City Hall last week, bringing out a crowd of more than 150 people — some of them opponents of the measure — and asking for local action on what is turning into a humanitarian crisis. The move for a resolution is similar to other lively, and at times violent, discussions taking place on college campuses across Illinois and the nation.
From some of the initial conversation, it looks like the council will take a pass on getting involved in Mideast politics and stick with local problems, as Mayor Ann Taylor told Steve Sadin in a front-page May 6 News-Sun story. Perhaps officials will take the “institutional neutrality” path other governmental and educational entities have when approached by what appears to be an organized effort in America calling for a Gaza ceasefire.
“This is not something in our wheelhouse,” the mayor said. “We have enough issues right here, and I have to stay focused on Waukegan,” Taylor said it is up to the alders to place the Gaza resolution on the agenda.
Her comments were echoed at the council session of May 6 by 4th Ward Ald. Victor Felix, who noted, “It’s not an easy topic.”
It certainly isn’t, as others in the Chicago area have discovered. On one hand is the overwhelming force Israeli Defense Forces have dealt out in Gaza; on the other is the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas terrorists since their capture on Oct. 7.
Waukegan to Gaza is a long way, as are hopes for a Palestinian state that dates from the Persian Empire through the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the British mandate. But supporters of a Gaza resolution believe in some way if local officials call for a ceasefire, Israel will acknowledge it somehow on the world’s diplomatic stage.
That view, and pressure from President Joe Biden, so far hasn’t stopped the IDF from turning most of Gaza into rubble, and causing the deaths of nearly 35,000 Palestinians and untold casualties among the populace. Israel hasn’t only gotten an eye for an eye in retribution for the Hamas raid, the Jewish state has taken arms and legs, too.
While they have pounded Gaza into submission, one of IDF objectives so far has failed: Bringing all Israeli hostages back to their loved ones.
About 252 Israelis were abducted by Hamas fighters, with an estimated 128 — including eight Americans — still remaining captives. Another 36 hostages have been declared dead by Israeli authorities, while the country lost another 1,200 citizens on Oct. 7.
President Biden has gone so far as to announce a delay in U.S. weapons shipments to Israel in an effort to bring the two sides to the bargaining table to broker a ceasefire. That, too, hasn’t stopped the Israelis, and Biden’s actions worry U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park.
“I fear the U.S. is sending dangerous mixed messages, not just to the government and people of Israel, but also to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, about our support for our ally at its most critical time of need,” he said in a statement the other day.
At the same time, the 10th District congressman said, “We must rescue the hostages, dramatically increase and sustain aid entering the (Gaza) Strip, and make sure Hamas is not only defeated, but that it can neither rise again to oppress the people of Gaza nor threaten Israel’s national security.”
Schneider, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, knows of what he speaks. He’s been briefed by Biden administration officials, and has received deep background from members of the U.S. State Department. Unlike Waukegan officials, who like most of us get information about what is happening in Gaza from various media outlets.
For Waukegan officials, debating a resolution calling for a pause in fighting in the politically turbulent and dangerous Middle East is beyond most measures they were elected to decide. The same could be said for other members of the area’s city councils or village boards.
Rezonings they can handle; rewiring centuries of wars, bloodshed and strife, not so much.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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