Solidarity with Israel shines from the White House to the Empire State building to the Brandenburg Gate in Germany.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
International support for Israel has come from the mouths of world leaders after Hamas terrorists invaded the country Saturday, and now, symbolically, several countries have lit up their landmarks in blue-and-white in solidarity with the Jewish state.
The White House was clothed in the colors of the Israeli flag Monday night, as President Biden spoke to the nation about the war, referring to the 11 American citizens known to have lost been murdered and the unknown number are still missing or taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
“This is not some distant tragedy,” he said. “The ties between Israel and the United States run deep.”
In New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, Governor Kathy Hochul directed that several state landmarks be lit in blue and white. These included the Empire State building and One World Trade Center as well as other sites in New York City, the State Fairgrounds Expo Center, and the Albany International Airport Gateway.
Hochul went to an Albany synagogue Monday in a show of “unwavering support and solidarity for the people of Israel,” her office posted to X, and sent an unequivocal message in a follow-up tweet:
“To the people of Israel: New York is with you. We will always be with you. Am Yisrael Chai [the people of Israel lives].”
Niagara Falls shone in blue and white, on both the New York and Canadian sides. Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted in explanation, “Tonight, as people gather in Toronto in solidarity with Israel, Niagara Falls will be lit blue and white in honour of the lives lost at the hands of Hamas and the enduring strength of the Jewish people. Light over darkness. Ontario stands with Israel.”
In Prague, the famed Petrin observation tower wore the Israeli colors, as did Buenos Aires’ famous obelisk and the Sydney Opera House. In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate was similarly lit up as well.
While office buildings in Baku, Azerbaijan shone blue and white, the Austrian Chancellor’s Office in Vienna put the Israeli flag on the flagpole atop its building in its own show of solidarity.
Practical aid is also already being transferred from the U.S., the White House said, in the form of military equipment and supplies.
“We fully expect there will be additional requests for security assistance for Israel as they continue to expend munitions in this fight,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the press. “We will stay in lockstep with them, making sure that we’re filling their needs as best we can and as fast as we can.”
There is extant funding for the extra munitions, he said, and even if it runs out, America has Israel’s back.
“If we need — and it’s an ‘if’, but — if we need to go back to Capitol Hill for additional funding support for Israel, we will absolutely do that,” Kirby said.
“We are a large enough, big enough, economically viable and vibrant enough country to be able to support both” the Ukraine and Israel, he added, when the question was raised regarding the ongoing military aid being sent to Kyiv in the billions of dollars as it fights off a Russian invasion.