NY pols rally this morning to support Israel

UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) will join New York elected officials, Jewish organizations and ethnic, faith and communal leaders from New York to show their support for Israel and her right to self-defense at a Press Conference held on Monday, July 14, at 10am on the steps of City Hall.

Confirmed speakers currently include Rep. Charlie Rangel, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rep. Eliot Engel, NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Amb. Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul General in New York, NYC Councilman Mark Levine, NYC Councilman David Greenfield, NYS Assemblyman David Weprin, Rev. Que English, Senior Pastor of the Bronx Christian Fellowship Church, Michael Miller, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and Eric Goldstein, Executive Vice President UJA-Federation of New York

Since June 12th, over 600 rockets have been fired by Hamas terrorists from Gaza at Israeli civilians. It is estimated that Hamas has over 10,000 rockets and missiles in their arsenal, and given Israel's small size - roughly equivalent to New Jersey - the longer-range missiles put approximately 3,500,000 of Israel's population at risk.  In response to the rocket attacks, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 7th, 2014.

Developed in cooperation with US defense firms, Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system is 90% effective at intercepting missiles. It is only activated if missiles are going to strike inhabited areas; missiles that fall in open ground are not intercepted. There are currently 7 Iron Dome batteries deployed around the country.

Israelis living under the threat of rocket fire have approximately 15 seconds to seek shelter once they hear the Red Alert siren.