Blakeman assures Nassau County of safety as Hamas attacks Israel

Bruce Blakeman, the first Jewish Nassau County executive, addressed the safety of his constituents on Saturday; the same day that the violently anti-Israel group Hamas attacked Israel, nearly 50 years to the day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, the European Union, Israel, and other Western countries. It was organized in 1987 in the area known as the Gaza Strip, or Gaza, and has been the governing power there since 2007. Its name in Arabic is an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, and its stated mission is to annihilate Israel.

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip from June 1967, when it captured the territory during the Six-Day War, until 2005, when it disengaged from the territory by dismantling 21 Israeli settlements there, permanently evacuating both Israeli settlers and the Israeli military. The strip is governed by Hamas.

Israel has responded with heavy military force.

Blakeman spoke from the intelligence desk at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Uniondale, flanked by Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino, Oyster Bay Receiver of Taxes Jeffrey Pravato, County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, and other county police officers.

“This was not an attack [by Hamas] solely on military installations,” said Blakeman, noting that, even as early as Saturday, it was known that Israeli women and children had been kidnapped, harmed or killed. “We have to let the world know that these types of attacks are completely unacceptable, and force will be met with force.”

Blakeman said that residents of Long Island were currently in Israel to celebrate Simchat Torah, a major Jewish holiday. He emphasized the danger to them and to Israeli citizens.
“I have been down by the Gaza,” he said. “I’ve been to Sderot and Ashkelon” — two cities very near the border of the Gaza Strip. “I know that these people are constantly in danger from terrorist attacks and missile attacks, completely unprovoked. I was there during the uprising in 2014. I saw missiles that went into civilians’ homes, the places where they lived, and blew them up.”

Blakeman said that the Nassau County Police Department is in constant communication with federal, state, town, and all municipal authorities, as well as the Suffolk County Police Department, to monitor intelligence that might indicate anti-Semitic activity in the county.

“We are all unified in our effort to keep our county safe,” he said.
No direct threats to the county have yet reached law enforcement agencies.

All special units have been activated: mounted police, the canine unit, aviation and emergency services, and the Bureau of Special Operations.

“We have assigned an additional 20 police cars to make sure that all religious institutions and Jewish neighborhoods are protected,” Blakeman said. “There are over 100 synagogues in Nassau County. There are yeshivas, and businesses. We will take appropriate action to make sure that they are secure.”

Nassau County in 2011 had a Jewish population of about 230,000, according to published reports, which totals roughly 17 percent of the county, compared to 2 percent of the U.S. population.

Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday, setting the stage for a major military operation in Gaza.

Blakeman hosts a countywide rally and supply drive for Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre in Eisenhower Park (Field 6/6A). Requested donation items are Camelbak  hydration packs, Powerbank portable electronic device chargers, AA and AAA batteries, sleeping bags, headlamps, tactical gloves, knee pads, and  personal hygiene items.