FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – With the Gaza Militants surprise attack on Israel Saturday members of the local Jewish community in the valley like Rabbi Rick Winer are outraged.

“Nowhere else in the world do we really have a safe homeland and it not only strikes the people there, but it strikes Jews everywhere,” said Winer. 

Winer has been to Israel several times throughout his life, he even spent multiple semesters there studying abroad.

He says the carnage affects many in the local Jewish congregation because they have friends and family in the country.

“We just had word that one of our dear friends has family there that they can’t account for, we all know people there and were worried about them and concerned,” said Winer. 

As more reports of the attack continue to come in, local members of Congress have expressed their support for Israel.

“We must be prepared to provide additional military and economic resources so that Israel can successfully defend itself against this attack and any other aggression by its professed enemies,” said Congressman Jim Costa in a statement.

Congressman David Valadao also expresses his support but says right now congress’s hands are tied without a Speaker of the House. 

“A small group of Republicans with the help of basically every single Democrat in Congress just pulled the speaker out of his position so we have no official speaker to actually put us in a position to come back and vote on legislation or actually do anything supportive of Israel,” said Congressmen Valadao. 

Although the fighting may seem like a world away, Valadao says valley agriculture could be affected since many farmers rely on technology from Israel. 

“You can’t be successful in a lot of our agricultural business in technologies developed in partner with Israel,” said Valadao. “I’ve got orchard here with drip tape, a lot of the drip, is coming from companies like Netaim Land. Netaim is an Israeli-partnered company that has worked on developing technologies that have helped us be more efficient with water and nutrients to our crops”.