To be frank, I don’t care where you stand on Israel, Palestine, Netanyahu, Hamas or the broader conflict in the Middle East. At the end of the day, we all have our stance and arguing about it at this point accomplishes little other than wasting time, energy and emotional capital.
Having said that, there are certain moments when human decency should transcend politics. Yesterday, October 7th, the three year anniversary of the Hamas attacks, should have been one of those for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
And to little surprise, he showed up in the most grotesque and petulant way possible.
On the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued a short statement acknowledging the more than 1,100 Israelis killed and 251 people abducted, before devoting most of his novella to condemning Israel for what he called an ongoing genocide in Gaza:
This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss.
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
Later that evening, according to the New York Post, Mamdani attended a candlelight vigil in Union Square, where protesters heckled him and disrupted an event intended to mourn Israeli and Palestinian victims. Some demonstrators displayed Hamas and Hezbollah flags, while others shouted accusations of genocide at the mayor himself.
That’s right. Even the anti-Israel protestors were yelling at Mamdani. Live by the psychotic left wing activist sword, die by the psychotic left wing activist sword. Here’s one woman proudly holding up a Hamas flag…in Union Square, New York City…on October 7th. Many, including myself, think this is akin to holding an Al-Qaeda flag up on September 11, 2004.
But let’t not make this about my politics, and let’s just make it about common sense.
There are 364 other days of the year to make your political arguments about Israel. You can condemn Netanyahu, advocate for Palestinians, criticize Israeli military operations and demand accountability for civilian casualties. None of that requires turning the anniversary of a terrorist massacre into another political argument.
The controversy reminded me of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s infamous description of September 11, when she said that “some people did something.” Her broader remarks concerned the treatment of Muslim Americans after 9/11, but the backlash centered on whether those words minimized the magnitude of a terrorist atrocity. I think it’s fair to ask a similar question about the judgment and emphasis of Mamdani’s October 7 statement.
And while we’re at it, let’s just take a moment to discuss political dog whistles. Democrats routinely accuse Donald Trump of using coded language to appeal to extremist elements of his political base.
“This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist hatred, racist division.” - Joe Biden, September 29, 2020, presidential debate
Sometimes I agree with these accusations. Sometimes I don’t. But the underlying argument is that political leaders have a responsibility to recognize how their words, their silence and the signals they send can be interpreted.
That standard should apply regardless of party affiliation. When Hamas flags are being waved in Union Square on the anniversary of October 7, it is entirely reasonable to expect an immediate, unequivocal condemnation from the mayor.
Whether Mamdani publicly addressed those flags afterward deserves scrutiny. No public condemnation of the Hamas flags has been reported that I could verify as of this morning, October 8. The same political standard applied to Trump’s rhetoric should apply here, too.
New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel. This isn’t a distant geopolitical dispute with no connection to the people Mamdani was elected to represent. It is a deeply personal tragedy for countless New Yorkers, many of whom have family in Israel, lost loved ones on October 7 or have spent the last three years watching the conflict unfold with anguish.
Even if you fundamentally disagree with the Israeli government, even if you dislike the politics of the people mourning, you still have an obligation to treat those people with dignity and respect. Nobody is asking the mayor to abandon his political beliefs. They’re asking him to recognize that the anniversary of a massacre deserves something more thoughtful than another round of political messaging.
As a politician, you have to do better. As a human being, you have to do better.
October 7 was the day Hamas terrorists slaughtered civilians, kidnapped families and committed atrocities against innocent people. Recognizing the singular horror of that day does not diminish Palestinian suffering, excuse Israel’s subsequent actions or require anyone to abandon their political convictions.
It simply requires a little decency. Decency that Mamdani simply doesn’t have.
His defenders can reasonably argue that Palestinian suffering also warrants recognition, and they’re entitled to that view. And they’re also right. But recognizing both tragedies does not require treating every occasion of mourning as an opportunity to litigate the entire conflict.
And the entire episode again raises a broader question about the difference between Mamdani’s political ideology and the practical responsibilities of governing New York City.
Here is a mayor who rose to prominence as a result of flawed monetary policy in this country that is making class warfare more incendiary. He was then able to build his political identity around democratic socialism and criticism of capitalism, yet has had to engage the very business community whose wealth, investment and employment underpin so much of the city’s economy for help. It exposes the distance between campaigning against an economic system and being responsible for managing a city that depends heavily on it.
The consequences aren’t just emotional for New Yorkers, they have been financial. Citadel founder Ken Griffin has publicly criticized Mamdani’s approach to wealthy taxpayers, and Citadel has said it will direct future job growth toward Miami. Griffin also recently pledged $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, with $2 billion earmarked for a Miami campus and another $1 billion for Pittsburgh, leaving the university’s Manhattan presence out of the allocation.
Business leaders have characterized that decision as a loss for New York, although the extent to which Mamdani influenced it remains disputed.
Mamdani’s economic agenda is being tested against the realities of governing a city that depends on business investment and private wealth. His approach to October 7 is being tested against a different, much more basic responsibility: showing sensitivity toward constituents mourning an atrocity.
New Yorkers can disagree about socialism, capitalism, taxes, Israel and Palestine. Those disagreements are inevitable in a city as large and diverse as this one.
What should be less complicated is the expectation that the mayor can acknowledge a terrorist massacre, clearly reject the glorification of its perpetrators and allow grieving New Yorkers to mourn without turning the occasion into another ideological confrontation.
For all the enormous political and economic responsibilities that come with running New York City, that is an exceptionally low bar. And it’s one every mayor should be expected to clear.
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