The Mayor’s October Hate

As a proud Jew who loves Am Yisrael as well as Eretz Yisrael, October 7 has become a day a deep reflection, sadness as well as hope.  It is a day that I want to focus on those who are murdered simply because their crime was to live as Jew in our ancestral homeland.  It is a day that I want to try to feel hopeful as well, because as a people, we endured the horrific events of 10/7/23 as we have endured hundreds of other horrific events throughout the millennia, and through our incredible resistance we are still here, and thriving.  I want to find a quiet peace in my thoughts, pray and reflect.  And then, I saw the news.

Generally, the antisemites no longer shock me, but I was shocked and angry when I read the statement issued by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.  In my nearly 50 years of being a registered voter, never I have witnessed a statement calculated to cause so much pain to the Jewish people by any politician, while also being so anti-American at the same time – and this from the Mayor of America’s most preeminent city.  I do not believe that Mamdani is ignorant as to the facts, but he is a demagogue who traffics in lies and half-truths to further his political career, and to advance his radical politics.  Because I believe that he and his allies are not just a threat to Jewish Americans but to America itself, let’s look at his statement and examine how he twists, bends or totally disregards the truth in the name of his political objectives.

• Mamdani: “On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others.” – FACTS:  According to the US Department of Justice, 49 US citizens were killed by Hamas on 10/7.  This mayor failed to even recognize the murders of his American countrymen.  Further, he never acknowledges that many of the Israelis killed were raped, tortured and brutally murdered in frenzied violent orgies, the facts of which are beyond repute because the killers filmed and live-streamed their barbarism. 
• Mamdani: “The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza…” – FACTS: The day before October 7, not one Israeli lived in or ruled over Gaza. Yet, Mamdani and his allies were claiming “genocide” even before Israel began the military operations that Hamas surely knew would happen in response to the carnage, deaths, and kidnappings committed by them. “Genocide” is a term frequently invoked from Mamdani.  However, Genocide is defined as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”  Israel was quite clear that if Hamas returned the hostages and surrendered, the war would immediately end.  Further, the evidence is that Israel provided electricity, medicine, food, safe passage to the sick.  Additionally, a precipitous drop in the victim’s population is also evidence of genocide.  For example, 90 pecent of the Jews in Poland were murdered during the Shoah.  In Cambodia, from 1975 through 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime killed over 20 percent of his country’s population, those considered by its government as “not desirable to live” in that country.  These are real genocides.  Gaza’s population has remained stable from 10/7/23 to today.  This is evidence that no genocide occurred in Gaza.  Rather, the evidence that assistance was delivered directly contradicts the charge of genocide.  If any genocide was attempted, it was by Hamas who killed almost every person they encountered in Israel.
• Mamdani: Israel killed “more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children.” – FACTS: These numbers have not been verified by any neutral agency or organization, but they are Hamas’ numbers.  In court, it is an axiom that a known liar is not be judged as credible.  Hamas has been caught in dozens, if not scores of falsehoods and outright lies before, during and after this conflict.  Nevertheless, Mamdani uses these numbers from known liars, republishing Hamas’ falsehoods while diminishing his own credibility, all the while showing barely a shred of empathy for the real victims of this conflict.
• Mamdani: “….every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing.” – FACTS: It is well known and documented that the food that was intended to reach Gaza’s civilian population was not turned away at the border but intercepted and hijacked by Hamas. The food would go first to their terrorists and only then distributed to the people – but through the “black-market” at greatly inflated prices in an attempt to continue to fund their terror and war machine.  The denial of food was caused not by the Israelis, but Hamas.  Instead, an independent agency confirmed that Israel sent 1.8 million tons of food in Gaza.  Feeding the enemy is no way to carry out the genocide that Mamdani wrongfully alleges.
• Lastly, prominent, if not the leading international expert on urban warfare, US Army Major (ret.) John Spencer, now a professor at West Point, has been studying and continues to study this military conflict. Historically, 8 to 9 civilians to every one enemy combatant are the result of fighting in densely packed urban areas.  The US reduced this ratio to 6 to 1 during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Major Spencer estimates that Israel has kept civilian casualties at historically low levels, approximately 1.5 civilians to every one Hamas terrorist – and this is all the while Hamas has done its best to put its civilian population in harm’s way.

I believe that every FACT listed is known to Mamdani.  He either does not believe the evidence or does not care and just wants to advance the radical cause he supports.  He is a manipulative politician “offering his empathy” only to wrap his message of concern into a hateful diatribe.  His cleverness may convince some that he is virtuous.  We need to be prepared to confront these people with the facts.  Every one of us needs to know the definition of “genocide,” know who initiated the violence, and know that Israel is prosecuting a just war with historically low rates of civilian deaths.  Knowledge helps make us resilient, and unafraid to stand with our people and on our principles.  As Menachem Begin said, we are not Jews “with trembling knees, but proud Jews with 3,700 years of civilized history….We stand by our principles.  We will defend them!”  It’s time that we all be that Jew!