New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang attempted to play cleanup on Wednesday after supporting Israeli strikes against Palestinians in a statement widely praised by conservatives––namely, Trump’s former anti-immigration czar Stephen Miller, Donald Trump Jr., and Senator Ted Cruz—and condemned by New York progressives. Yang responded to Israel’s deadly attacks against Palestinians by tweeting, “I’m standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists. The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.” The remark spurred criticism of the mayoral front-runner for not recognizing civilian casualties on the Palestinian side, including the scores of Gaza residents who have been killed, wounded, and displaced following the Israeli airstrikes that have leveled multiple residential apartment buildings. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Palestinian death toll had reached 65, including 16 children, while six people had been killed in Israel, among them five Israelis, including one child, and one Indian worker, according to Reuters.
In his refined Israel–Palestine commentary, Yang addressed the volunteers on his campaign who had opposed his stance: “They felt that my tweet was overly simplistic in my treatment of a conflict that has a long and complex history full of tragedies. And they felt it failed to acknowledge the pain and suffering on both sides. They were, of course, correct.” He went on to say he mourned “for every Palestinian life taken before its time as I do for every Israeli. Suffering and pain and violence and death suffered by anyone hurts us all. All people want to be able to live in peace. We all want that for ourselves and our children.”
The airstrikes and rocket attacks came after Israeli riot police on Friday stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, to break up a crowd of Muslims gathered for a Ramadan service. The Israeli forces appeared to indiscriminately fire at congregants, unloading rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades inside the mosque. Worshippers, hundreds of whom were injured while one was struck in the eye, tossed rocks at the heavily armored police. (Israeli forces have raided the mosque a number of times since Friday.) In retaliation for the initial Israeli raid, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets concentrated on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem––targeting the latter for the first time in years––which Israel responded to with waves of airstrikes and additional ground forces at the border with Gaza. Another cause for the heightened violence can be attributed to recent Israeli efforts to evict Palestinian residents from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem to make way for Israeli settlers.
Given that Israel instigated the recent uptick in violence, progressives like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Yang’s remarks. “Utterly shameful for Yang to try to show up to an Eid event after sending out a chest-thumping statement of support for a strike killing 9 children, especially after his silence as Al-Aqsa was attacked,” she tweeted. “But then to try that in Astoria? During Ramadan?! They will let you know.”
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1392220241472720897
The disapproval Yang faced for his remarks also affected him during his Tuesday campaigning. He was slated to hand out groceries at the Astoria Welfare Society just before a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan but the event was suddenly axed. When asked why the stop was canceled, Yang explained, “The organizers of the event decided it would be better if we did not attend and we were happy to abide by their wishes.” Yang’s tweet did receive a few notable cosigns, including from Cruz, who wrote, “Bravo to Yang for opposing the rabidly pro-Hamas & anti-Israel attacks from fellow Dems [Ilhan] Omar & [Rashida] Tlaib.”
As The New York Times noted, Yang’s initial statement “in years past might have seemed politically unremarkable, perhaps even expected, from a leading candidate to be New York City’s next mayor.” But these days, wrote the Times’ Mihir Zaveri and Liam Stack, “many members of a growing progressive left have criticized the Israeli government for its treatment of Palestinians and are pushing for public acknowledgment of Palestinians’ suffering.”
One candidate, former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, told Brian Lehrer on Wednesday that the “escalation of violence is really incredibly sad to see,” though stopped short of picking sides. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for the mayor of New York to be doing foreign policy,” she said. However, other candidates have gone to the mat for Israel. Former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire tweeted Monday, “On this Yom Yerushalayim, I stand proudly with Israel.” On the same day, Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams tweeted, “I stand shoulder to shoulder with the people [of] Israel at this time of crisis.” But Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive and one of the more left-leaning candidates, sided with Palestine in her statement, writing, “Our world needs leaders who recognize humanity and the dignity of all lives. Whether in NYC, Colombia, Brazil or Israel-Palestine, state violence is wrong. Targeting civilians is wrong. Killing children is wrong. Full stop.”
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