October 7 is a day that will surely live in infamy, both at home and in the Middle East. Marking the first anniversary of the attacks on Israel since taking office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used the occasion to trash Israeli policy rather than mourn the lives of Israelis and foreign nationals slaughtered by Hamas’s Nazi-style Einsatzgruppen death squads.
Eschewing a simple statement of commemoration for Hamas’s victims, or adding a more oblique call for peace, Mamdani called the Israeli “ongoing genocide” of the Gazans, continuing Israeli “war crimes,” and “apartheid.” Going so far as to blame Israel for the massacre of October 7, he added: “The suffering did not begin nor end that day.” “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.” The mayor seemed to forget that Hamas fought from hospitals, schools and mosques and posed as journalists.
In his 211-word statement, the bulk of which denounced Israel’s military actions in Gaza since the attacks. Mamdani described Jerusalem’s actions as a “devastating, ongoing genocide” rather than a war, which it was. His statement referred to but did not condemn “the horrific war crimes” committed by Hamas, which Mamdani called “profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers.” So, he admits it was a war after all.
Foreign policy experts like Johns Hopkins Professor Michael Mandelbaum seriously dispute that anything Israel has done fits any definition of genocide. Regardless, why not take one day off issuing the genocide charge?
Mamdani did not delve into Israeli counterattacks having collateral damage ratios well within historical norms for difficult urban environments, or Hamas using hospitals, schools, and mosques, posing as journalists, and building a military tunnel system for urban warfare that its citizens were not allowed to use as shelters.
Criticizing Israeli tactics is, of course, fair game, and recent reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received warnings about the attack from the Saudis and Egyptians only underscore the need for a full investigation of October 7 and the war that he has resisted as he faces a fierce reelection battle.
That Mamdani faced fierce protests at a commemoration of victims of the Hamas attack and Gazans who died in the subsequent war from pro-Hamas demonstrators might be seen as an illustration of the adage that revolutions often consume their own. The Hamas supporters feel he has sold out the Palestinians and want him to fire New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. It might help the mayor somewhat that he has extreme left critics. But none of that erased the mayor’s failing to, for one day, put aside his criticisms of Israel and instead commemorate the Muslims, Christians, and Jews who died in the Hamas attack.
October 7 must be a star-crossed date.
On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post broke the story of the so-called Access Hollywood tape, a video from 2005 in which Donald Trump told television host Billy Bush about his approach to women. “I don’t even wait” to start kissing them, he said. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…. Grab ‘em by the p***y. You can do anything.” Interestingly, we still don’t know who leaked the tape. Like “Deep Throat,” Bob Woodward’s source for essential parts of his co-authored Watergate investigation for the same paper, it may be years before we do.
On October 7, 2021, the Democratic majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee released a draft report about Trump’s attempt to use the Department of Justice to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The report found that Trump repeatedly tried to get the Department of Justice to endorse his false claims that the election was stolen and to overturn its results, singling out nine specific attempts to change the outcome. Trump, the report says, “grossly abused the power of the presidency.”
On October 7, 2026, from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “I could have done very bad things to Hillary Clinton. I could have done very, very bad things to Joe Biden. I could have done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama. I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect. Then I found out that they impeached me twice, and I … can do whatever I want, if I want. They’ve done some very bad things… many illegal things, but I view the presidency as a very sacred position.”
Yes, it is a “very sacred position“ so long as the president doesn’t think “I can do whatever I want, if I want.” Provided you’re a star.
October 7 revealed the president’s and the mayor’s myopia. Too bad, it seems on display more often than not.
