Mamdani hosting pro-Palestinian ‘activist’ Khalil – Latest News
Because the primary 100 days of a new administration are sometimes a harbinger of issues to come back, New Yorkers higher brace themselves for 4 turbulent years.
Mayor Mamdani is off to a horrible begin, with even the climate turning in opposition to him.
There’s nothing he might do about heavy snowfalls and Arctic cold, however he made a big unforced error that proved tragically deadly.
At least 16 people died on the streets from hypothermia after he broke with a long City Hall custom and refused to power the homeless indoors during the coldest days.
And now comes a streak of reminders concerning the mayor’s long historical past of anti-American and anti-Israel positions — and proof he’s nonetheless a radical leftist relating to the Mideast.
So a lot in order that even President Trump, who made common trigger with Mamdani at two chummy White House visits, is fuming, in accordance with a assertion.
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‘Anti-American’
After pictures appeared on social media exhibiting Mamdani and his spouse hosting Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil and his household at Gracie Mansion Monday for Ramadan, a Trump aide advised The Post that “No one should be feting the anti-American, pro-terrorist activities of Mahmoud Khalil, who made his name as a ringleader of violent anti-American and anti-Semitic university protests.”
Khalil was arrested by ICE final yr after main disruptive anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, and nonetheless faces doable deportation on prices of committing fraud on his inexperienced card utility.
Mamdani outed the gathering himself in a post on Instagram, the place he captioned a photograph of the dinner by saying “we marked the one year anniversary of his detention and Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together.”
Because Mamdani is the primary Muslim mayor within the metropolis the place the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, it was inevitable that occasions within the Mideast, particularly these involving Islamic terrorism, can be a frequent scorching potato.
The topics got here up usually during the marketing campaign as a result of of his refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state, his help for the boycott and divestment motion and his refusal to sentence the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is a call to assault Jews anyplace and all over the place.
Mahmoud Khalil attends a dinner at Gracie Mansion held by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Instagram / nycmayor
In one other signal of his hostility, he pledged to implement an International Criminal Court indictment and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in Gotham.
Mamdani’s phrases and positions had been wildly out of place in a metropolis with the world’s largest Jewish population, and but he gained final November, beating his nearest competitor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by about 200,000 votes.
Anyone who hoped his election had softened his views of Jews and Israel obtained a impolite shock this week.
Indeed, variations of the difficulty have come up repeatedly in latest days, and he has botched each likelihood to get on the suitable aspect of most New Yorkers and show he’s not an antisemite.
The closest factor he has to a mainstream place is his criticism of the assault on Iran, the place he mentioned “Americans do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.”
That is a normal Democratic place, however on different areas he positions himself on the far left and gained’t even contemplate budging.
Troubling filibuster
His refusal to take action seems intentional, and so he has no person guilty however himself as he makes one tone-deaf alternative and transfer after one other.
The first time got here out of nowhere and rapidly proved to be a signal of worse issues to come back.
The sequence started final Friday when Jewish Insider and the Free Press revealed that his spouse, Rama Duwaji, had a historical past of liking social media posts that celebrated the beastly Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Among the quite a few examples was an Instagram post that confirmed pictures of Palestinians crossing into Israel that savage day, which mentioned the invasion was “breaking the walls of apartheid.”
Another one she appreciated confirmed Palestinians sitting on a captured IDF vehicle, with a caption saying, “Resisting apartheid since 1948.”
Mahmoud Khalil, at a information convention with Jewish Barnard and Columbia college students who had been detained during a New York Police Department sweep of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. James Keivom
Finally, she accepted of a post calling a New York Times story about sexual violence in opposition to Israelis by Hamas as a “mass rape” hoax that the paper “fabricated.”
Asked by reporters if he agreed along with his spouse, Mamdani gave all the things besides a straight reply.
“My wife is the love of my life and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall,” he mentioned.
He went on to say, that “I believe that it’s my responsibility, because of that role, to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions.”
He by no means mentioned whether or not he agreed along with his spouse, however later his workplace put out a assertion saying the mayor “has been clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7th was a horrific war crime, and he has condemned that violence unequivocally.”
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Fair enough, however why didn’t he make that clear when he was talking, as an alternative of filibustering the concept of his spouse being a personal individual?
Ultimately, his positions are what matter most of course, however public curiosity within the views of a politician’s partner has a long custom, all of the more so when the views are out of the mainstream, as are these of Duwaji.
Still, a a lot larger check — one Mamdani additionally would fail — was already taking form.
A small however noisy anti-Muslim protest on Saturday, led by Jake Lang, a white supremacist, outdoors the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion out of the blue turned chaotic when two younger Muslim males threw what turned out to be improvised explosive units close to the group.
Thankfully, cops reacted heroically and rapidly, and grabbed the 2 males, each teenagers from Pennsylvania who later mentioned they had been impressed by ISIS and needed to do one thing larger than the Boston Marathon bombing.
Fortunately, neither machine exploded.
Pathetic response
The subsequent day, Sunday, Mamdani put out a pathetic assertion that started with a condemnation of Lang, however solely later cited the tried bombing, in more measured phrases.
“Violence at a protest is never acceptable,” he mentioned, including that “the attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”
Finally, on Monday, because the bomb throwers had been being charged in federal court docket, he joined high cop Jessica Tisch for a press convention.
But as soon as again, he started with the anti-Muslim protest, as if it was most important, and solely later condemned what he referred to as an “act of terrorism” after which thanked the police for his or her fast and heroic response.
Unless Mamdani rapidly begins to suppose like a mayor first and a Muslim second, New York faces a very troubled and sad 4 years.
