Cuomo, who served as legal counsel to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview Tuesday that the vote for Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of the Jewish state, signified a shift in how some New York Democrats view the actions of the Israeli government.
“It gets into a nuance that we have not discussed,” he said. “Do I support what the Israel government is doing vis-à-vis Gaza? No. Do I support Israel impeding humanitarian aid? No.”
Still, Cuomo condemned the rise in antisemitism, one of his main talking points during his primary campaign.
“Does that justify antisemitic activity in New York City against Jewish people? No, right? But now it’s a finer line in the discussion.”
The new tone marks a subtle shift in Cuomo’s language around Israel. He said at an event at a Hamptons synagogue last month that Mamdani’s supporters “are pro-Palestinian and they don’t consider it being anti-Israel,” the Forward reported.
In a statement sent late Tuesday, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the governor “was mimicking two sides of a discussion, in this case voicing the opinion of a portion of the electorate that is saying ‘they don’t agree with everything Israel is doing or they think Israel is hampering humanitarian aid’ and that while they are entitled to their opinion, that does not justify anti Semitic behavior.” Speaking in the voice of a hypothetical interlocutor is a rhetorical habit Cuomo is known to engage in “when arguing a point,” Azzopardi said.
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