Well, that’s how the Kathy crumbles.
Gov. Hochul last week committed candor in public – a rare event indeed – but just 24 hours later she was groveling before one of the most noxious movements in Empire State history.
There she was Friday night, all-but begging forgiveness for having included an “inappropriate analogy” in a “poor choice of words” while addressing a fundraising dinner the previous evening.
Speaking to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York at Gotham’s venerable Pierre Hotel Thursday, Hochul had sharply called out Iranian cat’s-paw Hamas while underscoring her support for Israel post-10/7.
The bloody-fisted terrorist organization “must be stopped” she said. And Israelis couldn’t be expected to live with “that threat, that specter, over them.”
Anodyne words, to be sure – but so far, so good.
Then she told the truth, which so many New Yorkers can’t handle.
“If Canada ever attacked Buffalo,” she projected, “I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day. You have a right to defend yourself, and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”
No equivocation there. Nor should there have been.
But the comment was on video, which went viral, with entirely predictable impact – and then there was Hochul, tendering an apologetic back-track to the New York Times:
“While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense,” she weaseled, “I have also repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided . . .” and blah, blah, blah.
Two points stand out:
And Hochul did – to her shame, and also to New York’s.
It seems that the state which tasted terrorism firsthand 22-plus years ago, and which promised never to forget, has.
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Or its leaders have. For the most part they’ve stood quiescent in the face of hugely disruptive, pro-Palestinian celebrations of murder, mayhem and politicized sexual assault that began within hours of the10/7 massacre, and which continue to this day.
Yes, people are allowed to protest; it’s the American way.
But politicians aren’t required to go along – to exalt evil, or to acquiesce in it.
Hochul isn’t the only pol to have done so – just, arguably, the most prominent.
She needs to apologize for her apology – and, in the process, perhaps claw back a little of the honor her office once commanded.