Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appeared to criticize Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza on Tuesday, and then hours later distanced himself from his comments, arguing that Israel was not solely responsible.
Mr. Cuomo, who has made his fierce support for Israel a central theme in his campaign for mayor of New York City, said in an interview on Tuesday evening that Israel and others should move quickly to deliver humanitarian aid. Then he attacked his main rival, Zohran Mamdani, who he claimed was “glorifying Hamas.”
“Everyone should do everything they can to get the humanitarian aid delivered,” Mr. Cuomo said, adding: “It’s heartbreaking as a father to imagine what children are going through.”
But Mr. Cuomo seemed to back off harsher comments he made several hours earlier. Mr. Cuomo had said in an interview with Bloomberg News: “Do I support what the Israel government is doing vis-à-vis Gaza? No. Do I support Israel impeding humanitarian aid? No.”
Mr. Cuomo said that in the earlier interview he was expressing the views of some New Yorkers, but not his own: “I was airing what some people feel. You have some people who feel that Israel is not acting appropriately. That’s their opinion.”
In his later interview with The New York Times, he said that “it is incumbent on every entity that is involved — Israel, Palestine, the United Nations, the Red Cross — to do everything to expedite the food and water.”
Mr. Cuomo has long made unflinching support of Israel a key element of his political brand, but he failed to marshal that into a winning primary strategy in the June primary. He is now running as an independent in the general election in November, and the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are rapidly shifting, particularly with recent coverage of starvation in Gaza.
In November, Mr. Cuomo said that he would join the legal defense team for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him. But on Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo said that he had not been involved in defending Mr. Netanyahu “since the campaign began” and that he did not believe that the court had the authority to prosecute him.
Mr. Mamdani, a state lawmaker from Queens who won the Democratic primary, has said that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a charge that Israel has strongly denied. Mr. Cuomo has accused Mr. Mamdani of being antisemitic and repeatedly criticized his comments about Israel on the campaign trail.
Democrats in New York who support Israel have expressed strong concern about the crisis in Gaza, where health officials say more than 60,000 people have been killed since the war began almost two years ago.
Gov. Kathy Hochul recently called for the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave and said that “allowing innocent children to starve to death is simply unconscionable.” Letitia James, the state attorney general, released a statement last month with a long list of elected officials calling for the delivery of aid.
Mr. Cuomo said he agreed, though he expressed concern over “propaganda and misinformation that has been spread” over who was responsible for the lack of humanitarian aid.
Then Mr. Cuomo turned to Mr. Mamdani and claimed that “his glorification of terrorism is a radical position.”
“I believe Zohran is pro-Hamas,” Mr. Cuomo said. “He’s been at rallies and has glorified Hamas.”
In fact, Mr. Mamdani has not expressed support for Hamas. Mr. Cuomo said that he was referring to Mr. Mamdani’s reference in a song eight years ago to the “Holy Land Five,” a Muslim charity group in Texas whose leaders were convicted of funding Hamas.
Lincoln Restler, a progressive City Council member from Brooklyn who is Jewish, said that Mr. Cuomo was “so far outside of the mainstream on Israel, it’s frightening.” He said it was too late for Mr. Cuomo to pretend that he cares about the suffering in Gaza.
“The fact that Cuomo would cravenly join Netanyahu’s legal defense, despite his atrocious record, is indefensible,” said Mr. Restler, who endorsed Mr. Mamdani for mayor.
Brad Lander, the city comptroller who finished third in the primary and who is Jewish, said: “Andrew Cuomo is always just in it for himself. He doesn’t care about the safety or well-being of Jews or Palestinians.” Mr. Lander cross-endorsed Mr. Mamdani in the primary.
Mr. Cuomo faced criticism during the Democratic primary for his failure to visit a mosque in a city that has roughly one million Muslim residents. During the final debate in June, Mr. Cuomo was asked whether he had made a public visit to a mosque as governor.
Mr. Cuomo said: “I believe I have — I would have to check the record.”
Asked what he would say to Muslim New Yorkers about welcoming and protecting them, Mr. Cuomo said: “We are a city of immigrants. I welcome them. I love them. I’m not Mr. Mamdani. I’m not antisemitic. I’m not divisive.”
The former governor reiterated his support for Israel last month at the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, telling the congregants that he was “100 percent supportive of Israel” and appealing for their support.
“That’s my tradition, that was my father’s before me,” Mr. Cuomo said at the event, according to a recording posted online by The Forward, a Jewish news organization. “I was the most aggressive governor in the United States on behalf of Israel.”
But he told the congregants that he thought Mr. Mamdani had won because of a surge of voters under the age of 30 and a shift in the way younger people think about Israel and antisemitism.
“With these young people, the under 30 people, they are pro-Palestinian and they don’t consider it being anti-Israel,” he said. Referring to Mr. Netanyahu by a common nickname, he added: “Being anti-Israel to them means being anti-Bibi’s policies, anti-Israeli government policies.”
The shifts in American public opinion when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be seen in recent polling data. A poll released by the Pew Research Center in April found that a majority of Americans (53 percent) said they had an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up from 42 percent in March 2022, the year before the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Democrats are more likely to have negative views of Israel than Republicans, 69 percent to 37 percent, although Republicans under the age of 50 are evenly divided on the issue.
Mr. Mamdani, who would be New York City’s first Muslim mayor if elected, received support from many Jewish voters during the primary. In a meeting last month with business leaders, he distanced himself from his past comments regarding the phrase “globalize the intifada.”
Mr. Mamdani told the group that he did not use the term, which some view as a call for violence against Jews, and would “discourage” others from using it.