NEW YORK \u2014 The joint U.S.-Israeli military action in Iran is creating a wedge within New York City\u2019s Democratic ranks, with party members of various stripes offering different takes.<\/p>\n
Reactions from the Big Apple began rolling out soon after American bombers targeted Iran early Saturday, with left-leaning officials forcefully condemning President Donald Trump\u2019s decision \u2014 and accusing more moderate Democrats of enabling him.<\/p>\n
State Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist who\u2019s running for Congress, told POLITICO Monday she was disturbed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s focus on whether Trump went through the proper channels before launching the strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it could be a real dividing line,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cThe emphasis on procedure and expecting the Trump administration to provide some evidence or rationale that supports this war is an abdication of our responsibility to say that we don\u2019t want another endless war, we don\u2019t want to be locked into another forever war that doesn\u2019t make our lives here at home any better, that just destroys lives abroad, that siphons off so much of our taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, far more moderate than Valdez, took a different approach that highlighted the authoritarian tactics of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran\u2018s regime has been abhorrent for decades. It oppresses its own people. It supports terrorism. It threatens our allies and pursues dangerous ambitions. No one is going to defend that regime \u2014 full stop,\u201d Hochul said Monday at a press briefing. \u201cBut the scale of what is happening now demands answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The disparate responses highlight some of the most volatile political currents coursing through the state\u2019s body politic: the left\u2019s deeply held antipathy toward foreign interventionism versus more comfort among moderates with military action against a despotic regime. And they reinforce an already established rift around the actions of Israel\u2019s military, which has divided New Yorkers between those vehemently opposed to the Middle Eastern nation and those who either support or have more nuanced reservations about Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n
One of the more prominent clashes is between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani \u2014 a standard bearer of the left \u2014 and his predecessor, the MAGA-curious conservative Democrat Eric Adams.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s military strikes on Iran \u2014 carried out by the United States and Israel \u2014 mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change,\u201d Mamdani wrote in a social media post<\/a> Saturday. \u201cThey want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Adams, who has dispensed with decorum and leaned into vociferously criticizing Mamdani, offered a perspective common among Democrats outside the party’s left wing, emphasizing the Iranian regime\u2019s authoritarian rule.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can advocate for diplomacy. You can call for restraint. But you cannot pretend that Iran\u2019s leadership is a passive actor,\u201d Adams said in a statement Sunday. \u201cIt has funded violence, destabilized allies, and suppressed its own citizens for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent months, the Iranian military has killed thousands of protesters as it sought to quash dissent. And the government has launched several attempts to kidnap and assassinate an Iranian activist living in Brooklyn, who took umbrage<\/a> at Mamdani\u2019s criticism of the military effort.<\/p>\n