As the saying goes, when you\u2019re a hammer, the whole world looks like nail.<\/p>\n
Exhibit A is the case of Mayor Mamdani, who has the nasty habit of twisting public events into an opportunity to bash Israel.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, he distorted St. Patrick\u2019s Day and the long history of the Irish in New York to hijack the annual celebration and turn it into the latest example of his shameful obsession with the Jewish state.<\/p>\n
In the midst of praise for Ireland and its former far-left president, Mary Robinson, at a Gracie Mansion breakfast, the mayor made a weird detour so he could hammer away on his favorite target<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of Robinson, he said \u201cI think also of how she stood steadfast alongside the people of Palestine. I say this as over the past few years, as we\u2019ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many.\u201d<\/p>\n In case anyone didn\u2019t get his point, he described Robinson as a rare voice in advocating \u201cfor universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians,\u201d adding that \u201csilence, however, is nothing new, for Palestinians are so often left to weep alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Goodwin<\/p>\n He ascribed her politics to Ireland\u2019s history<\/a>, saying, \u201cWho can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long? The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Colonial project\u2019<\/p>\n That was a cue for an attack on Great Britain over its brutal rule of the Emerald Isle, saying \u201cit was on Irish soil that the British Empire developed their colonial project. So much of the exploitation later imposed elsewhere across the world was first honed in the plantations of Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yet when I think of the Irish, I do not think first of oppression. I think of resistance. I think of unity,\u201d Mamdani added, before making a joking reference to corned beef and soccer.<\/p>\n There is nothing funny and everything wrong with the mayor\u2019s hatred for Israel<\/a>. That he is unable to bite his tongue even amidst the glory of a sunny St. Patrick\u2019s Day reveals a disturbing compulsion.<\/p>\n As Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, put it in a blistering statement, Mamdani \u201cis a master of the politics of victimization\u201d who appealed to \u201chis left-wing Irish friends by reducing the the story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City . . .\u00a0 to a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani has been doing something similar with his biased reduction of the situation in Gaza, especially with his repeated use of the word \u201cgenocide\u201d to describe the war there.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The habit marks him as ignorant of history \u2014 or a liar.<\/p>\n To get to his hobbyhorse, he first must ignore the actual facts of Gaza, namely that it was Hamas, not Israelis, who savagely oppressed the enclave\u2019s 2 million Arab residents.<\/p>\n One key fact he never acknowledges is that Gaza was and still is a Palestinian-ruled state. But that independence was not good enough for the Jew-hating Hamas, which has in its charter a pledge to wipe Israel off the map.<\/p>\n That is the terror group\u2019s reason for being, and its brutal leaders have never given a fig about how many Palestinians have to suffer and die for their evil cause.<\/p>\n The pursuit of that goal resulted in its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n The documented atrocities, including the beheading and burning of children, the horrors of rape and torture and the taking of 251 hostages, have never caught Mamdani\u2019s attention or interfered with his anti-Israel prejudice.<\/p>\n His wife\u2019s social media approval of the bestiality is disturbing enough, but the mayor\u2019s history on the subject is not significantly better. His gift of words has been put into the service of defending monsters.<\/p>\n Double standard<\/p>\n His refusal to accept Israel as the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people and his support for the boycott, divest and sanctions movement<\/a> marks him as an anti\u00adsemite.<\/p>\n He has never applied the same standards of tolerance and equality to any Muslim nation, most of which have zero Jews.<\/p>\n Nor did he ever object over the years when Hamas leaders were stealing billions of dollars in international aid destined for Gaza and living in luxury in Qatar and Europe.<\/p>\n He remained silent when it was obvious that construction supplies and equipment that were earmarked for Gaza housing and clean water projects were diverted into building tunnels and rocket launchers for Hamas.<\/p>\n