The photo of Andrew Cuomo Schmoozing with Yasser Arafat, then leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 2000, is in the spotlight as the former governor has made a comeback bid for the mayor.
Cuomo, then a secretary of Bill Clinton's housing and urban development, sat in Arafat on June 23, 2000 as part of a three-day trip to Israel.
He also met with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and announced the establishment of a bilateral committee on housing and community development.
But at least one Jewish activist said that everyone saw Arafat and boiled his blood.
“Yasser Arafat's only acceptable photo is placing a knife on his back. Arafat was a pure, pure terrorist. He was a real monster,” says Dov Hikind, the American founder against anti-Semitism and former Brooklyn Assemblyman, representing Jewish Borough Parks for decades.
Arafat, who died in 2004, was accused of launching a second Intifada uprising against Israel after peace negotiations at the camp fell with the Jewish state.
The PLO denied that Arafat was behind a terrorist attack in Israel's central area.
However, Hamas leader and co-founder Mahmoud Alzahar in 2010 said, “President Arafat instructed Hamas to carry out many military operations in the heart of the Jewish state after he felt that negotiations with the Israeli government had failed.”
Arafat's wife, Suha, later interviewed on Dubai television that Arafat had launched a terrorist attack in Israel.
In this post I got a photo of a cozy sit-in in 2002 via legal requests with HUD. This published a story about the meeting, as Cuomo's first failure for the governor.
Other Jewish activists defended a three-term Democrat, who passed away in 2015 and his father, former government, Mario Cuomo, who was a stubborn ally of Israel and the Jews.
“Today, the biggest internal threat to America comes from an alliance between the socialist left and the Muslim Brotherhood that invaded the Democrats under the banner of “progressivism,” said attorney Matthew Schweber, a member of the Columbia University Jewish Alumni Association.
“Brad Lander and Zoran Mamdani represent this threat,” he said.
“On the contrary, Andrew Cuomo “is the last breakwater against the threat of 'death to Israel',” Schweber added.
“Needless to say, Andrew Cuomo is my first choice for NYC's next mayor.”
Cuomo has frequented Israeli visits and is still in place as the governor has approved the enforcement order. This prohibits entities with businesses that support boycotts, sells and sanctions moves against the Jewish state.
Cuomo's campaign defended the meeting with Arafat.
“There were no Jews and Israeli allies or supporters than Andrew Cuomo, because, as the New York Post knows, they covered this same story when it happened 25 years ago,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Atzpaldi.
“In 2000, the Clinton administration was working to negotiate peace between Israel, Gaza and Prime Minister Barak Arafat, respectively. And the meeting of Secretary Cuomo with the region was related to those efforts. Unfortunately, as history has shown, these peace negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful.”
Cuomo's official said the former secretary was the only candidate to fight anti-Semitism fiercely.
“The rise in anti-Israel sentiment and the heavy writing of anti-Semitism is one of many unchecked crises that grabbed New York City. DSA members and supporters of DSA members fuel the widespread anti-Semitism, including many electoral staff in the city government,” Azzopardi said.
“Governor Cuomo is the only person with experience and proven track record in this race.”
