United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee issued a blunt and necessary response to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s statement on the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre. Mamdani used the day that should have been devoted to remembering the more than 1,200 civilians butchered by Hamas, including 46 Americans, to accuse Israel of “ongoing genocide” in Gaza. Huckabee refused to let the distortion stand.
Huckabee wrote the following exact words on social media:
“The statement by NY Mayor Mandami is an outrageous & disgusting rant & made on a day that ought to honor the over 1200 civilians butchered by Hamas including 46 Americans. His comments are as insensitive & insulting as saying on the 9-11 Anniversary that ‘While we mourn the loss of those murdered by terrorists we condemn the response of the United States equally.’ There is NO genocide in Gaza. The death toll there is due to Hamas having continued to hold hostages (including Americans) and starving, raping, torturing and killing them. An apology for his obtuse and utterly ignorant remarks are not enough. God help the people of New York for electing a a jihadist sympathizer!”
Those words cut through the moral fog that has surrounded October 7 commemorations in certain progressive circles. Mamdani’s statement began with a brief acknowledgment of the Hamas slaughter and then pivoted almost immediately to the claim that Israel is committing genocide. He cited casualty figures of more than 74,000 Palestinians, including more than 21,000 children, and described American tax dollars as funding “war crimes.” The effect was to transform a day of mourning for Jewish victims into another platform for the genocide libel against the Jewish state.
The Moral Equivalence That Insults The Dead
Huckabee’s comparison to a 9/11 anniversary statement that equally condemned the American response is precise. On the day when more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered, burned, raped, and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, the mayor of New York chose to spend the bulk of his message attacking Israel’s subsequent military campaign. That is not balanced remembrance. It is an inversion of justice. The victims of October 7 were civilians. The hostages still held by Hamas, including Americans, have been starved, raped, tortured, and in some cases murdered. Those facts remain unchanged by any subsequent casualty numbers in Gaza.
There is no genocide in Gaza. Israel’s war is a response to the deliberate massacre of its civilians and the continued holding of hostages. Hamas embeds itself among its own population, uses civilian infrastructure for military purposes, and rejects every opportunity to release the captives and end the fighting. The death toll is the direct result of that strategy. Treating Israeli self-defense as equivalent to the original crime is the same logic that would have condemned the United States for responding to the attacks of September 11.
A Pattern Of Hostility
Mamdani’s record shows a consistent refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and a repeated willingness to apply unique standards of condemnation to the Jewish nation. On the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, he chose to amplify the central propaganda claim of Israel’s enemies. Huckabee correctly identified the deeper problem. An apology for obtuse and ignorant remarks would not be sufficient. The underlying worldview that produces such a statement on such a day is the issue.
God help the people of New York for electing a jihadist sympathizer. That closing line from the ambassador is not hyperbole. When the mayor of America’s largest city uses the anniversary of a jihadist massacre to accuse the victims’ country of genocide, the description fits. Hamas is a jihadist organization whose charter and actions are aimed at the destruction of Jews and the Jewish state. Softening that reality or shifting the primary blame onto Israel on the day of remembrance is an act of moral surrender.
Clarity Versus Equivalence
Ambassador Huckabee’s response restores the basic order of truth. The primary crime of October 7 was the deliberate slaughter of civilians by Hamas. The continued suffering of hostages is the responsibility of Hamas. Israel’s military campaign is a legitimate response to both. Any statement that buries those facts under accusations of genocide on the anniversary itself is an insult to the dead and a gift to the killers.
New Yorkers, and Americans more broadly, should take note. When elected officials treat the murder of Jews as an occasion to attack the Jewish state, the problem is not a failure of tone. It is a failure of moral judgment. Huckabee refused to participate in that failure. His words stand as a clear rejection of the false equivalence that has infected too much of the public conversation about October 7.
Featured image credit: DepositPhotos.com
