Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York is behind a new advertising campaign that condemns Hamas’s actions on Oct. 7 and takes aim at demonstrators who have protested Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.
“Do they really know who they’re protesting for?” a narrator says in the one-minute commercial, which will air across New York State in the coming week.
With the ad, Mr. Cuomo plunges into one of the most divisive topics for Democrats ahead of the November general election. Tensions over the war have divided American college campuses, derailing graduations and in some instances inviting police intervention. That division has also torn through New York politics, where long traditions of support for both social activism and Jewish identity have collided.
The nonprofit group behind the ad, Never Again, Now!, was founded by Mr. Cuomo and his former right-hand-man, Steven M. Cohen, under its original name, Progressives for Israel, with a goal of promoting greater understanding about the relationship between Israel and the United States.
The group said it envisioned the ad as the opening salvo of a broad education campaign, including a virtual symposium and the deployment of prominent speakers in the press.
“We’re at a crucial moment in history where antisemitism is spreading unchecked and support for Israel in this country is waning,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement, adding: “This ad does two things: One, tells the truth about Hamas and what happened on Oct. 7. Two: It reminds people that Israel is the victim.”
The ad describes Hamas in graphic terms, linking the group to the persecution of women and L.G.B.T.Q. people and to beheadings, sexual violence and the burning of infants. The ad will air on cable networks after the July 4 holiday, a source close to the campaign said.
The ad is likely to stoke speculation that the former governor, who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct in 2021, is pondering a political comeback.
In the years since his resignation, Mr. Cuomo, who denies any wrongdoing, has battled in court and against a New York State ethics board. And while he has yet to announce any specific plans to run for office, he has also declined to shut down rumors.
Mr. Cuomo was asked directly on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last month whether he planned to someday run again for public office.
“That is a direct question!” Mr. Cuomo said with a smile. “And there will be no direct answer.”
The ad comes at an inflection point for American sentiment on the war in Gaza. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that left 1,200 Israelis dead, a narrow majority of Americans approved of Israel’s military actions. But as Israel’s bombardment has continued, killing more than 30,000 Palestinians, that support has eroded. A Gallup poll in May found that 55 percent of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s actions.
At the same time, reports of bias incidents have increased in many places, and concerns have swirled that critiques of Israel’s military actions could devolve into broader antisemitism.
Mr. Cuomo’s unequivocal statement of support for Israel puts him alongside his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who visited the nation last fall after the Oct. 7 attacks.
Ms. Hochul’s support has been so robust that it has occasionally gotten her into trouble, as it did when she implied at a Jewish philanthropy event that Israel had a right to destroy Gaza.
“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry, my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” she said, adding: “You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”
Ms. Hochul later apologized for her poor choice of words.
The post Cuomo, in New Ad, Blasts Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators and Hamas appeared first on New York Times.
