New York’s governor says she regrets a “poor choice of words” delivered at a New York City event earlier in the week where she seemingly justified Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
While delivering a keynote address to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York on Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul made an analogy of the Middle East war to her hometown of Buffalo.
“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a clip circulating widely on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Think about that. That is a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure that it never happens again. And that is Israel’s right.”
She received a round of applause for saying Israel shouldn’t have to live with “that threat, that spector over them,” and calling for Hamas to “be stopped.”
After her comments circulated on social media over the course of the next day, the governor said she realized how her words “could be hurtful to members of our community.”
“While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense, I have also repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided and that more humanitarian aid must go to the people of Gaza,” Hochul said.
Some of the governor’s critics included Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani, who called her comments “disgusting.”
