Keith Raffel’s hit piece on mayoral candidate Mamdani ignores Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Mamdani’s principled efforts to end it

 

Keith Raffel’s hit piece on mayoral candidate Mamdani ignores Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Mamdani’s principled efforts to end it

 

In his lengthy Daily Herald op-ed, Keith Raffel makes two major rhetorical mistakes that undermine his entire premise of Mamdani’s unfitness to become New York s mayor.

 

He fails to mention the singular reason Mamdani is in solidarity with the Palestinian cause in Gaza…the Israeli genocidal ethnic cleansing of 2,300,000 Palestinians there. Raffel never mentions the genocide, strongly implying Israel and Gaza were at peace broken only by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. His reasoning? ”There were Israeli no troops on October 7.” But not mentioned is that Israel has controlled movement of food, medicine, indeed all life’s essentials to Gaza since the early 1990’s. This has caused thousands of needless deaths and living conditions horrible beyond imagination.

 

The October 7 attack was not unprovoked terrorism. It was ‘blowback’ made inevitable by inflicting death and destruction on 2,300,000 Palestinians degraded in the world’s largest open air prison. It was not only inevitable, it was exploited by Israel’s leaders to implement the long sought removal of all Palestinians from Gaza to expand Greater Israel.

 

That genocidal campaign has brought the following condemnation from the foreign ministers of 25 Western nations: “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability, and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law”

 

Ignoring Israel’s life suffocating blockade before October 7, 2023, and the resulting genocide in response, undermines Raffel's entire argument Mamdani is anti-Israel and giving aid and comfort to those attacking Jews.

 

Mamdani is simply in sync with most of the civilized world, including those aforementioned 25 Western foreign ministers, who want an end to the genocide, end to life destroying blockade and finally creation of a Palestinian state. Over a third of Americans have expressed disgust with the blockade and genocide. The UN demands it end. One hundred forty-six of the UN’s 193 countries, but not America, recognize the Palestinian state being snuffed out by Israel’s ghoulish occupation and now near complete destruction.

 

Here in the western suburbs, West Suburban Peace Coalition demands an end to the genocide, end to the blockade, and serious negotiations to create long sought, long overdue Palestinian state. We would welcome Keith Raffel and everyone else of good Will in the Western suburbs to join us.

 

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL