Hochul: Inaction on Israel aid is a ‘dereliction of duty’

WASHINGTON — Congress is failing Israel by not passing an aid package to support its ongoing war against Hamas, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Thursday.

At the same time, New York’s top executive urged her fellow Democrats “to be strong” on Israel and support President Joe Biden’s handling of the war as she addressed the POLITICO Governors Summit in the nation’s capital.

Global conflict is topping the agenda in the presidential race, and Congress has been at odds over how to advance an aid package for Israel and Ukraine, both U.S. allies. Some Republican lawmakers have called for the measures to be approved as separate pieces of legislation. Biden wants the money included in a single legislative package.

“It is a dereliction of duty that they refuse to give support to Ukraine on the two-year anniversary of them trying to hold the line against a dictator from moving into Ukraine and beyond, and the fact they refuse to do their job and provide support for Israel as we have since the birth of that nation in 1948,” Hochul said.

Republicans have blamed Democrats for not acting on their preferred aid packages.

“House Republicans passed aid to Israel months ago,” New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler said in response to Hochul. “I’ve introduced legislation that would provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as address challenges at our border. She should support that. It’s good for allies, it’s good for our country.”

Hochul has been a fervent supporter of Israel and traveled there 10 days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

She has largely avoided criticism of how Israel has conducted its bombardment of Gaza during the war and has pressed for the return of hostages held by Hamas.

Hochul apologized last week after she drew an analogy at a UJA Federation event to Canada attacking Buffalo.

“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day, right, right?” she said.

Despite apologizing for her wording, she has stuck by asserting Israel’s right to defend itself following the terrorist attack.

“No one would ever question our right after 9/11 to go in and find the attackers and take them out,” Hochul said on Thursday.

New York is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel and support for the country has been a bipartisan hallmark in the state’s politics for decades.

Support for Israel still plays out among moderate Democrats like Hochul. Tom Suozzi, who won a special election last week in a battleground House district on Long Island, ran as a staunch ally of Israel.

But fissures are opening among Democrats nationally over Israel policy, part of a growing generational divide that could alter how the party approaches the issue in the future.

New York Democrats have been no exception.

More than 100 Democratic officials in New York in a letter sent last week called on the state’s two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, to support “a permanent ceasefire.”

Hochul, however, urged Democrats to come from a position of strength on Israel.

“I want my party to be strong on this issue and support our president on this issue,” she said.

She also condemned people on the far left who have questioned the Holocaust.

“The Holocaust denier used to be some vestige from the far right, extremist, crazy wing,” she said. “Now there’s people in our party who are questioning whether or not the Holocaust happened.”

But Hochul, who assumed the governorship in 2021, also took a more conciliatory view toward critics of Israel’s approach to the war.

“I understand feelings are deeply felt,” she said, pointing to her own opposition to apartheid in South Africa and her parents’ protest of the Vietnam war. “I understand the passion.”

Hochul said both sides of the debate should have a more compassionate view of Israelis and Palestinians.

“I want more people left, right or middle, understand what each population has been through,” she said. “I think there’s a fundamental lack of understanding.”