The perennial foreign policy question that is Israel bubbled up for many New Yorkers recently following remarks made by the city’s new mayor, Bill De Blasio, at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the notoriously powerful pro-Israel lobby group.
"City Hall will always be open to AIPAC,” said Mayor De Blasio, in what he thought were private remarks. “When you need me to stand by you, in Washington or anywhere, I will answer the call, and I'll answer it happily, 'cause that's my job."
I appreciate that the job responsibilities of New York City’s mayor are myriad and complex, but blind defense of AIPAC and pro-Israel hardliners shouldn't be among them.
That’s why I added my name—along with 57 other prominent Jewish residents of New York—on an open letter to Mayor De Blasio saying that AIPAC doesn’t speak for me. A new petition started by Jews Say No echoes that sentiment and calls on Mayor De Blasio to reconsider his allegiances in light of the many nuances of the situation in the Middle East.
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