Periodically, Hell Gate checks in with Roger Knifeback, one of the most respected and experienced political consultants in New York, to get his take on the political issues of the day and plumb his veteran insight into how the game is played:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has found himself in hot water in recent weeks after answering a New York Times question about whether he still believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested on the International Criminal Court's outstanding warrant brought for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to his prosecution of violence against civilians in Gaza.
Predictably, this blunder has led to day after day of blowback and demands that Mamdani apologize for contributing to an atmosphere of fear among Jewish New Yorkers and possibly encouraging someone to stab a Chinese man and a Jewish man on the Upper West Side last week.
Understood in the most generous light, this misstep on Mamdani's part is evidence that he is a relative newcomer to New York City politics, unfamiliar with the rules of the road. It's easy to be confused: Recent polling shows far more Americans think Netanyahu is guilty of war crimes and should be arrested than do not. And that American Jews like Mamdani more than Netanyahu.