New York Governor Kathy Hochul apologized on Friday for remarks she made at a Jewish charity event in New York City that went viral on social media and suggested that Israel was justified in destroying Gaza in the wake of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7.
“If Canada attacks Buffalo one day, I’m sorry, my friends, there will be no Canada the next,” Hochul said in part of her speech Thursday at a United Jewish Appeal event in New York.
She added, “This is a natural reaction. You have the right to defend yourself and make sure this does not happen again. This is Israel’s right,” according to Reuters.
Yesterday, Friday, in a statement reported by the New York Times, she said that she regretted the “inappropriate analogy” and apologized for her “poor choice of words.”
She said in a statement, “While I have been clear in my support of Israel’s right to self-defense, I have repeatedly said and continue to believe that Palestinian civilian casualties should be avoided and that more humanitarian aid should be sent to the people of Gaza.”
Israel launched its attack on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack on the Gaza envelope settlements, while subsequent Israeli military actions and strikes led to the leveling of a large part of the densely populated Strip and the displacement of almost all of its residents.
The humanitarian crisis has left Gaza’s population of more than two million on the brink of famine, and nearly 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The United Nations has called for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, which the United States opposes, saying it would allow Hamas to reorganize its ranks.
American society also had to deal with the impact of war. Human rights advocates have noted a rise in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab bias in the United States since the beginning of the war.
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