Bloomberg Visits Israel and Continues to Pledge Support

Photo of Bloomberg visiting a hospital in the Israeli town of Sderot courtesy AP/Tsafrir Abayov

As Israeli forces gained control of the eastern section of northern Gaza and pushed deeper into the territory, Mayor Bloomberg visited Israel and continued to emphasize his support for the continued strikes. He told the AP, "You should rest assured, if anyone in New York was being threatened, my instruction to the NYPD would be to use all the resources at their disposal to protect civilians."

Bloomberg made the trip along with NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Queens Congressman Gary Ackerman. Ackerman, the chairman of the House subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said the onus of the civilian deaths was on Hamas for using them as human shields.

The mayor once again brought the scope of the current military conflict close to home, invoking the attacks on New York as he said, "I think as a New Yorker, we've been attacked twice by al-Qaida itself. We've seen enormous devastation and courage and after that you sort of feel you have a bond, if you will, for those who live in a dangerous world and subject to someone trying to kill them."

At one point, the mayor and his group had to be hurried into a bomb shelter when a missile warning went off. Bloomberg said, "All Hamas has to do is stop sending rockets over to kill people and agree on the accords that were negotiated earlier and come to an agreement that is verifiable, durable and effective to stop people from being killed."

Meanwhile, Hammas responded to the ground attacks by releasing an ominous statement Sunday, saying they would "fight until the last breath" and warned Israel that "Gaza will be your cemetery."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in News on January 4, 2009 11:17 AM

Comments [rss]

sgbxny

I realize this doesn't pertain to this article explicitly, but reading the comments just makes me want to say something.

There's so much to consider in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (history of aggression, war tactics, leadership, etc.) but to those who support the Palestinians because they believe the Israelis have an illegitimate claim to the land: how do you account for your residency in America? Unless you're a full-blooded Native American, either you or your ancestors came to this land in search of a better life. The same can be said for the majority of Jews living in Israel today, who came to their land through a series of aliyot during the 19th and 20th centuries while Palestine was a mandate of Great Britain. At the end of the day, Israel has a stable, unified democratic government, and authority for the Palestinian contingent remains disjointed.

I don't think war is the ultimate answer- diplomacy needs to be exercised, but it won't work until there emerges an authoritative Palestinian leadership that surpasses the influence of Hamas and the weak Palestinian Authority.

PTG in nyc

Thank you Mel. How come no one is mad that Islamic terrorists have killed well over 100 of their fellow citizens in attacks within the last 30 days?

I'm guessing most people on this rag live in NYC like me. If you had even a 1% everyday chance of dying from a not that random terrorist attack, would you not approve of your mayor F'ing up Newark (sorry Newark) to stop? Israelis live in a place where the likelihood of a random attack is far greater than for any of us in NYC.

Yes, NYC has lost more civilian lives than Israel has, but it was because of one major atrocity. Unfortunately, the US has since become responsible for hundreds of thousands of Afghani and Iraqi civilian deaths, but all I hear on Gothamist is people in the mood to lecture Israel without feeling the need to look in the mirror about how their own country carries itself in the Islamic world (which Americans don't live directly in but Israelis do).

The Palestinians have proven themselves ungovernable and unable to fix major problems. For whatever reason Bush and Condi have made Fatah their idea of a success, but Arafat and the PLO for 30 years were the enemy before they became the lovable Fatah. Hamas is just extremely bad, but it's not like there's an actual available solution anywhere in the Palestinian population. Perhaps that's harsh of me, but not nearly as critical as the other comments about Israel. And you wonder why Iraq's democracy is failing? Why again should Israel's government and military have to play fair like 3 year olds on the playground when what's surrounding them is so dysfunctional and only determined to create more chaos and violence?

books

reminds me of a quote from Harry Truman -

http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:NoTOIu5tYR0J:en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman+truman+quote+under+dog&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&client=firefox-a

The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as DP as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes.

Mr Mel

Yeh, hang it on the Jews. Arabs kill other Arabs regularly and with impunity.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

This is the same asshole mayor who was in London when NYC has going through a financial meltdown. I hope bloomberg gets bomb.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

ok blommberg, get forget about keeping NYC safe. NYPD is not your private army. WE pay NYPD and NYPD belongs in NYC.

tackledspoon

How cute! Mayor Mike thinks the NYPD is his private army!

Dee_Snutz

Look out kid! That cookie monster's just a decoy! He's trying to get your precious BLOOD!!!

NannyState

Actually, the Hamas morning television version of "Cookie Monster" recently martyred himself and Big Bird at a Sbarro pizzeria in Tel Aviv. Bloomberg described the act as "unconscienable".

JacqueMehoff

from your mouth to God's ear, nyR.

I keep hoping for armagettin since 2002 and still bupkus.

NYRefugee

Everything that is occuring in the Middle East presently is occuring EXACTLY as it is foretold in the Book of REVEALATIONS!! Armegeddon is at hand and people need to ready their souls for the proverbial shit that's about to hit the fan!!! P.S. It won't matter if you believe this or not when you wake up a PILE OF SMOLDERING ASHES so get right with some Higher Power while you still can!!!!

NannyState

Yeah, it says right in the Bible that Dubai would build a 175 story tower to house a bankrupt "King of Pop" and his pet monkey.

NYRefugee

I know huh? I convienently always gloss over that part as my love for Simians and Jacksons is waning presently !!!

Steven

If people acted like mature adults and respected one another we could have peace in the middle east. I really wonder if there will ever be a time for peace in the middle east..

Rfive

No. Sorry Bloomberg. Actually f*ck you. New York does NOT support Israel. Period.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

how about supporting the elderly and the homeless that were driven out by your real estates buddies. How about feeding the homeless and the elderly instead of cutting the agencies budget? Bloomberg is disgusting. He doesn't care about this city, he uses New York City to make all his allies rich and travel across the world with his agenda. I hope he loses his reelection for this city's sake

JacqueMehoff

where's his support for the newly homeless in the city?

oh that's right, they're invisible.

Kojak

I agree that Israel has a right to protect itself, and Hamas was foolish to provoke them even though that was exactly what they wanted. But what we are seeing is a massive disproportional response to rocket attacks that have only killed 12 people in the past 3 years. Now the death toll for the Israeli operation is close to 500 (Over 2500 wounded) with almost half of them being civilians.

Israel should try to loosen their stranglehold over the territories and stop their blockade of the West Bank which may have prompted the rocket attacks in the first place. But the Palestinians also need to do something about Hamas. There will never be a viable peace process with them provoking Israel.