NY Gov. Kathy Hochul meets with Washington officials ahead of trip to war-torn Israel

Gov. Hochul was headed to Israel on Tuesday to support the country in its war with Hamas — which took at least one New Yorker hostage — making the daring diplomatic mission as Democratic divisions over America’s role in the conflict deepen.

Before flying overseas, Hochul was meeting Tuesday morning in Washington with Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, for a discussion about Israel and the migrant crisis in New York City, according to the governor’s office.

After the meeting, the governor was expected to make the 12-hour flight to Israel. Her office declined to provide details about her flight, citing security concerns.

“During these difficult times, it’s more important than ever for New York to show up in support of Israel,” Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, said in a statement Monday night. “New York will show the world that we stand with Israel – today, tomorrow and forever.”

She said in the statement that she would meet with “diplomatic leaders and communities who have been devastated” by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

President Biden is also expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat and the majority leader, visited Israel over the weekend.

Hamas’ rampage killed more than 1,400 people, including the Israeli daughter of a Manhattan mother. A Long Islander, Omer Neutra, 21, who was serving in the Israeli military, was taken hostage, according to his synagogue.

The State Department said Monday that 13 Americans were unaccounted for after the attack. It did not say how many were from New York.

Hochul said at a Monday news conference that New York State is “aware of some of the people who have been taken hostage — we’re in communication with their families.”

“We don’t have a hard number right now,” she said. “Calculating them and getting their names out could be dangerous for them.”

Israel has responded to the Hamas attack with overwhelming force in Gaza, where food, water and medicine are running low, and more than 1 million people have been forced to flee, according to the United Nations.

As it lashes Gaza with airstrikes, Israel has blocked supplies into the strip. More than 2,770 Palestinians have died, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday, with another 1,200 people believed missing under the rubble.

New York City is home to about 1.6 million Jews, according to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York. It also has a significantly smaller Palestinian population; the exact size is not clear, but could number in the tens of thousands.

Critics have charged that Hochul has not offered sufficient sympathy to Palestinians. At a news conference last week, the governor said her message to Palestinian New Yorkers was: “Reject Hamas.”

“Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Hochul said. “They should not define the Palestinians who reject the violence.”

Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Queens Democrat, said in an interview Monday that he saw Hochul’s comments as a “vile dehumanization of Palestinians, willfully ignoring the devastation Palestinians are currently facing.”

Mamdani and Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes, a Brooklyn progressive, were arrested in a pro-peace Friday night protest — led by Jewish activists — at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza. The protesters, opposed to an Israeli invasion of Gaza, blocked traffic and also gathered at Schumer’s apartment building, which is two blocks from the plaza.

In a reflection of how the conflict is dividing local Democrats, three Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx, Nydia Velázquez of Brooklyn and Jamaal Bowman of Yonkers — have signed on to a resolution supporting a ceasefire in Palestine, according to the office of Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri.

“I believe it is incumbent on the U.S. government to do all it can to prevent more civilian deaths,” Velázquez said in a statement. “Without a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of lives are at imminent risk.”

On social media, Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat, pushed back against support for a ceasefire, suggesting that few would expect the U.S. to enter a ceasefire with a “terrorist organization that committed all those atrocities against Americans on American soil.”

The White House has rejected calls for a ceasefire.