Jon Levine writes for the Washington Free Beacon about a notable absence from a significant New York City parade.
There was no love lost on Sunday for Zohran Mamdani, who became the first New York City mayor to skip the annual Israel Day Parade in more than 60 years.
Top Israeli leaders and Jewish American figures mingled among heavy security during the festivities and generally agreed it was better that the famously anti-Israel mayor stayed away.
“A great day, a great day, we don’t need him,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Washington Free Beacon while being whisked past a media scrum.
Before the main event, Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, held court with former New York City mayor Eric Adams and other VIPs at the William Ziegler House—a landmark mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“This is an impressive show of strength and a clear, direct message to the local leadership that is despicably fueling the flames of hatred in the city against Israel and its Jewish residents. You will not intimidate us,” a defiant Ohana told reporters at an impromptu press conference.
Ohana and Adams walked arm in arm down Fifth Avenue, with Adams receiving a jubilant welcome from parade-watchers, with many urging him to return to public office.
When the Free Beacon asked Israel’s consul general to New York City, Ofir Akunis, whether he was upset that Mamdani was not marching, he responded with just one word: “No.”
Rumors have been swirling that Akunis will soon be replaced by Caroline Glick, an Israeli-American aide to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has a significant following among the Jewish right in Israel and the United States, where she was born and educated.
Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich proved so popular with parade goers that he lingered outside Ralph’s Coffee at the corner of 72nd and Madison Avenue after finishing the march and taking selfies with well-wishers.
