On the third anniversary of the October 7th massacre in Israel, Zohran Mamdani, the Muslim Mayor of New York City, issued a written statement which mentioned the “unthinkable loss” suffered when “Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others”, but he mostly ripped Israel for "war crimes" and an "ongoing genocide." Later on Fox's The Five, the panel led by Greg Gutfeld did not hold back in going after Mamdani.
Jesse Watters was first to weigh in.
WATTERS: This is what happens when you bring a foreign-born Muslim here and he's going to bring his foreign grievances here with him. This guy is born in North Africa. He is Muslim. He was schooled to not side with the Jews.... And you plop this guy in to the city with a million Jewish people, and a million Muslims, and a lot of other foreign-born people, and he's going to say something that's going to piss everybody off. And that's what he did....
This guy on October 7th just totally sided with the Muslims, completely sided with the Palestinians in the most Jewish city in the country.
Gutfeld was next, and it didn't take long for him to deliver his message to Mamdani.
GUTFELD: He should have sat this one out. He chose a side and we know what side that is.... Hamas killed 1200 Jews. That's the equivalent of killing 41,000 Americans. So if you have a problem with Israel's response, shove it up your ass.
He then vehemently, and correctly, defended Israel's right to respond to October 7th as she did.
GUTFELD: The state exists to stop its people from being murdered from attackers. And once the attack took place, they only had one duty, the government has one duty before all others, get the hostages back, destroy the force that did it without mercy, and make sure this never again happens....
Israel's intent was to destroy Hamas's military capacity and it was Hamas who placed their tunnels and their hostages and their hideouts among the Palestinian people with the expressed goal of killing Palestinians in order to weaponize the genocidal claim. Israel, meanwhile, issued evacuation warnings, facilitated aid, escape routes for civilians.
Gutfeld then went after Mamdani's motives.
GUTFELD: That was a dog whistle, he's operating on bad faith and here's why. They need to get the lie of genocide accepted to cancel out the moral asymmetry that the Holocaust has given Jews in Israel. That history functions as a foundation for Israel's legitimacy and the genocidal claim will relativize it.
Gutfeld's impassioned response continued as he concluded.
GUTFELD: We have heard for 80 years, the phrase, never again. And that was the pledge that the murder of Jews would not be met by neutrality by their allies.... So supporting Israel's war against Hamas is the minimum required if you believe in never again.
I don't understand how a Jew can support this Muslim mayor. I'm not even Jewish, I'm a Catholic, lapsed one, but I don't understand it. I don't get it.
Then it was left-winger Jessica Tarlov's turn, and after talking about how she spent time earlier, reviewing some of the horrors of October 7th, she made sure to find away to praise Mamdani before taking him to task over his remarks.
TARLOV: I think for a mayor who is so politically savvy, to the point that he can get Donald Trump to beam at him....this was such a mistake. Just leave the day for this, because you are engendering a lot of good faith from people who didn't initially support his candidacy.... And then something like this sends shock waves through those communities where they say, I don't know what's coursing through his mind right now.....We talked about a political mistake but in general everyone knows that Mamdani is very good at politics and that's how you have an upset win like this and it feels like such an unforced error.
As she turned to Emily Compagno, Dana Perino responded to Tarlov: "I don't think we have to really think about how he's thinking about it and wonder what he's thinking. Emily, he tells us every week exactly what he's thinking."
Compagno replied: "And some of the headlines, they called his remarks tone deaf. His remarks are not tone deaf whatsoever. He knows exactly what he is saying. He says exactly how he feels. He is a Jew hater. He is a terrorist sympathizer."
Notwithstanding Tarlov's praise for Mamdani's alleged political prowess, the no-holds-barred approach taken by Waters, Gutfeld and Compagno in response to his statement, is what makes Fox News, Fox News.
