Mamdani's Surprises Jewish New Yorkers With Big Israel Day Announcement | 'I Do Not...' | Watch

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]You know, I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn't be attending the parade, and I've made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear. Um, and I also said on that same campaign that I have I would have a responsibility as the mayor of the city to ensure the safety and security of each and every New Yorker. And I don't believe that my presence as the mayor should determine whether or not a New Yorker is safe or secure. That is something we take incredibly seriously. And what we also take seriously as an administration is to ensure that we are delivering on not just keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, but ensuring that Jewish New Yorkers understand that they belong in this city, that they are cherished by this city. And I'm proud of the work that our mayor's office to combat anti-semitism, headed by Felisa Wisdom, has been doing in leading a first in the nation municipal response to anti-semitism by actually crafting an affirmative vision of how to tackle it as opposed to just how to respond to incidents of it. And we've coupled that with an investment of more than an 800% increase in the office to prevent hate crimes uh in funding that will actually support the very programs we've seen be effective at that kind of work.

[00:01:09]When it comes to this parade is that I've made it very clear to the commissioner as well as to our city government as a whole that we want to ensure that we are keeping each and every New Yorker safe. that anyone who chooses to participate in this parade can do so safely and securely and that you know when it comes to the question of protest that in our city we believe that protest is sacrosanct as is the right to safety and security and we will deliver all of those things. Thank you.

[00:01:44]FPV's attacks every day killing soldiers and threatening the communities every right of course is striking back and there have been several casualties on the Israeli side.

[00:02:01]You cannot have normal life. We cannot today we cannot gather more than 50 people together in in the in those communities next to the border.

[00:02:12]The Iron Dome is unable to detect them.

[00:02:15]They come, they hit and of course there are as I said almost 11 IDF casualties in this area alone over the last several days because of these doors.

[00:02:29]>> There are also civilians there.

[00:02:31]>> Yes. But these civilians and they are get they are becoming collateral damage.

[00:02:37]>> If you truly want to bring to the disarmament of and it's not only about south Lebanon and Israel. If you truly want to make Lebanon a sovereign state, yes, we need to attack in Beirut.

[00:02:48]>> We are in western Galilei barely kilometers away from the Lebanon border, northern Israel. And u we are here on a day when sirens are just going off several miles from here. And um this is the most active front right now as far as Israel is concerned because just barely 2 three days ago uh Netanyahu has given a call that we want to end this war. You you know he's told the US apparently that you can do what you want with Iran and strike a deal or not strike a deal but the threat on our northern borders which is from the Hezbollah. We are going to finish it off and there is an intense Israeli IDF action near the northern borders.

[00:03:34]Hbullah of course is striking back and there have been several casualties on the Israeli side. I one IDF soldier two killed just yesterday. two reservists severely injured and um I'm joined here by a former left and general uh of the is uh Israeli army and of course also a former intelligence officer with IDF. Um Sit tell us you know I know that you live just barely uh you know kilometers away from the Lebanon border yourself.

[00:04:08]You stay there with your family. Talk to us about the threats that you face.

[00:04:13]Look, we are uh actually in a situation of war in the past two and a half years, ups and downs. This means that uh the schools are on and off. Now they are off in some of the communities and the children are not going to school. This means that we faced here barges of rockets including hits in my community uh only a month ago. H we only have seconds to get to the bomb shelter >> h which we don't make it on time. And since we only have seconds to get to the bomb shelter, h you cannot have normal lives. We cannot today we cannot gather more than 50 people together in in the in those communities next to the border.

[00:04:49]This means you cannot have family events for instance. Uh some of the classrooms in my daughter's schools which I am on the edge of the confrontation line. I'm 9 km from the border. Uh she can't play wherever she wants in the schoolyard.

[00:05:03]She needs to be next to the bomb shelter. There are classrooms that are closed.

[00:05:07]and FPVs attacks every day, killing soldiers and threatening the communities every day.

[00:05:12]>> Right. And we, you know, we've just exited one of the bomb shelters here.

[00:05:16]These, this is the size, this is the kind these are the kind of bomb shelters that are how how many kilometers apart are they doed across uh your communities?

[00:05:25]>> It's not permanent. They are spread in different places. H you need to when you drive between communities, you don't have these. It's only inside or here it's an industrial park. H there are not enough. They are spread everywhere but not enough because you only have seconds.

[00:05:40]>> You only have seconds to move into the bomb shelter. But explain to us the geography of this area you know sit because this is um and I just want to show our viewers that this is this is where we are. This is that hill over there. The green hill over there is >> literally is Israeli and it it's Lebanon.

[00:06:01]>> Okay.

[00:06:02]>> Yes. So the communities that you can see are all Israeli communities but actually demonstrate the diversity of the Israeli society here because uh the community with the red roofs >> is h is mostly Jewish and the community next over here the next one to the left is mostly Arab is not mostly it's Arab composed of Christians and Muslims and below us you can see a Drew flag >> the Drew community below us. So we all live together here. Different kind of >> So in Gali you're saying that it's not just Jewish people.

[00:06:38]>> Actually we are the minority.

[00:06:40]>> Okay. You're the minority here. Okay.

[00:06:42]And and there are people of all faiths who live here. How is that?

[00:06:46]>> We are all threatened by the weapons of all of us.

[00:06:51]>> So talk to us about these intensive operations that Netanyahu has announced and which is going on uh right now just on that green hill over there. The idea for now is to clear the areas of a few kilometers from the border in Lebanon from Krisbah presence. It's it's going to take a while. It's not something that you can do in one day because hided its weapons everywhere in those places behind the houses in cemeteries in schools in mosques and even in churches in some places >> also used areas that are with a lot of trees and we found tunnels everywhere in those places and that's why it's take it take a long time. I have to say if will continue the attacks and will continue to to refuse to disarm and enable Lebanon to become a sovereign state and continue to threaten us, we will have to go all the way to the Litani River which is 30 kilometers from the border because this was the promise 20 years ago. 20 years ago, the Lebanese government made a promise to international community to disarm his from South Lebanon to the Latani River based on other promises that were not fulfilled as well to completely disarm it everywhere in Lebanon.

[00:08:11]>> So when you say Leani River, you're talking about IDF action inside Beirut too.

[00:08:17]>> No, Leani River is an hour drive from Beirut.

[00:08:20]>> Yes, to do with Beirut. Why? Okay. If you want if you truly want to um if you truly want to bring to the disarmament of and it's not only about South Lebanon and Israel. If you truly want to make Lebanon a sovereign state, yes, we need to attack in Beirut, not the the city of Beirut in general, we need to attack his balah assets in Beirut. And there is a big ne a big suburb of Beirut which is composed of few neighborhoods which is all again in every house. And this is what should be attacked in my point of view. And Israel is not doing that because of American pressure. And that way the war is becoming longer because the weapons and the training and the leadership and the commanders they are still active rebuilding the power of Frisba. But but but uh Israel and IDF did kill a lot of Hezbollah leaders. Has that not made a difference?

[00:09:22]>> No. Because when you look at the percentage of the let's start from military operatives, we killed thousands of them. They still have tens of thousands. With the commanders very quickly with Iranian assistance, they nominated new ones very very quickly.

[00:09:37]Every commander that is getting killed, Iran is making sure that a new one is nominated. Iran is taking uh care of training as well and Iran is deeply involved by its embassy in Beirut by the way deeply involved in the rehabilitation process of Krisbara that is ongoing as we speak.

[00:09:54]>> So what's the plan according to you? You have you of course do a lot of open open uh um research open intel research. You understand what's happening. You are embedded literally in the border. Your family lives there according and you obviously have connections with Exactly.

[00:10:14]So what is in your opinion how is this going to end? Is there an end point here?

[00:10:19]>> No there is in you say there is what you want and what you get and it's all the same.

[00:10:24]And >> if you ask me what I want, I want to see an international effort against FBA. I want to see an agreement with Iran that will make sure that it stop the support of FBA to give us give up its proxies that are endangering Israel. I want to see international community blocking any finance to Frisbana. Uh I want to see the government of Lebanon not afraid to confront Hisbana because every day that the government of Lebanon is not doing anything against is another day that is becoming stronger. the effort, the military effort of Israel cannot stand alone against we will not succeed only standing alone >> and which is where my next question comes in you all the criticism that is directed towards Israel for doing what it is doing to Ezah because at the end of the day there are also civilians there >> yes but these civilians >> and they are get they are becoming collateral damage >> okay so let's explain let's explain >> first in the areas that we attack, we call them to evacuate. So part of the tragedy of Lebanon today is that these civilians are the society of resistance of meaning they enabled to become human shields to to make them human shields. They enabled to hide the rockets in their houses. Their sons are the military operatives of you cannot defer from its base from its civilian base because build itself inside its civilian base. Now it doesn't mean that they should be killed of course. So we called them to evacuate massively. And then we were criticized of why we are calling them to evacuate. We call them to evacuate because it's a war zone.

[00:12:11]Because in order to disarm, you need to go to every house because this is where the weapons are. And when we call them to evacuate, they became displaced.

[00:12:21]That's the tragedy. This is why they are not there. in places where they are getting killed. It's places that either they didn't evacuate or we had to attack because it was a headquarters inside and they knew there is a headquarters inside. It's not for them. It's not a secret because they are part of the effort.

[00:12:40]If Lebanese civilians don't want to get killed, they should distance themselves from his. Israel has been saying that again and again and again every day, warning the population, according to international law, much more than any army in the world. And last point, we are reaching our hand to peace with Lebanon. They there are ongoing negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.

[00:13:07]doesn't accept even the idea of negotiations.

[00:13:11]We unilaterally pulled out of Lebanon 26 years ago and refused to disarm and continue to build its threats and capabilities against Israel. There was no reason for Israel to be in Lebanon.

[00:13:27]But gave us the reason because it threatened us and it it had a plan to slaughter me and my family and we are not going to allow that. That's the only reason >> and thank you for that. And my last question before I let you go, the civilians because you're also part of the civilian population living in this northern border. Are the civilians with Netanyahu when you when he says that we're going to end this and go inside Lebanon and remove the Hezbollah threat completely?

[00:13:56]>> What's the option to be slaughtered by to enable them to come back to the fence? We I saw them every day on the borderline. What's the option?

[00:14:07]>> Right. All right. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you so much and be safe.

[00:14:11]>> Thank you.