Mayor Bloomberg's brush with a Hamas rocket yesterday made headlines in today's papers—some of which may have exaggerated just how much danger the mayor was in (the Post's headline reads that a "rocket rocks his 'boom!' town visit.") Bloomberg himself told the press, “Let’s not overstate the risks to me" and emphasized, "I feel safe here."
However, with the added attention to the mayor being rushed into a bomb shelter, he took the opportunity to make more comparisons between the situation in the Middle East and the threat of terrorism here in New York. He told CNN, "In New York City, we were attacked by Al-Qaeda twice...If we don't stand up against terrorists, we're going to be victims ourselves." Bloomberg also compared the Hamas attacks to "an emotionally disturbed person banging on your door."
Bloomberg didn't sound especially sympathetic to the civilian casualties in Gaza when asked about them. He said, "If Hamas would focus on building a country rather than destroying another one, those people wouldn't get injured, wouldn't get killed." But the mayor refused to be the one dictating answers for the situation, saying, "Look, I don't work for the State Department, or for the military, for America or for Israel. And it's up to them to find a peaceful solution."
Democratic political consultant Evan Stavisky tells PolitickerNY that Bloomberg's trip is "obviously smart politics—particularly when you bring the Congress' 'Maven of the Middle East' (local Rep. Gary Ackerman) and the police commissioner. It's one of those times when the right thing to do is also the right political thing to do."
Bloomberg's testy mood when dealing with reporters' questions about the situation apparently couldn't even be saved by the Sesame Street gang. As the mayor stopped into an Israeli hospital to drop off toys, the Times describes one received by "a Palestinian toddler who looked at him blankly as the mayor tucked Big Bird next to his small hands."
