Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams took veiled swipes Sunday at his successor, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has been publicly resistant to condemning the “globalize the intifada” movement and messaging.
Adams stated: “This attack did not come out of nowhere. It came out as the consequences of Islamic extremists.” He emphasized that it was “not an attack on our Muslim brothers and sisters, who carry out their faith every day, but [it] is the hijacking of their religion by Islamic extremists.”
The mayor announced ramped-up Hanukkah security measures and denounced talk of whittling back aggressive policing and security measures, potentially a reference to Mamdani’s policies. Adams stressed: “Words have meaning.” He added that the Sydney attack was an example of the “globalization of intifada,” stating: “Everyone needs to understand what words mean before they repeat them, before they shout them, before they defend them.”
Adams mourned multiple recent tragedies: three American service members killed in a reported ISIS-related terrorist attack Saturday in Syria; two gunned down and nine wounded at Brown University; six teens hospitalized after an overnight shooting in Brooklyn, New York; and at least 16 killed in a Jewish Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
He noted that among the Sydney victims was “a rabbi who had ties to Crown Heights, as well as a Holocaust survivor,” stating: “Let me say that again: a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor killed for being Jewish.”
Adams vowed to be defiant against antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric espoused by Mamdani in the past, declaring: “As human beings, we cannot just turn down the temperature of hate — that is not enough. We must shut it off completely.” He pledged to call out hate without fear or apology.
Closing his remarks, Adams expressed wishes for New Yorkers celebrating Hanukkah, drawing parallels to the Maccabees: “It was a victory of the weak over the strong, of spirit and belief over military might, but the Maccabees did not waver in the face of struggle. They did not lose hope. They did not lose faith. And so, they did not lose.”
