Andrew Cuomo's Pro-Israel Group Promised Big Plans. It Delivered Little.
Last year, as a growing schism over Israel tore at the Democratic Party, Andrew M. Cuomo threw himself into the fray. He announced he would lead a new advocacy group leveraging his clout as New York's former governor to beat back growing anti-Israel sentiment on the left.
The group, Never Again, NOW!, offered an ambitious slate of plans for the summer and fall. In a speech outlining them at a synagogue in the Hamptons last summer, Mr. Cuomo likened himself to a 'Shabbos goy,' a non-Jew who traditionally helps Jewish people on the Sabbath.
'The hour is getting late, my friends,' he said, 'and now is the time to act.'
Almost a year later, though, the Cuomo group's promises appear to have amounted to little beyond a few private informational receptions and opinion essays.
Never Again, NOW! never convened the summer symposium it said would expose 'the truth about anti-Zionist rhetoric' on college campuses, nor an advertised lecture series in the fall. It has yet to launch the educational hub on Israel and Hamas still promised on its bare-bones web page. And AdImpact, a tracking firm, could find no record that the television ads the group said would air last July actually did. Mr. Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021, has entered this year's race for mayor of New York City. Credit... Shuran Huang for The New York Times
Now, as Mr. Cuomo begins a comeback campaign for mayor of New York City, the group's work provides one of the clearest windows into how he has sought to use well-timed political projects to re-enter the public sphere after his scandal-tarred resignation as governor. Others included a national gun safety group and a new political action committee to support favored candidates.
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