Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was blindsided by an “inappropriate” political mailer tying Cynthia Nixon to anti-Semitism — but just a day before the inflammatory literature surfaced, one of his top campaign aides pitched a story about the primary challenger’s opposition to Israeli settlements.

The attempt to tar the former “Sex and the City” star over the divisive issue was made in an email to a Post reporter that casts doubt about Cuomo’s repeated claims he had nothing to do with the 11th-hour hit job.

The smoking-gun email, sent Friday afternoon from an official “andrewcuomo.com” account, suggested that The Post publish a story about Nixon’s support of the pro-Palestinian “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement against Israel.

“Nixon has supported insidious BDS campaign, signing onto letter boycotting Israel,” it says.

“Obviously something you guys have reported on a lot and right before the jewish high holidays!

“Can get you folks on the record slamming her as well,” the aide added.

The email also included excerpts of news reports from 2010, detailing how Nixon was among about 200 American celebrities — including many Jews — who signed a letter supporting a boycott by Israeli actors, directors and playwrights of a new theater in Ariel, one of Israel’s largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Nixon’s support of the BDS movement is among three points raised in the pro-Cuomo mailer, sent out by the state Democratic committee just days before Thursday’s primary, which warns, “With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance with inexperienced Cynthia Nixon, who won’t stand strong for our Jewish communities.”

On Friday, the top Cuomo campaign official was making a hard pitch for the Nixon-BDS story in a series of text messages coaxing the reporter to give it coverage.

“Hey I got something for you on nixon….I’m going to email to you. But not from me,” the texts say.

But despite a top Cuomo campaign official pushing the hot-button issue at the center of the mailer to some 7,000 targeted households, Cuomo on Sunday insisted he knew nothing about it.

“I didn’t know about the mailer. I heard about the mailer. I haven’t seen the mailer,” the governor said at an unrelated event in Manhattan.

“The way I’ve ran this campaign, it’s been on the issues, it’s been positive. I think the mailer was a mistake. I think it was inappropriate.”

Cuomo also said he’d sent word to Democratic officials to “make sure it doesn’t happen again,” and largely repeated his comments on Monday.

Nixon rejected Cuomo’s assertions of ignorance as “patently absurd,” saying: “He’s the head of the Democratic Party. He controls the state committee.”

Asked for comment about the Nixon-BDS story pitch, Cuomo’s campaign press secretary Abbey Collins said: “The off the record email forwarded to the New York Post contained published articles and publicly available information on Cynthia Nixon’s positions on issues concerning Israel sent for the Post’s information — those articles have nothing to do with the wrong and inappropriate mail piece that went out and shouldn’t have.”

“It is apples and oranges, and to disclose an off the record exchange that had been agreed to by the New York Post is a violation of journalistic ethics,” Collins added.

But ex-Syracuse mayor and former state Democratic co-chair Stephanie Miner, who’s making an independent run for governor, on Tuesday described the campaign email and the party mailer as a “coordinated attack.”

“Based on my experience as state chair, there is no way that a mailer was designed and then sent out and paid for without the explicit consent of Andrew Cuomo or one of his top lieutenants,” Miner said.

The email from Cuomo’s campaign marked the latest in a series of desperation moves that reveal his fear of losing to Nixon, even though a Siena College poll released Monday showed him leading the race by 41 points, 63-22 percent.

Other tactics exposed by The Post included having posters paid for by his campaign distributed from a state Department of Transportation truck at the annual NYC Pride March and soliciting endorsements from students who scored college scholarships from the state.

He’s also come under fire from government watchdogs for having state agencies send out mailers touting his record amid his bid for a third term in office.

Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks