Gov. Cuomo marches in the Celebrate Israel parade, Sunday, June 5. | Office of the Governor of New York Cuomo bans business with Israel-boycott companies, swipes at Sanders Other Clinton surrogates support the move

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order today banning the state from doing business with any group that formally cuts ties to the state of Israel as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

“We are against the BDS movement. ... If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,” Cuomo said at an event in Midtown this morning where he signed the executive order.


Cuomo cast the move today — hours before the annual Salute to Israel parade in Manhattan— as part of a broader effort to firm up the Democratic Party’s alliance with Israel. The governor — a longtime supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — took a swipe at her opponent in the primary, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who has questioned Israel’s response to terrorist attacks.

Cuomo said today, “I’m sad as a Democrat. As a Democrat. I always took for granted that there was a natural relationship with Israel that was unquestioned and was that way for many, many years.”

But, he said, “You now have aspects of the Democratic Party that are being critical of Israel as being disproportionate in its response.”

During an April 15 presidential debate with Clinton in Brooklyn, Sanders said, “Of course Israel has a right to defend itself, but long term there will never be peace in that region unless the United States plays a role, an even-handed role, trying to bring people together and recognizing the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people.”

Today in Manhattan, Cuomo said, “To question the situation they’re dealing with and the tenacity of their opponents misunderstands the situation."

The governor, who visited Israel in 2014, said he personally saw miles of sophisticated tunnels dug by terrorists to transport weapons.

“This just shows the determination, the single-mindedness, that these are people who are bent on destroying Israel. That is their purpose,” he said, adding, “How can you have a disproportionate response when you are dealing with an enemy who is obsessed and single-minded? By definition you can’t be disproportionate.”

The governor said the campaign to cut economic ties to Israel is more dangerous than the traditional physical attacks that country has faced from terrorists.

“[A]s frightening as those tunnels are and as radical as the mindset and [obsessiveness] that built those tunnels, this BDS movement is in many ways more frightening," he said. "Because what they’re saying is they are not making a physical attack — they want to make an economic attack. And it’s not just radicals that are willing to build tunnels. They are going to mainstream businesses across the world to generate a corporate, a corporate enemy for Israel, and we cannot allow that to happen, period.”

Among the lawmakers on hand for the announcement was Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat who represents Manhattan’s West Side.

Nadler said Sanders doesn’t “know much” about the security issues in Israel and complained about Sanders appointing professor Cornell West to the platform committee for the Democratic Party.

Nadler said he is confident the party will ultimately adopt a “fine” platform, but, he said, “I am concerned about a small minority can, led by Bernie perhaps, or led by Cornell West, could generate a debate that makes the Democratic Party look, during the debate, not good, or anti-Israel. It could cost us a lot of votes against [presumptive Republican nominee Donald] Trump.”

Nadler, a wonky, liberal academic who is hawkish on Israel security issues, said the complaining about Israel responding disproportionately to terrorist attacks “is an attempt to handcuff Israel from responding to aggression from fighting in defensive wars, and that’s wrong. Bernie is very guilty of that, and that’s unfortunate.”

Asked if he thought Sanders believes that, Nadler replied, “I think he believes that. I don’t think he knows much about it. He’s echoing what he’s read."

Senator Chuck Schumer, at an unrelated event in Manhattan, said Cuomo’s executive order was “an excellent idea,” and said, “I am looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing, because one state is one thing, but to do it in the whole country would be much better.”

Schumer said Sanders’ appointees to the platform committee don’t share the views of the majority of Democrats, and that those Sanders appointees “don’t have a majority of votes on the platform committee and I don’t think they’ll get their way.”

Cuomo announced and signed the executive order shortly before marching in the parade today, and against the backdrop of a Democratic presidential primary in which Clinton has a nearly insurmountable lead among pledged delegates, but has lost a string of recent primaries to Sanders heading into an unexpectedly close contest in California on June 7.

Cuomo said he wanted every governor in the nation to sign executive orders similar to his.

It was not immediately clear how many companies would be immediately impacted by the order in New York.