The Associated Press Lets the Mask Drop

In May of this year, long after he had passed on every opportunity to correct whatever misapprehensions he internalized about Israel’s pager operation against Hezbollah operatives, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani demonstrated his commitment to his preferred falsehoods.

During a meeting with Muslim constituents, Mamdani reflected on “Israel’s blowing up of thousands of pagers across Lebanon,” thus “killing scores of Lebanese civilians, including a young girl by the name of Fatima, who picked up her father’s pager in an act of love and lost her life.” The reflection was prompted by his recollection of a meeting similar to the one in which he was participating — a gathering of Muslims in the city in which pagers were not allowed as a paranoid precautionary measure. “We know that to be Muslim in public life in this city, and this country, is to face these kinds of responses,” Mamdani continued, “to be called a terrorist, no matter where it is, where you go.”

“Scores” of civilians did not die in Israel’s pager attack. Indeed, not even a single “score’s” worth of noncombatants perished. Of the grand total of 42 deaths that resulted from one of the most discriminating military...