I just returned from a lovely weeklong trip to Italy\u2019s Amalfi Coast.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll be glad to hear that no NYPD officers had to accompany me to ensure my safety while I enjoyed lemon gelato and gnocchi alla Sorrentina.<\/p>\n
Why? Because I\u2019m a private citizen, and as such am not entitled to a taxpayer-funded security detail of New York\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n
Easy, right?<\/p>\n
Tell that to Dora Pekec, Mayor Mamdani\u2019s spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Pekec announced that first lady Rama Duwaji willl soon be traveling to the Middle East <\/a>\u2014 and will be taking a few boys in blue along for her protection.<\/p>\n \u201cUpon the strong recommendation of the NYPD,\u201d Pekec said, \u201cthe first lady\u2019s security detail will be joining her when she travels to visit family in Syria and Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n Which, it turns out, was news to the NYPD<\/a>: The department, a spokesman said on Tuesday, \u201cdoes not send officers to countries with level four travel advisories for discretionary reasons not linked to investigative work.\u201d<\/p>\n Both ways<\/p>\n Because irony is Mamdanistan\u2019s greatest natural resource, Duwaji\u2019s trip just happens to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s visit<\/a> to New York to attend the UN General Assembly \u2014 a trip likely to keep the NYPD busy now that Mamdani has encouraged his followers <\/a>to take to the streets and protest.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a delightful debacle, and yet another reminder \u2014 as if more reminders were needed \u2014 that nothing good happens when the college theater kids take over America\u2019s largest city.<\/p>\n Yet the affair raises two pointed questions, and they\u2019re no laughing matter.<\/p>\n The first has to do with what role, exactly, Duwaji plays in her husband\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n To hear the mayor tell it, his missus is absolutely, resolutely, positively a private person.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s the line Hizzoner takes every time a new report reveals the depths of his wife\u2019s depravity.<\/p>\n Did Duwaji cheer for Hamas <\/a>after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023?<\/p>\n Did she crow that the Jewish state had no right to exist?<\/p>\n Did she choose to illustrate work by an author, Susan Abulhawa<\/a>, who described Israelis as \u201crootless, soulless ghouls\u201d?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Don\u2019t bother me with such trifles, said the mayor: \u201cMy wife is the love of my life,\u201d Mamdani told the press, \u201cand she\u2019s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n But, like the cat in Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s famous thought experiment who was somehow both alive and dead at the same time, Duwaji has managed to be both private and very, very public \u2014 sitting for a glamorous photo shoot with New York Magazine one moment<\/a> and clamming up the next.<\/p>\n This most recent controversy, then, is a good reminder that City Hall can\u2019t have it both ways.<\/p>\n