Stunning Reversal: New Rochelle Council Votes 7-0 to Continue to Fly Israeli Flag
Lone Republican secures unanimous vote for a flag transition ceremony to lower Israeli flag and raise Pan-African flag next week.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY (February 21, 2024) — A resolution proposed by Council Member Albert Tarantino (R — District 2), the lone Republican on council, was adopted unanimously, including votes from all six Democrats, the same six who last month held a secret “vote” to abruptly remove the Israeli flag. The vote ends weeks of controversy stirred up primarily by David Peters (D — District 3) and Shane Osinloye (D — District 4) abetted by Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert (D — New Rochelle).
The vote served to illustrate the dangers of secret votes by council. When they thought no one would know how they voted, the six Democrats all agreed the flag should be abruptly removed. When they had to decide in a public roll-call vote, all six of them reversed their January 23-24 secret email vote and voted to continue flying the Israeli flag.
Tarantino began with remarks deeply critical of his fellow council members, saying he was never told why they wanted the Israeli flag taken down, then apologizing for their actions:
I am deeply saddened that the actions of this council have created a controversy in our community that did not exist before. Last week, I asked my colleagues why they decided the Israeli flag should be removed in January and did not receive an answer. I still do not understand why my fellow council members thought it was important to remove the flag so abruptly and secretly. I would like to apologize to the Jewish community and the entire New Rochelle community for this unnecessary conflict. In an effort to move forward in a positive way, I propose the following resolution:
“I so move that a resolution be drafted allowing the flag of Israel to continue to be flown proudly until February 27th and on that date the flag of Israel shall be taken down and replaced with the Pan-African flag in anticipation of the Black History Month gala. The Pan-African flag will be removed upon the recommendation of the African-American Advisory Committee, and then no flag shall be flown except the American flag and the City of New Rochelle flag until council has adopted a flag policy to make sure these issues don’t happen again. The transition of flags will take place during the public ceremony, in which we will invite members of the Jewish community and the representatives of the African-American Advisory committee to participate as we celebrate both communities.”
I offer this resolution in an effort to show we are not a divided community, but that we are a city that respects and celebrates all of its residents.
Council Members Matt Stern, Martha Lopez and David Peters spoke after Tarantino, then Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert spoke briefly before calling for a roll-call vote. Tarantino’s proposed resolution was adopted 7-0.
Readers can watch the entire video embedded above to hear every word of what was said, but I wanted to a highlight a few points in the context of my past reporting which brought the Israeli flag controversy to the public’s attention in the first place.
Matt said he could not speak for anyone only himself. Good. This is progress for him after I pointed out last week the tendency of the new council members to say they speak “for everyone” when they only speak for themselves.
Matt used the word “rumor” in his statement last night. He said, “in spite of many rumors, the overwhelming wish was to find a solution that was respectful for all.” He said, “we’ve navigated our lack of clear policy”. He has elsewhere used the word “misrepresentation” to claim it is untrue that he and other council members supported removing the Israeli flag. He now claims he and the others only wanted to inquire about the city’s flag policy. If that were true, why are there no emails where he or any other Democrat inquire about the policy or asks that the corporation counsel develop a clear policy.
This is all a total lie. It was not about policy but about taking down the flag without the publicly knowing what happened, as I have previously shown and will show again below.
David Peter’s made a truly bizarre comment:
…there is no conflict that exists between the African-American community thus we’re celebrating the Jewish community here in the City of New Rochelle…we are celebrating not choosing one one versus the other.
The issue for over a month has been his effort (with Shane) to remove the Israeli flag. No one has once mentioned that taking down the Israeli flag has anything to do with a conflict between the Jewish and Black community. This is purely a figment of the mind of David Peters, a red herring designed to make his conduct about something other than hostility towards Israel and the Israeli flag.
Shane, for all of his big talk last week, mumbled about “contemplating” before demurely declining to offer any remarks on Tarantino’s resolution. Less big talk from Shane in a room full of kippas and Israeli flags.
Sara Kaye was silent.
The latest spin among Democrats is to claim they did not support removing the Israeli flag per se but were simply concerned that the city did not have a flag policy on how to remove a flag.
Martha said, “in the past there was no policy”.
Yadira said, “I want to apologize for the clunkiness for the lack of a policy… apologizing for the clunkiness of the policy.”
Nonsense.
How did flags go up and down in the past? Why and are flags up now? How did flags get taken down?
The city has and has had a flag policy — under a council-manager form of government, the City Manager makes decisions on flags. This is precisely why Noam Bramson asked Kathleen Gill to raise the Israeli flag on October 10, 2023, and why Yadira asked Kathleen Gill to remove the Israeli flag on January 23, 2024. That is the policy.
What the Democrats on council now want after about 75 years is a new policy where the city council, not a city manager, decides which flags go up and when they come down. That is all well and good but the desire for council control over flag policy does not mean there was no policy at all.
There has never been an issue in the history of New Rochelle where a city manager raising or lowering a flag in front of City Hall was controversial. The only thing that changed is that two council members acted in a manner consistent with their supporter's hateful rhetoric, a Mayor aided and abetted them in that, and the remaining Democrat council members rolled over to show political loyalty to the Mayor.
That loathsome rhetoric was neatly summarized (by me) in a widely circulated Two Minute Hate video compilation showing first David claiming there is no hostility by him or his supporters behind their desire to remove the Israeli flag and a series of video clips of his supporters demonstrating the exact opposite.
The only reason council control of flag policy became an issue at all is because Shane and David wanted the flag down, Yadira supported them and brought Matt, Sara, and Martha along. So, the idea that this controversy is not based on a consensus among the six Democrats on Council to remove the flag is laughable. They all wanted the flag removed and removed without any discussion (public or otherwise) about the existing flag policy or a new council-controlled flag policy and without waiting for a legal opinion on whether New York State outlawed the flying of foreign flags on flagpoles on public property (there is no such law).
It would appear that even Shane has accepted that he was wrong about a foreign flag ban because he voted to keep the Israeli flag for another week. There was an executive session on the legal research requested by Shane and Yadira on Shane’s legal theories which were debunked at last week’s meeting. For some reason this topic was discussed behind closed doors after a public discussion on February 13.
After the Golden Horseshoe incident, the six Democrats still wanted to take the flag down — after Yadira’s “raise the Israeli flags” speech — only changing their mind a week later.
On February 8, when I exposed what they had done, they began to back-peddle, falsely claiming they had not sought to have the flag removed and, more recently, that they had only inquired about the city’s flag policy.
Lies, lies and more lies.
Shane saw no need for a flag policy at all because, acting as his own lawyer, he got it in his head (wrongly) that it is illegal in New York State to fly any foreign flag on a flag pole on public property.
Yadira initiated the entire controversy over the Israeli flag by raising Shane’s legal opinion and asking how long the Ukrainian flag flew.
Matt, Shane, David and Yadira are lying and doing so despite knowing I have all the relevant emails from January as I reported previously, so let me put the lie to that right now with those emails.
Yadira told the City Manager “there is a consensus among the council to remove the Israeli flag by the end of the month” but because there was consensus “a discussion item on the agenda is not necessary.”
These emails are not rumor or misrepresentation or a clunky way of inquiring about flag policy. They are Shane, Matt, David, Sara, and Martha all agreeing with Yadira that the Israeli flag should be removed on January 31 and not wanting their role in removing the flag to become public.
A final thought on the meta-issue here.
Al Tarantino’s masterful ability to secure a unanimous vote for his resolution stands in sharp contrast to Yadira’s utter failure to manage what should have been easy, given she has a 6-1 majority in council. She should think long and hard about how she was outmaneuvered by Al. How she was embarrassed and humiliated, then forced to walk back her efforts to remove the Israeli flag — all by a colleague facing a council 1-6 against.
Al was able to get universal support for his approach — and loud applause in council chambers last night — by listening respectfully to his colleagues, reaching across the aisle to work with Matt; by being persuasive with solid arguments; by understanding the levers of power in New Rochelle; understanding how city council works, understanding public perceptions, involving the entire community, and, through brilliant creativity, bringing forward his idea for a flag transition ceremony.
Yadira, by contrast, was rude, selfish and inept. She did not listen to her colleagues, did not reach across the aisle, did not make any arguments let alone persuasive arguments, showed no understanding of how the levers of power or council rules work, not only did not engage the community but disrespected them, and showed a complete lack of creativity in attempting to solve a crisis of her own making. Along the way she alienated the one person on council who knows what they are doing and whose support she would need.
Al turned what David, Shane and Yadira had blindly made into a divisive issue into an unprecedented opportunity to bring together diverse members of the New Rochelle community in a positive, highly visible way with an irresistible media availability.
Yadira and her fellow Democrats should take note that Al did not accomplish this by backroom dealing, waterboarding, subterfuge and lies. He accomplished this by insisting on transparency, demanding accountability from every council member, and thinking outside the box with solutions that not only immediately resolved a contentious issue but did so in a way that brought the community together.
It remains to be seen if any of Al’s colleagues can learn the lesson that displays of raw power by a Mayor did not work out well for Noam and, so far, have not worked well for Yadira.
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The City Council, was on full display last night. The Mayor’s ineptitude was almost incredible—from her inability to properly pass motions to her “apology” for her “clunky-ness”—she was a true demonstration of the failures of the Dem machine. Osinloye—attempting to pander no matter what the issue—Peters babbling incomprehensibly—Kaye’s attempt to not remove herself from the council chambers despite the requirement that she do so (well done, corp counsel); it was all out in the open.
Well done, Mr. Tarantino. You make us proud.