Keith McNally Balthazar owner faces boycott over Hamas post as he comes under criticism and media bias for imploring listening to the other’s grievances amid ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
Since when does espousing the point of view that listening to the other side is tantamount to supporting atrocities and inhumane acts? Since when does media cease to become an impartial vessel and a loudspeaker for one sided dialogue – even if it means potentially ruining a NYC restauranteur?
Famed and outspoken NYC restauranteur, Keith McNally (who is himself part Jewish) has been widely condemned by fellow restauranteurs, customers, and by association the press (more on that below) for a social media post he shared and refused to remove (before eventually capitulating) regarding this weekend’s Hamas attack on Israel.
The famed Balthazar owner posted a photo of the strikes on Instagram with the caption: ‘The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.’
Comments immediately flooded his posts with customers and even top hospitality names from Surf Lodge and Sixty Hotels, vowing never to eat at one of McNally’s restaurants ever again.
‘I stand by what I wrote this morning: THE MORE UTTERLY REPUGNANT THE FACTS, THE GREATER THE RESPONSIBILITY TO LISTEN TO T HE OTHER SIDE,’ McNally told Page Six.
‘This doesn’t mean forgive. This doesn’t mean not retaliate. It simply means listen. There’s nothing to lose by listening. Nothing whatsoever.’
‘I’m part Jewish. In the 1970s I lived for long stretches of time on an Israeli kibbutz. My older brother Peter risked his life spying for Israel. I think the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas are vile, barbaric and totally repugnant,’ said McNally.
Page Six claimed sources told them partners from McNally’s flagships Balthazar and Morandi asked him to take down the post, only for McNally to initially refuse to do so.
McNally went on to refute that claim: ‘I only have two partners in my restaurants. Stephen Starr in Pastis and Helen Benham in Balthazar and Morandi. I’ve not heard a word from either one today,’ he said.
A spokesperson for Starr Restaurants, Stephen Starr’s business, said: ‘The horrific acts carried out by Hamas against the Israeli and all Jewish people are indefensible and barbaric.
‘This was a terrorist attack. Starr Restaurants and Pastis do not in any way share the opinions expressed today by Keith McNally.’
McNally acknowledged that an associate from his Meatpacking restaurant Pastis confronting him about his ‘controversial’ post.
McNally said: ‘Pastis’ landlord’s partner, Jared Epstein, who emailed me earlier mistakenly thinking I wrote “Support The Other Side” and not “LISTEN to the other side.”‘
Responded Epstein: ‘Oh boy, I am sure this heinous post will lead to many lost friends, supporters and followers of you including myself.’
‘This attack is not just against Israel but against all Jewish people. Hamas is an enemy of Christians, Hindus, minorities, LGBTQ, atheists, people of color and anyone who differs from their extremist idealist ideology that all Jews must die. We all have skin in the game and must show our support for Israel,’ said Epstein.
The landlord said he fully supports Starr and said he believes, ‘in my heart that no Pastis employees or patrons share Keith McNally’s views.’
Jayma Cardoso, founder and creative director of Montauk’s Surf Lodge said McNally’s comments ‘ignore the horror of the actions perpetrated against Israeli civilians at the hands of Hamas.’
‘He used his platform to spread ignorance, and has yet to rectify his comments in any respect. Shame on him,’ she said.
Hotelier Jason Pomeranc, of Sixty Hotels, said, ‘There is no political justification for genocide. Did you think 911 was a time for witty banter or for moral clarity?’
The comments come in a vacuum, with no effort to attempt to understand that this weekend’s actions (especially against civilians) were a waiting boiling pressure point waiting to erupt with ongoing strife between the two sides, with the Palestinians being inhumanely treated and forced to live an apartheid existence by Israel – actions that the Israel justifies for its own safety. Actions that most in the West carefully avoid calling out (save few) in the face of obvious repression, humiliation, suffering and destruction.
Actions that nevertheless has led to the ongoing subjugation of over 2 million people and a political terrorist operative, Hamas — seeking to exploit such feelings for its own mandates. Actions that have ignited the Tinderbox and the almost certainty in days ahead, steep Palestinian casualties as Israel with its superior military might responds against hapless citizens trapped by their own situation, the actions of a cynical terrorist operative, and that of their ongoing state oppressors- Israel.
To recognize such facts that even many within Israel have lobbied and protested against ever militant Israel state actions does not make the speaker pro Hamas. That is shameless media manipulation.
Reported irresponsibly the dailymail: ‘In response to McNally’s pro-Hamas and pro-Palestine post, New Yorkers blasted McNally and vowed to boycott his businesses.’
Again, McNally is simply pointing out the obvious – that we must all listen and try to understand the other side not just the loudest side. Not just today but for the ongoing many years that led to the arrival of this weekend’s actions. Understand that ongoing military might, action and subjugation and murder of innocent people, on both sides is inhumane and intolerable and that cooler heads must persist and work towards a peaceful resolution.
Or accept that more of the same will only continue indefinitely. Unless we all have the courage and resolve (which requires taking in legitimate grievances of both sides) to find empathy, humanity and clarity amid the ongoing crises of the Palestine-Israel conflict. A crises which now has the potential to spread its vitriol to other nearby states and across the world in a new upped ante of political tensions.
No one is suggesting, certainly not Keith McNally (who must not allow himself to be bullied for stating the bloody obvious: work towards a resolution) that society ought to support terrorists or the murder of innocent civilians. Such is the twisting of overzealous reporting and media bias. And for those who have been pictured celebrating the murder, pillaging and rape of innocent people- shame on you and you are also part of the problem.
How many more lives must be lost? Is an Israeli’s life more valuable than a Palestinian’s life? At what point does the world stop looking the other way and ignore the suffering of one over the other and find the courage and resolve to insist that these ethnically related clans for once and for all put down their weapons and learn to live together. If not now, when?
