MAZI PILIP: ‘I grew up there. I know Israel from the bottom up.’

There’s a “big difference” over Israel between the two candidates in Long Island’s Feb. 13 congressional primary, Republican nominee Mazi Pilip told The Jewish Star.

“I grew up there. I served in the Army. I know Israel from the bottom all the way up. I know it all,” she said, countering a claim by her rival, Democrat Tom Suozzi, that his experience in government puts him on top in this and other areas.

“With all respect to his statement that he can do a better job because of his experience — I have been living there and I know what my people are going through,” Pilip said during a sit-down with The Jewish Star on Friday.

Pilip is a two-term Nassau County legislator who is facing Suozzi, who represented the area for six years in Congress before giving up the seat to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul in last year’s Democratic primary. Whoever is elected on Feb. 13 will complete the unexpired term of Republican Rep. George Santos, who was expelled by the House, which runs until a new session of Congress begins on Jan. 3, 2025.

“I’m a mother, I’m a fighter,” she said. “I’m doing this not because of politics and power; I’m doing it because in our country, the left-progressive policies out there are taking us to one place and somebody has to stop it.”

Pilip questioned Suozzi’s pro-Israel credentials, alleging that as a member of the House he failed to challenge its anti-Israel “Squad” and even — as her campaign extrapolated from a comment Suozzi made in a televised interview in 2019 — asked “to be one their honorary members.”

“Why he didn’t he stand against the Squad all those years when he was there, and even asked to join them? That’s a big problem,” she said.

The Squad has done great damage “over years,” Pilip said. “Nobody held them accountable. Nobody faced them. He failed to do that when he had the opportunity.”

Suozzi has explained that his defense of the Squad during that TV interview was a narrow one, intended as criticism of President Trump’s suggestion that Squad members — at the time including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts —  “go back” to the countries they came from. Of the group, only Omar, who is from Somalia, was born outside the United States.

In an interview with The Jewish Star and LI Herald, Suozzi said he spoke out for the Squad in that one instance because Trump’s comment recalled how his Italian-immigrant father was often told to “go back” where he came from.

Pilip pushed back at that defense, asking, “what about every time Squad members were talking so viciously about Israel, why didn’t he stand with Israel? I didn’t see that.”

“Our rights as the Jewish people will be protected. And the only person who is going to be clear about this is me,” she said.

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As a county legislator, in 20222 Pilip was involved in establishing a Special Legislative Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in Nassau County. Asked whether she personally encountered antiseminism since emigrating to America, she cited an incident involving her son that she said led her to enter the political arena.

She recounted how her son had asked for a Magen David as a bar mitzvah gift.

“I thought would ask me for something crazy, but he wanted a simple necklace. And I was very proud of him,” she said. “But I’m not going to lie to you. I [thought], how am I going to give him [this at a time] when antisemitism is on the rise, what about G-d forbid somebody can attack my son because they’re going to just see the Star of David.

“I never told him that. I decided to keep it for myself. But the fact is that I had to think about this twice. I said, I have five children, I’m pregnant, and I’m afraid to give a necklace to my son. That is wrong. Absolutely wrong. How am I supposed to raise my children with that fear?

“That is the reason why I got involved.”

• • •

Does she envision a long-range solution to the conflict between Israel and those commonly referred to as Palestinians?

She said peace would be possible when the other side has leaders “who care about their people” and do not use them as human shields.

Today, those leaders “have luxury lives” while “all the money that’s coming from United States and around the world, instead of building Gaza, building good schools [and a] quality of life, what they are doing is building rockets, thinking how to destroy Israel,” she said. “How can we have a peace with that kind of mind.”

“This is not about land, this pure hate,” she continued. “They don’t believe Israel should exist. That’s not going to happen.”

• • •

While Israel is issue number one for many, it is not the only topic over which the 3rd CD candidates have been tussling.

Immigration is a central theme of the campaign, with Pilip TV commercials linking Suozzi to a border crisis they blame on President Biden.

The Jewish Star asked Pilip how she reconciles her status as a two-time immigrant — first fleeing Ethiopia for Israel, later coming to the United States — with her opposition to the current wave of immigrants entering the US across the southern border.

“There’s a different situation now,” she said. “I came in the legal way.”

“We should protect asylum seekers,” she assured. “But millions are coming in — everybody’s an asylum seeker now. You don’t think the United States of America and our president should verify those people?”

“I don’t want terrorists to make their way here,” Pilip added. “If you have a wide-open border, that’s a big concern.”

She scoffed at Suozzi’s suggestion of building an Ellis Island-type site as a fix for the southern border crisis.

“He was in the majority when they decided to open the borders, and he’s not going to go back to fix it because he’s not capable,” she said. “The American people don’t trust him.”

• • •

Pilip has always been a registered Democrat, and was elected a Nassau County legislator on the Republican line. She won’t change her registration now, mid-campaign, to avoid potential problems, she said.

“The Democratic Party that I joined 17 or 18 years ago is not the same party today,” she said. “I realized my values go more with the Republican Party. Therefore I decided to run as a Republican.”

Pilip declined to criticize Republican House Leader Mike Johnson’s refusal to approve additional emergency aid to Israel unless Democrats cut aid to Ukraine and act decisively on US border security. While strings should not be attached to aid to Israel, that’s not the case with aid to Ukraine, she said.

• • •

From the opening day of her campaign — when she was hustled through a side door at the American Legion Hall in Massapequa to avoid reporters’ questions after being introduced to the press — Pilip’s been dogged by suggestions that Republicans have been running an under-the-radar campaign, and that she’s refused to debate her opponent.

“First of all, I’m out there. And every press request I got, I was trying to accommodate anybody,” she said. “I’m not afraid of no one. I’m meeting a lot of people on the ground.”

As for her agreeing to only one debate with Suozzi — on Feb. 8, five days before the election and five days after early voting began — she said, “I don’t have that much time to have debates. We’re talking about a very short time to the election.”

• • •

In her interview with The Jewish Star, Pilip exuded confidence and answered questions clearly — until this year’s political elephant entered the room.

“I’m here to talk about me” and not former President Donald Trump, she said, adding that “whoever is going to be [the Republican presidential nominee], I know I’m going to work with him.”

She said Trump did “great things for this country — when it comes to improving our economy, when it comes to our position on the international level; when it comes to Israel, he was a big supporter of Israel, he brought the Abraham Accords peace process.”

Of Trump’s web of legal woes, she said, “Any allegation about him is something between him and our court system to go through. I don’t want to conclude anything before that. Let him go through the process.”

As to what happened on Jan. 6, it “should not happen,” she said. “We are one nation, and we have to be respectful, even when we don’t agree with each other. I don’t encourage violence, no violence with me.”

If elected Feb. 13, then reelected in November, Pilip would be in the House next Jan. 6 when members will be asked to certify the presidential election. Trump urged members on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn votes certified by some states. Pilip said she would respect the certification process.