“There’s a deep, direct connection between New York State and Israel that has all the time been there, a bond steeled over many years,” the governor, a Democrat, mentioned in an interview at Kennedy Airport shortly earlier than boarding a 10-hour industrial flight. “And it’s straightforward to go when the solar is shining and every part is ok.”

“The group feels, in Israel and in New York, that my going throughout these instances would be the most important image of their significance to us than anything we might do,” she mentioned.

Journeys to Israel are nothing new for New York leaders, who routinely pay visits to make political statements aimed toward Jewish New Yorkers. However the timing of Ms. Hochul’s go to — her first worldwide journey since taking workplace in 2021 — is something however routine.

The governor landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon simply as Israel was amassing troops outdoors Gaza, roughly per week after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, killed over 1,400 Israelis in terror assaults which have profoundly shaken the nation and drawn comparisons to 9/11.

Ms. Hochul’s presence — overlapping with President Biden’s journey there — could create a further safety headache for a rustic that already has too many.

However throughout her 30-hour “solidarity mission,” Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, shouldn’t be at present scheduled to hitch the president. She was to satisfy with diplomats and native officers, and in addition console Israeli households that have been displaced or impacted by the assaults. She is being accompanied by an entourage of state cops and a clutch of prime aides, together with her press secretary, coverage director and director of Jewish affairs, all of whom are Jewish.

Former Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, mentioned Ms. Hochul’s journey would assist cement her positioning as an unflinching supporter of Israel, and that her function as a stateside governor with no sway over international coverage was “to not be a negotiator, however to be a sympathizer.”

“I believe there’s a rampant worry that Israel isn’t going to get the help that it deserves,” Mr. Paterson mentioned in an interview. “And Governor Hochul hasn’t allowed herself to be portrayed as in any means being hesitant about her help.”

But Ms. Hochul’s go to comes at a delicate second for Democrats at dwelling.

Democrats largely united in horror after Hamas’s lethal raid, mourning the Israeli useless whereas condemning the militant group in grave phrases. However as Israeli counterstrikes accumulate and with a floor incursion into Gaza probably imminent, cracks look like surfacing as soon as extra inside the celebration nationally and in New York over what comes subsequent.

Whereas Ms. Hochul and reasonable Democrats affirm Israel’s proper to defend itself by itself phrases, progressive and far-left officers have urgently begun calling for a cease-fire and de-escalation of hostilities. Among the loudest voices — together with Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — come from New York.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was amongst a dozen Democrats to endorse a nonbinding Home decision urging the Biden administration to push for a cease-fire and to prioritize civilian lives. Two different New York Home members, Nydia Velázquez and Jamaal Bowman, have additionally signed on. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Bowman have additionally declined to signal onto one other competing decision supported by the overwhelming majority of each events in Congress condemning the Hamas assault and reaffirming Israel’s proper to combat again.

Some left-wing lawmakers like Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens who has additionally vocally supported a cease-fire, have solid Ms. Hochul’s journey as a ringing endorsement of Israel’s lethal strikes in Gaza. He referred to as the journey “disgusting.”

“The killing of civilians ought to concern us all,” he mentioned. “But for some motive, the deaths of Palestinians doesn’t provoke the identical outrage for the governor or, in her case, any outrage in any respect.”

Like different Democratic officers, Ms. Hochul has typically struggled to straddle the sophisticated line between forcefully defending Israel’s response and recognizing the excessive numbers of Palestinian casualties. Shortly earlier than her journey, she held a media briefing the place she addressed the explosion at a hospital in Gaza that left a whole bunch useless.

“We need to guarantee that we acknowledge Israel has a proper to defend itself towards Hamas,” she mentioned. “We additionally should guarantee that civilians get humanitarian support and lament the lack of any lifetime of harmless civilians.”

After some critics steered her feedback have been insensitive, her press crew launched a brand new assertion mourning the lack of lives on the hospital, with the governor saying that she awaited “additional info from the White Home on the reason for this explosion.”

Within the airport interview on Tuesday, Ms. Hochul echoed Mr. Biden’s requires extra humanitarian support for Gaza and careworn the necessity to restrict civilian casualties.

“Hamas is a terrorist group; they solely perceive energy,” the governor mentioned. “That doesn’t imply that I’m not stuffed with compassion for the harmless civilians who’ve misplaced their lives and are in hurt’s means proper now in Gaza. It’s not one or the opposite.”

The governor’s first go to to Israel — beforehand scheduled journeys had been derailed by blizzards and wildfire smoke in New York — is anticipated to be mutually helpful.

Ms. Hochul, a daughter of Catholic activists who mentioned she traces her connection to Jewish tradition again to interfaith gatherings her mother and father organized rising up, will get to ship a strident sign to Jewish New Yorkers that she is on their facet.

For the Israeli authorities, the particular go to by a top-ranking American official, nonetheless symbolic, might assist buttress the notion that an incursion into Gaza had worldwide help.

“They perceive the significance of getting crucial governor in probably the most vital Jewish communities within the nation standing with their individuals,” mentioned Steve Israel, a former Democratic congressman from Lengthy Island, who’s Jewish. “That is as huge a bully pulpit as you’re going to get apart from the White Home.”

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting from New York.