Customers Flock to Diner Over Support for Israel

People have been turning up to support a Huntington diner owner who said he ran into opposition after he began displaying Israeli flags and posters of Israelis who were kidnapped during a Hamas attack.

The normally quiet diner was just about full, with a steady stream of customers from the Huntington area and beyond coming through the doors.

Paz Manyevitch, who is an Israeli American, and his wife, Lori, came to the Golden Globe diner Wednesday to show their support in the face of little response from fellow Americans to the attacks.

“Silence is complicity,” he said. “I didn’t expect people to be this silent. “I have no problem supporting Palestinians,” he said. “The problem is the terrorists. I can’t support them.”

The Commack couple and others, some Jewish, some not, who were interviewed Wednesday at the Main Street diner said that Americans needed to stand up and denounce the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that left 1,400 Israelis dead. Israel, in turn, has been bombing Gaza where the attacks originated, with reports of thousands of Palestinians killed.

Carol and Tom Joyce of Huntington said they had a lot of Jewish friends and they felt they needed to stand up for them. “I think it’s great what the diner is doing, and we felt the need to support him,” she said. She said Americans needed to be concerned about whether the violence could happen here.

They and others expressed some surprise at the level of anti-Semitism they have seen since the attacks occurred. Others were shocked that more Americans weren’t speaking out on behalf of Israel.

The diner owner, Peter Tsadilas, said that Door Dash delivery drivers told him they wouldn’t pick up orders from his diner unless he removed the flag. He also at one point he threatened legal actioin against  the Door Dash company, saying his business listing seemed to disappear from the popular app. The company denied that anything had gone wrong with drivers or the app. He also said he had received calls demanding that he remove the flags and the hostage posters.

The windows of the diner, also known as the Golden Dolphin, display dozens of posters of Israelis and others who were kidnapped in the Hamas attack. There was also a sign bearing a Star of David and reading “We Stand With Humanity/ We Stand Wth Israel. and another that read “Greek Diners Support Israel.” Tsadilas said he was encouraging other diners to join him.