Zohran Mamdani’s Jewish Problem
On October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas launched a barbaric attack on southern Israel that murdered more Jews than had been killed in a single day since the Holocaust, New York State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (D–Queens) took stock of the situation and zeroed in on what he saw as the central issue. “The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid,” Mamdani said in a statement he posted on X.
That response, which echoed the left-wing activists who immediately reacted to the appalling Hamas invasion by blaming Israel, epitomizes Mamdani’s blinkered advocacy of the Palestinian cause, which is of fresh interest given his new status as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for mayor of New York City. In practical terms, Mamdani’s loony socialist agenda may be more alarming than his hostility toward Israel, especially since the latter has little to do with the job he is seeking. But you might think his extreme views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a serious handicap in a city that is home to more Jews than any local jurisdiction outside of Israel.
Mamdani, through a combination of personal charm and canny obfuscation, nevertheless has managed to present himself as an evenhanded defender of human rights who opposes bigotry and violent aggression in all their forms. On Wednesday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D–N.Y.), a longtime fixture of Democratic politics in New York who calls himself a “committed Zionist,” endorsed Mamdani for mayor. Nadler described Mamdani’s primary victory as a “seismic election for the Democratic Party that I can only compare to Barack Obama’s in 2008.” Voters “demanded change and, with Zohran’s triumph, we have a direct repudiation of Donald Trump’s politics of tax cuts and authoritarianism,” the congressman said. “I’ve spoken to him today about his commitment to fighting antisemitism, and we’ll work with all New Yorkers to fight against all bigotry and hate.”
Former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, an economist who served as treasury secretary during the Obama administration, had a different take. “I am profoundly alarmed about the future of the [Democratic Party] and the country by yesterday’s NYC anointment of a candidate who failed to disavow a ‘globalize the intifada’ slogan and advocated Trotskyite economic policies,” he wrote on X. “I fear it is evidence that our party is following the most problematic aspects of Britain’s Labor Party.”
Other Jewish Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.), likewise still seem to have qualms about Mamdani, and it is not hard to see why. As The New York Times dryly puts it, “Mr. Mamdani’s views go beyond disagreeing with Israel’s elected government.”
The Hamas attack—which targeted Jews as Jews, including many who opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, defended Palestinian rights, and doggedly advocated the “just and lasting peace” that Mamdani claims to support—was an easy test for anyone who is avowedly committed to the fight against “all bigot
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