A Progressive Pro-Israel Take on Mamdani’s NYC Victory

The race has been – as so much is these days – a political Rorschach test. What you see reflects the lens through which you look.

I cut my political teeth in New York City a few decades back, culminating when I helped run a mayoral campaign 25 years ago.

How long it’s been was driven home when I realized this week that Zohran Mamdani – winner of New York’s Democratic mayoral primary – was only nine years old on the day of our 2001 primary: September 11th.

The national spotlight was once again on New York City politics following Mamdani’s historic win Tuesday. The race carries important implications for Democratic party messaging and direction, and key lessons about successful campaigning in the 2020s.

For some, Mamdani’s win is an uplifting story of generational change, highlighting the potential of bold policies, energetic campaigning, new media and progressive economic populism. I know many who see the race as a road map for revitalizing the Democratic Party, with a focus on affordability and expanding the electorate.

For others, the win strikes a more ominous note, particularly Jewish Americans fearful of rising criticism of Israel and its connection to the growth of antisemitism.

The Palestinian cause has been central to Mamdani’s political activism over the last decade as it has for many progressives. He founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in college and brought a focus on the conflict to his service in the State Assembly.

New York City’s Mayor doesn’t make foreign policy. So there’s an argument that Israel-Palestine should really be irrelevant to the race, but Mamdani’s deep personal engagement on the issue justifies making his views part of the conversation regarding his candidacy.

One can legitimately – as I do – disagree with things he believes in and stands for. I oppose the Global BDS Movement, which he supports. I believe Israel should not only provide equal rights to all who live in the country, I think it should be accepted as the “national home of the Jewish people” (and I believe there must be a state of Palestine to be the same for the Palestinian people). He rejects identifying Israel in this way.

But legitimate policy disagreement cannot justify the abuse unleashed on Mamdani. If you want to plumb the depths of the cesspool of tweets, statements, memes and more online, be my guest. I won’t help drive traffic to them by giving you links.

It won’t take you long to be shocked by the extent of the hate and deep-seated anti-Muslim bigotry and racism. Of course, the bile comes not just from the online fringe; I can still find it in me to be shocked that a Member of Congress would call on the Attorney General to strip Mamdani of his American citizenship and deport him.

Jewish communal leaders have been quick to condemn Mamdani for his positions on Israel and his refusal to condemn phrases like “Globalize the Intifada.”

I myself find that phrase repugnant – having lived in Jerusalem during the bombing campaign of the 90’s when my favorite cafés and my bus line were terror targets and I was steps away from an exploding market stall.

I and many Jews hear support for ‘intifada’ not as opposition to occupation but as support, even encouragement, for violence. I understand that Palestinians and their advocates argue it refers to an uprising – without violence – but I hope they understand that’s not how most in the Jewish community and other allies hear it.

Political violence must be condemned unequivocally – as October 7^th must be. My belief that what’s happening in Gaza today has crossed every moral red line doesn’t mean that I’m willing to accept when others who oppose the Israeli government’s actions fail to speak out against terror and violence by Hamas and other groups.

Progressive Jewish leaders like my friend NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and other leaders on the left of the Jewish political spectrum have important work to do to help Mamdani hear our pain and understand the fear certain words can hold for the Jewish community, even those who align with his politics.

Other Jewish communal leaders – including those who don’t share Mamdani’s politics – need to step forward as well. Their voices are needed to say that the wave of race-baiting Islamophobic hate unleashed against him has been vile, despicable and unacceptable.

If the Jewish community wants to assemble a broad coalition to fight rising antisemitism, we have to have other communities’ backs when they face unacceptable and dangerous hatred.

It’s stating the obvious that nuance is sorely lacking on all things Israel-Palestine.

On the one hand, positions taken by Mamdani and other pro-Palestinian activists lack understanding of and sensitivity to Jewish history, the demographics of global Jewry and our deep connection to the land of Israel.

On the other, the insistence by some on defining antisemitism so broadly that it encompasses protected political speech – including fierce opposition to Israel and its policies – can, in my opinion, actually harm the fight against antisemitism.

This race highlighted a lot of the long-standing tensions running deeply through the Jewish community, the Democratic Party and society more broadly post-October 7 - divides which opportunists on the authoritarian MAGA right are all too eager to exploit.

We’ll need some tough conversations in the months ahead - both within the pro-democracy coalition and the Jewish community - about how to address difficult issues. If Jews and non-Jews of democratic principle are going to beat the threat we all face from the authoritarian right, we can’t allow self-defeating arguments over Israel to tear us apart. We have to engage those with whom we may in good faith disagree and hold tough conversations with compassion, curiosity and empathy.

And, finally, we need to chart a path that joins a commitment to Jewish safety and Israel’s security together with clear, meaningful and unapologetic support for Palestinian freedom and self- determination.

I have a strong suspicion that political figures like Zohran Mamdani may well have an important role to play if we’re going to succeed. I know that I – and many in our movement – are ready to give it a try.