Hi Josh, I appreciate you addressing the allegations that Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite, something you didn't do in your earlier piece on this issue (I believe), and I applaud you for stating clearly that Mamdani should speak up against the phrase "globalize the intifada" loud and clear. (Please, Zohran, if you're reading this, please consider making such a statement!). I don't live in NYC anymore, so won't be voting in the election, but like Jews everywhere, I'm following his candidacy closely. Just about every NYC mayor in recent history has had their eye on the National stage, and how NYC is governed affects those of us living in the burbs and beyond.
Here's a partial list of his problematic rhetoric, behavior and associations.
1. Mamdani founded his college's Student's for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which calls for Israel's destruction and the ethnic cleansing of Jews, not two states or any type of coexistence. A common refrain at SJP event is "We don't want two states, we want 1948, meaning no Israel. Although Hamas didn't give SJP a heads up about Oct 7, they were among the organizations worldwide that received a playbook hours after the attacks on how to best exploit it. https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/DAY-OF-RESISTANCE-TOOLKIT.pdf SJP has also been responsible for campus takeovers and actual violence against Jews.
2. He sponsored legislation to defund Jewish charities.
3. He supports BDS. In 2021 he said he would only get behind candidates advocating BDS.
4. He protested outside Chuck Schumer's home shortly after Oct 7. Schumer was targeted because he is Jewish and the protest was well before the deaths in Gaza reached an alarming level.
5. He's friends with podcaster Hasan Piker. Piker doesn't think Israel has the right to exist and has justified Oct 7 and September 11. He made fun of the women raped on Oct 7 and made fun of a Holocaust survivor hostage. Piker called Jews inbred and pigs. He says the Amsterdam's "Jew Hunt" against Israeli soccer fans was not antisemitic.
6. Mamdani refuses to condemn the phrase "Globalize the Intifada". The second Intifada was launched after Arafat turned down the Clinton peace plan and took the lives of over a thousand Jews. Intifada literally means struggle. So does Mein Kampf. It has grown to mean violent uprising and globalizing it means exporting violence against Jews.
7. He's praised the Holyland Five, who were convicted of money laundering and funneling money to Hamas.
8. Mamdani pledged to arrest Netanyahu if ever enters NY. He has not extended the same threat to Putin, Iran's leadership or other leaders with more blood on their hands the Israeli prime minister. Double standards.
9. He's a chip off the old block. His Columbia professor father teaches that Jews are white European colonizers who stole Palestine from the natives and denies any Jewish historical connection to the land. He denies Jews the right to self determination. His Academy Award Winning Mother led an effort to attempt to ban Israeli actress Gal Gadot from the Oscars.
10. He engages in blood libels against Israel by referring to this defensive war as Genocide well before casualties reached their current frightening level and calling it an Apartheid state. War is hell and the carnage is tragic, but its not Genocide. The Allies killed 500,000 civilian Germans. Would you have advocated leaving the Nazis in power because of the deaths of innocent Germans? There was a cease fire on Oct 6 and Hamas has pledged to repeat Oct 7 over and over again until Israel's destruction. The War would have been over if Hamas had returned the hostages alive without exchanging them for anyone with blood on their hands. No other country in the world is criticized for defending themselves.
Comparing Israel to South Africa is like comparing apples and bananas. While Palestinian Israelis are treated poorly and indeed discriminated against, it is not Apartheid. Arabs on paper have equal civil and political rights in Israel, although Israel needs to do a much better job at protecting them. And much of the discrimination is the result of the not unreal fear of terror. The Palestinians are treated better than any minority in the world's 22 Arab and Muslim majority countries. Sunni's in Israel are treated better than they are in Iran and Shiites better than in Saudi Arabia.
Jews are the only marginalized group that doesn't have the right to define what is racist against us.
Hi Josh, I appreciate you addressing the allegations that Zohran Mamdani is an antisemite, something you didn't do in your earlier piece on this issue (I believe), and I applaud you for stating clearly that Mamdani should speak up against the phrase "globalize the intifada" loud and clear. (Please, Zohran, if you're reading this, please consider making such a statement!). I don't live in NYC anymore, so won't be voting in the election, but like Jews everywhere, I'm following his candidacy closely. Just about every NYC mayor in recent history has had their eye on the National stage, and how NYC is governed affects those of us living in the burbs and beyond.
Here's a partial list of his problematic rhetoric, behavior and associations.
1. Mamdani founded his college's Student's for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which calls for Israel's destruction and the ethnic cleansing of Jews, not two states or any type of coexistence. A common refrain at SJP event is "We don't want two states, we want 1948, meaning no Israel. Although Hamas didn't give SJP a heads up about Oct 7, they were among the organizations worldwide that received a playbook hours after the attacks on how to best exploit it. https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/DAY-OF-RESISTANCE-TOOLKIT.pdf SJP has also been responsible for campus takeovers and actual violence against Jews.
2. He sponsored legislation to defund Jewish charities.
3. He supports BDS. In 2021 he said he would only get behind candidates advocating BDS.
4. He protested outside Chuck Schumer's home shortly after Oct 7. Schumer was targeted because he is Jewish and the protest was well before the deaths in Gaza reached an alarming level.
5. He's friends with podcaster Hasan Piker. Piker doesn't think Israel has the right to exist and has justified Oct 7 and September 11. He made fun of the women raped on Oct 7 and made fun of a Holocaust survivor hostage. Piker called Jews inbred and pigs. He says the Amsterdam's "Jew Hunt" against Israeli soccer fans was not antisemitic.
6. Mamdani refuses to condemn the phrase "Globalize the Intifada". The second Intifada was launched after Arafat turned down the Clinton peace plan and took the lives of over a thousand Jews. Intifada literally means struggle. So does Mein Kampf. It has grown to mean violent uprising and globalizing it means exporting violence against Jews.
7. He's praised the Holyland Five, who were convicted of money laundering and funneling money to Hamas.
8. Mamdani pledged to arrest Netanyahu if ever enters NY. He has not extended the same threat to Putin, Iran's leadership or other leaders with more blood on their hands the Israeli prime minister. Double standards.
9. He's a chip off the old block. His Columbia professor father teaches that Jews are white European colonizers who stole Palestine from the natives and denies any Jewish historical connection to the land. He denies Jews the right to self determination. His Academy Award Winning Mother led an effort to attempt to ban Israeli actress Gal Gadot from the Oscars.
10. He engages in blood libels against Israel by referring to this defensive war as Genocide well before casualties reached their current frightening level and calling it an Apartheid state. War is hell and the carnage is tragic, but its not Genocide. The Allies killed 500,000 civilian Germans. Would you have advocated leaving the Nazis in power because of the deaths of innocent Germans? There was a cease fire on Oct 6 and Hamas has pledged to repeat Oct 7 over and over again until Israel's destruction. The War would have been over if Hamas had returned the hostages alive without exchanging them for anyone with blood on their hands. No other country in the world is criticized for defending themselves.
Comparing Israel to South Africa is like comparing apples and bananas. While Palestinian Israelis are treated poorly and indeed discriminated against, it is not Apartheid. Arabs on paper have equal civil and political rights in Israel, although Israel needs to do a much better job at protecting them. And much of the discrimination is the result of the not unreal fear of terror. The Palestinians are treated better than any minority in the world's 22 Arab and Muslim majority countries. Sunni's in Israel are treated better than they are in Iran and Shiites better than in Saudi Arabia.
Jews are the only marginalized group that doesn't have the right to define what is racist against us.
Like Trump, Mamdani is fortunate in his enemies.