 |
| Zohran Mamdani interviewed on Meet the Press today (Screenshot) |
New York is not some ‘beside-the-point’ flyover city that doesn't reflect the sentiment of Democratic voters. It is the largest city in the country, and most of its voters are Democrats. They have chosen a Socialist - Zohran Mamdani - to lead them to victory in November
I hate to sound like a broken record. But I cannot emphasize
enough the significance Mamdani’s victory.
All the talk about Democrats moving away from the far left
clearly hasn’t reached New York. The results of this election have caused
severe indigestion among mainstream Democratic leaders. They are squirming,
trying to figure out which direction to steer the party. What had recently been
seen as a shift toward the center - following Trump’s massive victory
nationwide - now seems to have been replaced by a sharp left turn. And not
surprisingly, this shift has been accompanied by harsh anti-Israel sentiment.
Those who try to explain away Mamdani’s win as a matter of
simple economics cannot ignore how far apart a Socialist agenda is from what
America has stood for since its founding. I doubt that any mainstream Democrat embraces
the Socialist ideology that will guide New York’s likely next mayor.
One Democratic apologist I heard interviewed this morning tried
mightily to deflect charges of antisemitism on Mamdani’s part, using the
familiar trope: ‘There’s a difference between being opposed to the current
Israeli government and being an antisemite.’ The argument was that surely one can criticize
a government without being antisemitic. One can even criticize the U.S.
government without being anti American, right?
But does Mamdani have the right to call for genocide against
the Jewish people worldwide? Which is what ‘Globalize the Intifada’ means? A cry
often heard by pro-Palestinian protests that Mamdani has thus far refused to
condemn. As recently as today when he was asked several times to do so by Meet
the Press moderator Kristen Welker – he refused. I wonder if he
would defend an individual’s right to call for the annihilation of all Muslims.
You bet he wouldn’t!
Mamdani’s long-held support for boycotting Israel, his
refusal to condemn the Hamas attack of October 7th, and his promise
to arrest the Prime Minister of Israel if he sets foot in New York tell me far
more about his true agenda than his hollow promise to fight antisemitism in the
city. That promise rings especially hollow given that his own rhetoric has
helped fuel it. Rhetoric that supports pro-Palestinian campus protests that
have harassed Jewish students at universities across the country.
Like it or not, this is the ‘New Democrat’. Young. Progressive. And anti-Israel. It’s a reality that mainstream Democrats are clearly struggling to come to terms with. All the apologetics about separating criticism of Israeli policy from antisemitism are just that - apologetics.
As I’ve said before, it’s not that those mainstream American
Democrats who voted for Trump have abandoned the Democratic Party. It’s that
the Democratic Party has abandoned them. It has been replaced by Democratic
Socialism. A movement that has abandoned its traditional support for the Jewish
state and traditional American values. In its place are lofty promises of ‘social
justice’ that Socialists love to preach. But that history has shown to fail
every time it has been tried. It’s now a party where being anti-Israel is
entirely acceptable, and where denying Israel’s right to exist is treated as no
less legitimate than affirming it.
Deep down, mainstream Democratic leaders know this. That’s why they have not (yet) endorsed Mamdani. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has said she will not support him unless he condemns the phrase ‘Globalize the Intifada’. And so far, no other prominent mainstream Democrat has endorsed him either.
Those among us - the Jewish people - who care at all about
our Judaism, and who continue to insist that liberalism is the truest
reflection of Jewish values, and that the Democratic Party best represents
those interests, really ought to rethink that logic.
If New York voters reflect the national mood, we are all in
trouble. But I don’t think they do. What they do reflect is the
direction liberalism is taking. The country is deeply divided. It has been for
quite some time. But more so now than at any time in U.S. history.
While there has always been a right and a left, and values
that clashed between them, never before has the contrast been so stark. And
never before has antisemitism found such a welcoming atmosphere in the politics
of a city where Jews are so heavily concentrated.
Some might say this is an anomaly. And maybe they’re right. For now. But Mamdani is going to be around
for a while.
As I said recently - and it bears repeating - those among us
who care at all about their Judaism, and who still insist that liberalism and
the Democratic Party best represent Jewish values, really ought to rethink that
kind of logic.
The era of bi-partisan support is over. And more than
anything else it is the Democrat slide down the Socialist rabbit hole that got
us there. It is long past due that the liberal
Jews among us whose social justice intentions are pure - face that reality.
Because for the New Democrat, social justice no longer applies to Israel.
