Muhammad’s mayor

For Zohran Mamdani, peace cannot come to the Middle East without the end of a Jewish presence. Does he feel the same way about New York?

I am known to have unrealistic expectations. For instance, once the 20-point Mideast peace plan was signed, I naively, facetiously, imagined that celebrities Mark Ruffalo, Dua Lipa, Emma Stone, the Hadid sisters, Javier Bardem, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and the legions of pink-and purple-haired antisemites would all ecstatically dance the hora in celebration.

After all, aside from retrieving the remaining hostages still alive in the Gaza Strip, the agreement—when viewed most favorably to Palestinian sympathizers—addressed their ostensible concerns: An immediate ceasefire and an end to the killing of “innocent” civilians.

Israelis, nationwide, danced joyously, but had fewer reasons to do so. The war was over, and hostages were coming home. But the downsides were numerous: The Israel Defense Forces were withdrawing from the enclave responsible for the most Jewish deaths since the Holocaust; there’s the survival of, and amnesty granted to, Hamas, which planned and carried out those murders; the terror tunnels were still intact and weapons still in enemy hands; nearly 4,000 terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands, and thirsting for more, were released; operational and security control of Gaza was being delegated to Muslim and Arab nations who didn’t want the job and won’t be very good at it; the Rafah border crossing, a hub for weapons smuggling, was now swung wide open; and there was to be no annexation of the West Bank, a hotbed of growing tensions.

That’s a good deal for Palestinians and a relatively lousy one for Israelis, given what happened on Oct. 7, 2023. Marxists on college campuses, imbeciles on Hollywood red carpets, terminally unemployed and sexually frustrated Islamists in Europe, and professional agitators fomenting anti-Israel violence in Western cities should be overjoyed.

Instead, celebrities went completely silent; pro-Hamas violence erupted in New York, London, Paris, Melbourne and Barcelona; synagogues were vandalized and Jews taunted; and fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team were banned from attending a Europa League match in Birmingham, England.

Back in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leaders blindfolded and publicly executed eight men accused of collaborating with Israel. They also hunted and killed rival militia and family clans that had been vying to unseat Hamas.

All this occurred days after a peace agreement went into effect. Doesn’t the agreement require that Hamas be demilitarized and have no further governmental or military control over the Palestinian people? Moreover, the bodily remains of 16 hostages have yet to be returned.

Hamas is already in serious breach of the agreement. Israeli troops should feel no compunction about regrouping and returning to Gaza City to finalize their moral mission.

And if you are still cheering for Hamas, then the lives of Palestinians never meant that much to you, after all. Apparently, you have no problem applauding actions that would prolong the war and result in more lives lost.

As for the leading contender to occupy Gracie Mansion as New York’s next mayor, Mamdani dodged the question as to whether Hamas should, in fact, lay down its weapons. He then blatantly lied, even by the low standards of a politician, in stating that he had no particular opinions about Hamas or Israel.

Does he feel immune to a simple Google search? His entire young life so far has been dedicated to vile antisemitism. He doesn’t do anything else well. Repeatedly, he has demonstrated his contempt for the Jewish state and shown support for all terrorists who live to kill Jews.

As a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, he founded its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. He supported SJP’s National Day of Resistance on Oct. 8, 2023. He participated in rallies organized by Within Our Lifetime, including one on Oct. 9 that called for the full liberation of Palestine (meaning, the end of Israel) “by any means necessary” (meaning, gang-raping Israelis and torching Jewish babies).

On Oct. 8, 2023, Mamdani publicly called for the dismantling of Israel without saying a word about the atrocities Hamas committed the day before. As a New York assemblyman, he refused to sign a resolution condemning the Holocaust and another one honoring Israel’s founding.

As a mayoral candidate, he has defended the chant “globalize the intifada!”, which is tantamount to saying, “kill all Jews wherever they happen to be, even in the city I am hoping to someday lead.” He has rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by 45 countries, the U.S. Department of State and others, and which, among other things, properly defines libeling Israel as a racist state to be antisemitic.

He promises to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even though he would have no authority or jurisdiction to do so. He has even, bizarrely, blamed Israel for police brutality against African-Americans in the United States.

Much of this can be explained as inherited hatred. His father, a longtime Columbia University professor, teaches his students that Israel is no different from Nazi Germany. Now the son, with a straight but smug face, assures New Yorkers that he hasn’t given much thought to Israel or Hamas.

Would he get elected if he said what he was really thinking? The “genocide!” charge was always a ruse, a convenient misdirection, a sucker’s game. He and his Islamist-Marxist allies couldn’t care less about ceasefires. For them, peace will bring no peace to the Middle East without the end of a Jewish presence in the region. Does he feel the same way about the five boroughs of New York?

The end of Israel was always the endgame. That’s what “Free, free Palestine!” means: Liberate it from the Jews. “Justice” means giving the Jews of Israel what they deserve for stealing Arab land.

Why do you think they refer to all Jews as “Zios”? All Jews are held responsible for the creation and mind-blowing success of Israel. “Intifada!” was never an innocuous word vaguely advocating for Palestinian rights. It means slaughtering Jews, ending the humiliation of .02% of all Arab lands being occupied by a powerful, pluralistic and modern Jewish state.

Tell stupid Westerners what they want to hear. They’ll believe anything. Gullible Europeans have shown themselves to be too afraid to parse the true meaning of Muslim talking points.

Talk about coexistence, even though Islam craves caliphates and conquests. Demand diversity, even though we have no flair for democracy and refuse integration. Nothing about us is nonviolent, but it’s Islamophobic to point that out.

“Two-state solution?” How about one entirely Jew-less state, instead?

We don’t even require trained terrorists anymore. We can mobilize hundreds of thousands of Jew-haters, all ideologically brainwashed conscripts deployed from TikTok and Instagram, the ultimate followers.

As for the upcoming mayoral election in New York, Mamdani’s caginess and duplicity are holding back the ultimate truth of this age: Anyone who despises Israel as much as he does hates America even more.

New York City voters should at least know what they are about to elect.

Originally published by the Jewish Journal.

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Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. His most recent book is Beyond Proportionality: Israel's Just War in Gaza.

By Thane Rosenbaum