Zohran Mamdani, darling of the American ‘Left’ and new mayor of New York, can clearly owe a great part of his victory to his pro-Palestinian credentials. New to his position, Mamdani has already started following in the great tradition of the American ‘Left’ of betraying everyone and everything you said you stood for.
Mamdani proudly proclaims to be an anti-Zionist, but seems to have forgotten what that means, with him keeping close ties to Zionist politicians and smearing pro-Palestinian protestors as antisemitic.
The cracks began to show when Mamdani announced he had no plans to remove Jessica Tisch as NYC Police Commissioner. Tisch was behind the crackdown on pro-Palestinian university students, with 100 Columbia students being arrested by riot police under her authority. Her retention not only shows little deviation from his predecessor Eric Adams, but is also a complete betrayal of the demographic that allowed him to reach the position he coveted.
Even putting ethics aside, it is a terrible strategy. Generally, politicians find it prudent to keep people who want nothing more than to stab them in the back as far away from them as possible.
Tisch is obviously an egregious example of Mamdani’s flimsy pro-Palestinian credentials, but it gets even worse when you look at who he is openly pally with. Brad Lander, former Comptroller and fellow Mayoral candidate enjoys a close relationship with Mamdani, despite him describing himself as a “liberal Zionist” (aka one who shoots and cries). Supporters of Mamdani (and Lander) attempt to waive away this unfortunate fact by pointing to Lander’s decision to sell Israeli bonds as an example of his pro-Palestinian credentials. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with Lander’s non-existent anti-Zionism and everything to do with the fact Israeli bonds have been nosediving since the Gaza Genocide began.
Directly contrary to this narrative, Lander invested in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons company, during the Gaza Genocide, stating that he does not support boycotting Israeli companies, and defending his attempt to profit from a genocide as merely being part of his fiduciary responsibility. Mamdani is openly friendly with and allied to a man who made a financial investment in a genocide.
Maybe these are just outliers, and Mamdani has managed to create a strong group he can trust to put his pro-Palestinian agenda forward. After all, the ADL seems to be terrified of Mamdani, with them screeching that a whopping 20 per cent of his appointees have ties to anti-Zionist groups. Hang on, only 20 per cent? Let’s not forget who we are talking about here, this is the same organisation that smeared a children’s entertainer for her pro-Palestinian positions, and whose CEO compared the keffiyeh to the swastika. This is not an group afraid to paint with too broad a brush. It is telling that only one in five of Mamdani’s appointments cause concern from the ADL.
Finally, if that all wasn’t bad enough, Mamdani never fails to miss an opportunity to throw his supporters under the bus. When a protest was held outside of a Queens synagogue holding a real-estate sale for stolen Palestinian land, Mamdani leapt at the chance to show Donald Trump how moderate and grown-up he could be, by labelling them as antisemites. It appears that religious institutions are incapable of having a political stance, or that stance being criticised, even if they sell stolen land in their halls, or provide links to buy Israeli government bonds.
Defenders of Mamdani love to point to his statements, arguing that a major American politician saying that there is a genocide in Gaza and calling himself an anti-Zionist is somehow revolutionary in how it shifts the Overton window in the States. Unfortunately, and this is something the Western Left needs to remember, words are not deeds. This is a fairly common conflation amongst defenders of America and her allies, with the relative openness with which we commit our crimes being seen as a sign of moral superiority to the coverups done by rival states, such as the censorship of the Soviet Union and the Chinese denial of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. ‘We may do the same as them and worse, but at least we tell it like it is!’ Confession to a crime does not absolve you of the sin of committing it, especially if you never learn from it.
It’s clear to those with eyes to see that Mamdani is an AOC-in-waiting, someone who displays radical credentials to win the support of a grassroots movement, before discarding them as soon as the Democratic establishment comes calling. Someone who says one thing, and does another.
“Columbia reinstated Gaza Solidarity Encampment, second day” by عباد ديرانية is marked with CC0 1.0.