The Halcyon Days are Over

The post-World War II halcyon days for the American Jewish community in the United States have abruptly ended. New York City, which has more Jews within its population than anywhere on the globe outside of Israel, has just elected its first jihadist, socialist mayor.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Zohran Mamdani is a Muslim. It has everything to do with the very words that have come out of his mouth. Two years ago, Mamdani said, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it has been laced by the IDF.”   He has also passionately stated (that is, until he camouflaged his ideas, while running for mayor), “to globalize the intifada.”

Now, as the polished, pre-eminent politician that he is, when asked about these statements, he conveniently smiles and adroitly changes the subject to rent control, free childcare, and free buses. Mr. Mamdani supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and has gone so far to call Israel’s actions in Gaza, “genocide”.

On October 8, 2023, the day after the barbaric Hamas genocide of 1200 innocent Israeli civilians, Mr. Mamdani stated, “a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation, and dismantling apartheid.”

The sadistic atrocities committed by Hamas was not mentioned once.

And Israeli apartheid? Walk into any hospital and you will see Israeli-Arab doctors, patients, nurses and orderlies. According to a 2023 survey,  at least 25 per cent of all doctors in Israel are Israeli Arab; 49 percent of all pharmacists. Khalib Khabub is the first Arab Muslim member of the Israeli Supreme Court, who holds the power to indict any member of the Israeli Knesset, including the Prime Minister, himself.

The platform of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York city chapter includes:

• Divesting city pensions from Israeli bonds and securities
• Banning Israeli products from the city-run grocery stores Mamdani wants to open.
• Investigating real estate agents “hosting illegal sales of stolen lands in the West Bank.”
• Stripping tax-exempt nonprofit status from entities that raise funds for the Israel Defense Forces
• End the NYPD’s training with Israeli Occupation Forces.
• Arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and active IDF soldiers for “war crimes” if they enter New York City.
• Dismantle the NYC-Israel Economic Council formed by outgoing Mayor Adams.  

After this last election, radical Islamists have suddenly become emboldened, filled with a greater sense of purpose.  In the recent election, there are 42 new positions that have gone to Muslim candidates, spanning states from New York, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The list includes five mayors, four state legislators, two judges, and dozens of city council, county, and school board members.

One hopes and prays that these elected officials will uphold and respect the Constitution of the United States over the dictates of Shariya law.

However, the co-founder and executive director of the Council for American Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad is someone who has said, “I am a supporter of Hamas”. He is one of those who attended the very establishment of The Holy Land Foundation, in a hotel room in Philadelphia, in 1993.

The US government designated the Holy Land Foundation as a specifically designated terrorist organization. It was found guilty of funneling $12 million to Hamas. Mr. Nihad Awad was found to be an unindicted co-conspirator.

After the Holy Land Foundation was shut down by the US government, subsequent organizations were formed such as The Council of American Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Students for Justice in Palestine is the name of the organization Mr. Mamdani founded while at Bowdoin College, where he unsuccessfully lobbied for BDS, (immediately afterwards, he severed all ties with his J Street colleague who assisted him.) In 2014, he wrote for the Bowdoin newspaper, “Israeli universities are both actively and passively complicit in the crimes of both the Israeli military and the Israeli government in all its settler-colonial forms.”

In 2020, Mr. Mamdani stated in his podcast, “Talking Palestine”, “If you were to look at the lens of BDS and how it applies here in New York City, you would say that Cornell-Technion is something you would be talking about.”

He is now talking about shutting that down.

 Mamdani’s cultivated “coolness” and chic affectations have gotten him to this place, today.  There is a pretension calibrated to cultivate the image of the most liberal, open-minded, “woke” politicians who deal in empty aphorisms and vacuous phrases. All calculated to appeal to the millennial liberal and the identity of the Muslim who feels “under-represented.”

Should American Jews who care passionately about the survival of Israel, the sole Jewish nation in the world out of 195, be worried?

The answer is, unfortunately, a resounding “Yes.

Sarah N. Stern is Founder and President of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, EMET.