Twenty-four years after 9/11, New Yorkers appear ready to elect as mayor a man who, when asked this week, could not bring himself to say that Hamas, the ideological kin to the jihadists who struck this city, should disarm and step aside.
That should alarm not only Jews and Israelis, but anyone who believes that if terrorism is to be defeated, the terrorists must be seen and treated as what they are: Pure evil.
Zohran Mamdani, the leading Democratic contender, was asked a straightforward question on Fox News on Wednesday: Should Hamas lay down its weapons and relinquish control of Gaza?
He ducked the question. “I believe that any future here in New York City is one that we have to make sure is affordable for all,” he said, giving an answer that would have only made sense if Hamas were running the city’s rent board.
When pressed again, Mamdani replied, “I don’t really have opinions about the future of Hamas and Israel beyond the question of justice and safety and the fact that anything has to abide by international law, and that applies to Hamas and the Israeli military, and anyone you could ask me about.”
That “I don’t have an opinion” answer is astonishing, coming from a man who routinely accuses Israel of genocide, calls it an apartheid state, and questions its right to exist as a Jewish country.
A day later, under fire, Mamdani backpedaled: “Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms,” he said in a mayoral debate.
Yet even then, he reverted to his familiar script. “We also have to ensure that it [the ceasefire] addresses the conditions that preceded this, like the occupation and the siege and apartheid; that is what I’m hopeful for,” he said. Mamdani hurled the genocide libel repeatedly during that debate.
New York, we have a problem.
The city that once embodied resilience against terror may soon be led by someone all too ready to blame the victims while being unable to instinctively say, when asked, that Hamas terrorists should lay down their arms and leave.
The genocide charge against Israel is not only false, it’s obscene and must be called out. Genocide means the deliberate, systematic extermination of a people. Anyone not blinded by hatred of Israel, or numbed by the constant repetition of this lie, can see that nothing of the sort occurred in Gaza. Civilian casualties in war are tragic, even when they occur among those who started it, but they do not constitute genocide.
The danger is that if Mamdani wins on November 4, and polls are showing he very well might, he will use the mayor’s platform to mainstream Israel’s vilification, something that the last two years have shown leads to increased attacks on Jews.
And all this in a city with the second-largest Jewish population outside Israel. That some New York Jews are backing Mamdani, seduced by his pie-in-the-sky economics and promises of free buses and child care, city-run grocery stores, and rent freezes, is a moral failure. Their votes could help elevate a man whose rhetoric betrays intense hostility to the Jewish state.
Mamdani's dangerous rhetoric and ideas
The record speaks for itself. It took Mamdani months to recognize that “globalize the intifada” was offensive to Jews. And this week, he doubled down on his absurd vow to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York.
“I have said that this is a city that believes in international law and that wants to uplift and uphold those beliefs,” he told Fox News.
When reminded that the US isn’t even a signatory to the International Criminal Court that issued the warrant and that he has no grounds to order such an arrest, he replied, “I believe that we should uphold arrest warrants by the ICC... I’m not going to make a new law to ensure that we can actually do this.”
Translation: If he could, he would. The intent alone is a disgrace.
Three weeks before the election, Mamdani’s true colors are there for everyone to see. His words reveal not nuance but animus toward the Jewish state. They should alarm anyone who still knows the difference between moral posturing and moral clarity, and for whom Israel is important.
Ed Koch must be rolling in his grave.