The New York mayoral election is a local contest with real consequences for both the Jewish Diaspora and the State of Israel. The city’s voters will decide who leads New York - who will oversee the NYPD - but their choice carries, first and foremost, a far-reaching symbolic weight.
Anyone who follows what Douglas Murray calls “the battle for the West” cannot ignore the potential turning point represented by this election. New York, a symbol of the economic and cultural might of the United States - and, by extension, of the West - could democratically elect a mayor whose campaign rests on deep contempt, harsh criticism, and an explicit intention to dismantle the culture and values upon which the city was built.
Calling the candidate “critical of the Western order” would be an understatement. He advances an alternative agenda aimed at smashing the West’s most cherished values and replacing them with contrary principles. In the Israeli context, he resembles an Obama without political correctness: his hostility toward Israel and his support for jihadist terror directed at it have been expressed more than once during the campaign.
In a familiar tactic among sophisticated antisemites, he draws a distinction between “Israel” and “the Jews.” He claims to criticize Israel for its crimes, while professing no animus toward the Jewish people - or the Jewish diaspora - provided they refrain from national leanings.
Just as in Germany, where many Jews believed their enlightened German identity would eclipse their Jewishness, in the United States there is a non-negligible share of Jews who, according to polls, intend to vote for this candidate. Public revelations about his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood moved the needle and reduced his support somewhat, but it remains unclear whether the shift is large enough to derail the project of a man who despises Western civilization from taking over its greatest city.
Beyond New York’s symbolic status, the candidate’s broad support signals a deeper transformation within the Democratic Party. This is not Clinton-era or even Biden-era politics: classic Democrats are being replaced by woke activists with a socialist-communist bent that differs sharply from the party as we have known it.
The demographic and ideological shifts in the United States - combined with the fact that President Trump is unlikely to run for a third consecutive term in the next election - should already pose a stark question for Israeli decision-makers: what happens if the United States falls into the hands of the “Mamdanis”?
Israel must adapt its security doctrine to the reality unfolding before us. This is not a matter of Left or Right politics; it is plain realism.
The two decisive steps Israel must take
To align our security posture with this new reality, Israel should take two decisive steps.
First, we must strengthen strategic alliances with regional states and powers with whom cooperation will be possible in the emerging new order.
Second, we must create certainty along Israel’s borders. To that end, full sovereignty should be extended over Judea and Samaria, and Israel must insist on military administration in Gaza with voluntary population transfer.
If we fail to achieve these two objectives now, we may find ourselves - within a couple of years - asking whichever current American leader to sign off on weapons for a war in Gaza while Europeans pull the rug out from under us at the UN Security Council.
The writer is an expert in governance and management and chair of Mothers for Israel.