There was a time when a public dispute with a Holocaust museum would mark the end of a political candidate’s ambitions. Unfortunately, that time seems to have passed in New York City.
The socialist firebrand Zohran Mamdani defied critics last week when he beat former governor Andrew Cuomo to become the Democratic Party’s official candidate for mayor of NYC. Despite a campaign dogged with accusations of antisemitic dog-whistling and ignoring the concerns of Jewish voters, Mamdani cruised to victory and has since begun a charm offensive to woo establishment Democrats.
Mamdani’s success lies in using the fervor of the pro-Palestine movement to support his campaign and simultaneously denying that Israel was a top election issue. His campaign focused relentlessly on big picture ideas, such as state-run grocery stores and rent controls, all while giving a nod and a wink to his rabidly anti-Israel base.
As a Brit, I regret to say that I have seen this all before. Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party in 2015 was a seismic victory for the socialist movement in Britain. Under Corbyn, Labour tacked far to the Left on economic issues; welfare and social justice were also at the core of Labour’s 2017 and 2019 election campaigns.
Bubbling underneath the UK’s then new socialist movement, however, was a reinvigorated anti-Israel campaign. Anti-Israel activists were enthused to see a man with a long history of criticizing Israel become party leader. Mainstream Labour figures, caught up in the apparent tidal wave of popular enthusiasm for Corbynism, embraced Corbyn and legitimized his politics.
The proliferation of anti-Israel sentiment in the Labour Party, which all too often strayed into antisemitism, culminated in an investigation from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a UK equality watchdog.
Investigation did immeasurable damage to British Jews, Labour Party relationship
The report found that Labour had acted unlawfully in its handling of antisemitism complaints and training, vindicating the testimony of Jewish Labour members and MPs such as Baroness Berger (then Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree). Berger and many others felt that they had been bullied out of the party over concerns of antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel rhetoric.
This scandal did immeasurable damage to the relationship between British Jews and the Labour Party.
In an extraordinary intervention before the 2019 election, the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, Ephraim Mirvis, attacked the Labour Party for its dismal record on handling antisemitism and said that the “overwhelming majority” of UK Jews were “gripped with anxiety” at the prospect of a Corbyn government.
In a few short years, the Labour Party had gone from the political home of UK Jews to the source of their deepest worries.
This process in the UK began with many of the same warning signs that could be applied to Mamdani’s current campaign in NYC
Just like Corbyn, Mamdani has wrapped extreme anti-Israel sentiment in cuddly progressive language and relied on the support of a minority of Jews to silence critical voices. When he received fierce criticism for defending the use of the phrase “Globalize the intifada,” Mamdani remained defiant. He attempted to sanitize “intifada” by taking it to its Arabic roots, arguing that the word is simply an expression of “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
He went as far as to dub the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as an example of an intifada. Naturally, many Jews were incensed. The US Holocaust Museum called the comparison “outrageous.” Mamdani responded that accusations of antisemitism were “painful” for him and that “there is no room for antisemitism in this city.”
The scenario resembles one in 2018, when Jeremy Corbyn came under fire for defending a blatantly antisemitic mural that “pictured several apparently Jewish bankers playing a game of Monopoly, with their tabletop resting on the bowed naked backs of several workers.” As part of his apology to the UK Jewish community, Corbyn insisted that he was a “militant opponent” of antisemitism.
In both of these incidents, the candidates offered innocent explanations.
Perhaps Mamdani truly does not think of violent terrorist attacks against Jews when he uses the word intifada; perhaps Corbyn truly did not see the antisemitic nature of this mural when he defended it.
Whether careless or intentional, the effect on the Jewish community and their trust in politics is the same. Worse still, when scandals like these hit the papers, avowed antisemites may feel emboldened to express their views.
Corbyn, who has since been kicked out of the Labour Party for refusing to apologize for his handling of antisemitism, congratulated Mamdani on his primary win as the news broke in the UK.
In an X post, Corbyn said that Mamdani was proof of what can happen when a campaign “stands up to corporate greed, defends the humanity of Palestinians, and makes no apology for its belief in a more equal and affordable society for all.”
If Mamdani is serious about gaining the trust of the Jewish community in New York, the majority of whom did not vote for him, this endorsement bodes poorly.
Implications of embracing Mamdani
Mainstream Democrats should take a lesson from UK politics and temper their embrace of Mamdani.
Corbynism was soundly rejected by the UK electorate, in part because most decent Brits were repulsed by his mishandling of antisemitism. Despite Corbyn’s immense success and popularity in uber-liberal parts of the UK, such as London, he failed to secure an electoral coalition big enough to win on a national level.
Establishment Democrats must realize that Mamdani’s win in ultra-liberal NYC should be understood in the same way: What wins in New York City does not necessarily win in Ohio or Pennsylvania – and as a result, a Mamdani victory could adversely affect the Democratic Party on a national level.
The Democratic Party should consider the implications of their choice heading into the general election for NYC mayor. Jewish communal concerns around Mamdani’s rhetoric and true beliefs go unaddressed, and he has assured his base that he will not “abandon” his beliefs following his primary win.
In the UK, our politics and our Jewish community suffered immensely when a small minority of far Left activists allowed antisemitic rhetoric to enter the mainstream under the guise of anti-Israel activism. In the US, these same warning signs are flashing.
The US should learn from the UK’s mistakes.
The writer is director of strategy at the Pinsker Centre, a UK-based foreign affairs think tank focusing on Israel and the Middle East. He is also a Middle East history and peace fellow at Young Voices and a Krauthammer fellow at the Tikvah Fund.