Anti-Israel progressive Mamdani wins NYC Democratic primaries

Pro-Israel ex-NY governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race; could run on another party’s ticket in the mayoral elections.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Anti-Israel State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primaries on Tuesday to become the favorite to win November’s New York City mayoral elections.

The Muslim progressive is an explicit supporter of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, refuses to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and has often denounced its war against the Hamas terror organization in Gaza.

He has also pointedly refused to condemn the chant “Globalize the intifada” heard in many anti-Israel protests, which most Jews consider to be a call for violence against them.

Despite his many anti-Israel statements and the public support of such fierce Israel critics as Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani has rejected the charge that he is an antisemite.

While polls suggested that some 20% of the city’s Jewish population believed him and would vote for him, enamored of his progressive ideas, many Jewish groups and leaders feared his win.

“It’s unthinkable that New York City, with one of the largest Jewish communities anywhere outside of Israel, would be led by an antisemite like Zohran Mamdani,” Liora Rez, founder and Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, said on Tuesday.

Mamdani, whose socialist economic plans to lower the cost of living for poor New Yorkers are feared by the city’s business community, had been running second to pro-Israel Andrew Cuomo, the state’s former governor, for almost the whole election period.

Cuomo, who had assiduously courted the Jewish vote, described Mamdani to the Israeli Ynet news site in an interview on Monday as “a silver spoon socialist who’s embraced a far-left, anti-Israel and defund-the-police agenda that has fallen out of favor with the majority of New Yorkers.”

Pro-Israel Jews who support Cuomo described Mamdani as “a danger to our values,” and noted that “Someone who can’t condemn attacks on Jews abroad won’t protect them here either.”

Cuomo conceded the race on Tuesday night in a gracious statement, saying, “I want to applaud the assemblyman for a really smart and good and impactful campaign. Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”

The ex-governor could still theoretically win in the mayoral elections, as he heads the ticket of the Fight and Deliver Party, which was created in May “to appeal to disillusioned Democrats, as well as to independents and Republicans,” Cuomo said.

The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who had won his seat on the Democratic ticket, is also in the running, as he announced early in the primary season that he was not going to battle a crowded field in his party and would instead run as an independent himself.

If Mamdani wins in November, the 33-year-old will become the second-youngest mayor of the city in history.

Andrew CuomoDemocratic mayorsNew York CityNew York JewsZohran Mamdani