They Tried to Smear Zohran Mamdani as an Antisemite. Voters Saw Right Through It.

Weeks before his New York City mayoral success Zohran Mamdani prepares to speak outside a Bronx mosque on Oct in the Bronx borough of New York Photo Spencer Platt Getty Images On Friday night early votes had already been cast in their multiple thousands for Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani Rabbi Angela Buchdahl who leads the prominent Central Synagogue in Manhattan took the occasion to slander the democratic socialist candidate purportedly in the name of Jewish New Yorkers Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of selected of the the majority abhorrent antisemitism Buchdahl mentioned Buchdahl didn t cite any actual antisemitism Her matter with Mamdani was his criticism of Israel Mamdani s alleged antisemitism Pointing out in the established fact that the Israeli military has trained hundreds of members of the New York Police Department and that the NYPD and Israeli forces have intelligence sharing agreements The rabbi also decried Mamdani s false insists of genocide in Gaza states shared by leading genocide scholars and every major international human rights organization That is Buchdahl didn t and couldn t cite any actual antisemitism on the newly elected mayor s part Her challenge with Mamdani as was the affair for the array of establishment Jewish voices who spoke out against Mamdani was his criticism of Israel Related Zohran Mamdani Beats Andrew Cuomo in Supremacy for the Left in NYC Mayoral Race Mamdani s balloting as mayor of New York City is a success or at least offers promise for so several of the city s working-class constituents For our immigrant neighbors trans siblings and every New Yorker struggling to pay rent eat and access care in this punishingly expensive brutally unequal place It is a particular bright relief that base Islamophobia entrenched since the September attacks supercharged during the Gaza genocide and drenching every campaign against Mamdani did not prevail Antisemitism Smears Mamdani s win marks a rejection of the consistently Islamophobic weaponization of antisemitism I hope it is a turning point from which other New York institutions learn Diehard encouragement for the Zionist project is conclusively not a sine qua non of New York City leadership If Mamdani s conquest was a conquest over Islamophobia and false antisemitism claims it was not quite a total one The essential aid for the attacks against Mamdani and the purchase they uncovered with converts to disgraced former Gov Andrew Cuomo was jarring It was depressing for this Jewish writer to see major numbers of particularly older Jewish voters back the slanders against Mamdani The explanation however is simple enough The very same Jewish figures and groups have been organizing their political lives around advocacy for a genocidal ethnostate With the genocide in Gaza raging weaponized contends of antisemitism launched by pro-Israel forces have won the day in this city for over two years Students workers and other protesters stood up to decry their institutions complicity in Israel s onslaught At every turn Democratic leaders bolstered and enforced calls for expressions of Palestinian solidarity to be censured and punished Mayor Eric Adams sent police to raid Columbia University campus protests at the direct behest of pro-Israel business leaders Baseless accusations of antisemitism went wholly unchecked It was a lesson in cowardice and complicity which has only served President Donald Trump s attacks on higher training and anti-Arab anti-Muslim immigration crackdowns Setting an Example The fact that the majority of young Jewish New Yorkers expressed encouragement for Mamdani as did certain of the most of powerful Jewish politicians in the city and the country should have long ago served to mute the attacks against Mamdani Yet there will be no reasoning with a worldview that treats endorsement for Palestinian freedom and criticism of Israel as a threat to Jewish life Related Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats How Not to Take the Bait Mamdani however did not have to sacrifice Palestinian solidarity to win this electoral process He did not have to pander to the endless false declares of antisemitism directed at him at every debate and the greater part every mainstream press interview Mamdani did not have to sacrifice Palestinian solidarity to win this referendum And when he is the mayor there is every reason to demand that he uphold commitments to Palestinian solidarity including ending municipal partnerships with the state of Israel as it continues its campaign of mass slaughter displacement occupation and apartheid I have no doubt that Mamdani will live up to his vows to help and protect New York s Jewish communities there were never any justified grounds to believe otherwise His mayorship among so various other things should set an example of how supporting Jewish New Yorkers can be paired with a refusal to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an voting process stated Mamdani Tuesday night addressing his supporters in Brooklyn after being declared the next mayor of New York City The post They Tried to Smear Zohran Mamdani as an Antisemite Voters Saw Right Through It appeared first on The Intercept