Suddenly, the intifada has moved from the Middle East to New York, as self-hating Jews and self-loathing Americans voted for a rabid antisemite for Democrat mayoral candidate. Opinion.
Jews can’t seem to catch a break. Just when it was safe for them to leave their shelters in Israel, Jews in the biggest Jewish community outside of Israel are realizing they might have to find shelter.
The State of Israel has just come off a brilliant and decisive victory against the biggest exporter of antisemitism in the world. Aided by President Trump and the American military, Israel clobbered Iran and decimated its nuclear capabilities, ridding the world of a terrorist state bent on annihilating the Jewish State.
The euphoria in Israel is palpable, despite the deaths of close to 30 civilians, hundreds wounded and massive property damage. There is an almost bewildering sense of relief following decades of habitual dread. And while the ceasefire between Israel and Iran is tenuous, the outlook is buoyant.
On Monday, Trump declared the ceasefire, bringing an end to what he dubbed the “12 Day War” and Israel called “Rising Lion” and ushering in an era of guarded optimism and peace through strength. Fear of intifada against Jews in Israel was cautiously on the wane.
On Tuesday, the very next day, Jewish New Yorkers suffered a case of emotional whiplash when a supporter of “globalize the intifada” was nominated as the Democratic mayoral candidate of their city. Suddenly, the intifada moved from the Middle East to New York. And New York Jews, who comprise the largest population of the Jewish Diaspora, find themselves out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Many New Yorkers are scratching their heads, wondering how so many of their neighbors voted for the socialist, antisemitic Zohran Mamdani. Throngs of residents and businesses have already fled the city as it became a crime-infested metropolis. Now, as it tries to dig itself out, the city stares down the barrel of a candidate who will inflict more crime and cause more New Yorkers to flee if he is elected.
But for New York Jews, the fear of Mayor Mamdani is a double whammy. It is a lethal combination that threatens both financial security and personal safety. This is a man who supports BDS, will not recognize the Jewish State of Israel, vows to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if he comes to New York, shouts “Free Palestine” at rallies, and refrains from backing annual resolutions for Holocaust Remembrance Day as an assemblymember.
Mamdani’s support for defunding the police and using social workers to replace them, and his refusal to deport criminal illegal aliens, threaten all New York citizens. But Jews, who are already the number one victim of hate crimes in the city, as antisemitism has become normalized, fear more harassment – sanctioned with a wink and a nod from a future mayor himself.
Mayor Eric Admas calls Mamdani a “snake oil salesman” and blasts his illusory enticements of freebies – from housing to groceries to childcare to transportation. President Trump calls him a “100% Communist Lunatic”. And New York Jews call him a danger.
But Mamdani’s mostly young, progressive supporters call him a hero. Decades of being fed anti-American sentiment from K-12 through college, further nurtured through the media, have produced a generation of skewed self-loathing that has turned self-destructive.
Mamdani’s voters either are unaware or choose to ignore the failure of socialism around the globe for over a century. Worse, they ignore how socialism and communism always morph into the very fascism they decry.
These are voters who balk at American exceptionalism yet never had to sacrifice like their grandparents’ generation did, when they defended and built up this great country. Instead, they sacrifice their own self-preservation and their own future. And, in the process, the future of others.
They are much like self-hating Jews, most who have little knowledge of authentic Judaism beyond how it might aggrandize their own ideology. These include leftist groups like Jews for Justice in Palestine and IfNotNow, which side with Islamists and march in support of Hamas terrorism against their own people. Despite the threat Hamas poses to them too.
They also include politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Mamdani, and Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who enthusiastically congratulated Mamdani. This, after they condemned President Trump for saving Israel and America by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. To borrow a phrase from leftist ideology, they represent the intersection between self-hating Jews and self-loathing Americans.
New Yorkers, and especially Jewish New Yorkers, are now faced with their own existential threat come November. This threat does not come in the form of nuclear or ballistic missiles, but the destructive power of a socialist antisemite in Gracie Mansion is just as lethal to the capital of the world.
It will take the united, vigorous power of socialism and antisemitism busters to obliterate the threat and protect the great city of New York. That, and lots of prayer.
Sara Lehmann is an award-winning New York based columnist and interviewer. For more of her writings please visit saralehmann.com.
