As Mayor Zohran Mamdani lets loose the dogs of antisemitism, will anyone stop him? Last week brought two reasons for hope, and two fronts to watch.
The City Council passed Speaker Julie Menin’s bill creating “buffer zones” to rein in protests outside houses of worship — over the opposition of Mamdani’s closest allies, and by a veto-proof majority.
The bill protects the rights of all faiths, but was plainly inspired by last November’s mob siege of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue, when 200 goons harassed people trying to attend an event by Nefesh B’nefesh, a Zionist group that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.
Mamdani, still only mayor-elect, justified the harassment, having a flack explain that “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
That “activity” was supposedly helping Jews buy Muslim-owned land in the West Bank — which the event didn’t do and wouldn’t violate international law anyway.
The ban on selling to Jews anywhere in the Holy Land was an early-20th-century creation of Adolf Hitler’s ally Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, back in the 1930s; the only “legal” authority it’s ever had is in the imagination of those who deny Israel’s right to exist.
Of course, that includes Mamdani, though he officially “only” denies its right to exist as a Jewish state.
This is part and parcel with the thin cover the mayor layers over his antisemitism to enable the eyes-wide-shut denial of lefty Jews like ex-Comptroller Brad Lander.
And so they ignore his proud support for the terror-funding Holy Land Foundation, the way he spread antisemitic conspiracy theories while serving in the Assembly and so on.
The “deniability” schtick also cover his pick of Phylisa Wisdom to head the Office To Combat Antisemism, she being the sort of “good Jew” whose at odds with the Hasidic and Orthodox communities — i.e. those especially victimized by antisemitic attacks.
Anyway, last week’s other positive sign was another harsh warning from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the Senate Health committee, this time over the “Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group” set up within the Health Department.
Cassidy flagged how Health Commissioner Alister Martin had defended the “working group” — which wallows in the false claims of genocide in Gaza and minimizes Hamas’ atrocities, including those of Oct. 7, 2023 — as really just an exercise in “equity.”
The senator previously inquired about the mayor’s nixing of two Adams-era executive orders, one blocking city agencies from divesting from Israel and the other adopting a definition of antisemitism that rightly classifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. (Menin also called out the move.)
Now Cassidy warns that the city could lose federal funds if it persists in this institutionalized antisemitism — an argument that should hit home, given how dicey Mamdani’s efforts to fund his larger agenda are proving.
That is, the mayor might have to choose between his socialism and his jew-hate: That will be interesting to watch.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
