It’s not about us

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‘’Far-left, anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race.’’ Israeli politicians, we are told, are alarmed.

Let’s relax a minute, shall we? First of all, does that suit and tie say “far-left?’ I know Trump branded him a “communist’’ (as he did Obama), but let’s get real. The suit and wide, monochromatic tie he’s wearing in every photo say Social Democrat – one who won, not on his anti-Israel stance, but on his ability to distance himself from the old-guard Democrat (running as an independent and supported by Trump) and Republican candidates.

So, no, whether the new mayor appears to support Hamas or just a general Palestinian state, the city of New York will not be raising an army to invade Israel. The fact that he is a Muslim does not mean New York will now be subject to Shariah law (could be at odds with Mamdani’s Social Democratic platform), nor will it cease to be one of the most diverse cities in the world. The foreign policy of New York City, should one exist, will take a back seat to trying to implement all the social welfare promises made during the election campaign.

He won’t be the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city – Sir Sadiq Khan has been mayor of London for going on a decade. And honestly, Israelis have been flocking to that city to shop and eat fish and chips for all of those years, mostly unmolested.

And while Israel’s actions have become so outrageous, dare I say “far-right,’’ that a mayoral candidate for a city with a huge Jewish population can get away with condemning the Jewish state, I would claim with a fair amount of certainty that Mamdani’s win has more to do with changes in America and its politics than with Israel or our state of war.

For one thing, ties between religion and politics are undergoing something of a messy, evolutionary change in the country. If we zoom in, we might note that the New York Jewish voters are no longer a single bloc, and many would now define themselves as non-Zionist, at best. If that concerns our politicians, they might ask themselves why traditionally left-leaning Jews in the US would be swearing off Israel.

But if you zoom out, you’ll see that Trump, whose base is evangelical Christian, relies on the advice of his Jewish daughter and son-in-law. VP Vance stirred up a storm in a teapot by claiming his Hindu-Indian wife supports Southern Baptist Christianity. Slowly but surely, a new kind of diversity is creeping into American politics. The Republicans may give lip support to white supremacy, but it’s a club they would have been kicked out of a few short decades ago.

The Columbia effect – young, mostly-pale voters who protested against Israel in their universities, and the resulting mudslide of firings and accusations – may have been another factor in Mamdani’s win. While this segment of the voting public may now feel vindicated, or at least heard, Mamdani will now have to work harder than his predecessors to prevent the kind of unthinking antisemitism that has been rampant on the East Coast over the past two years. And that means Jewish leaders in the city will have to get in line to shake his hand and invite him to the Hanukkah parties. Our leaders, if they want to help, would best shut the you-know-what up.

Our politicians might ask themselves why traditionally left-leaning Jews in the US would be swearing off Israel

The single most obvious explanation I have read for Mamdani’s win is backlash. And that might concern our leadership, who have put all their cracked, runny eggs in Trump’s basket. Rather than preparing for the anti-Trump backlash, which was sure to come, our leaders prefer the public freakout. They used it to certain effect against Obama and Biden, and at this point, it’s half knee jerk. Next, we’ll be telling New York Jews they are not safe and they need to move to Israel. That way, we can reinforce the circular reasoning that we need a strong Jewish state, while enticing young people of draft age to join our ranks. Or maybe they are just worried that the backlash in New York will be heard loud and clear in Jerusalem. (For me, of course, the backlash here can’t happen soon enough.)

Let’s zoom out to a different angle. The same Israeli politicians who are worried about a Muslim in New York are engaged in long-term negotiations with a devout Muslim leader of an actual country under Islamic law – one that is openly aligned with Hamas. When the issue was raised of that country paying bribes to members of our prime minister’s office, we were told: What’s the problem? The Qataris are our friends!

So, people, which is it? Can a Muslim political leader be our friend or not? Is the issue less Islam, more Mamdani’s anti-Trump, leftist stance? Or should we simply be upset that a mayor of New York can be, today, openly pro-Palestinian?

If we have let things get to the point that even the mayor of a major US city can turn against us and our policies and actions, maybe it’s time for a bit less finger-pointing, a bit more self-reflection. We have been treating the ‘’problem’’ as a public relations issue, rather than a much more concrete problem of aggression, war and war crimes. It’s true Palestinian PR has been effective, but the images of hunger and devastation are on us.

I’ll say it again. Leftists aren’t our enemies. In the words of the immortal Pogo: ‘’We have met the enemy and he is us.’’

I cannot tell you whether I would have voted for Mamdani if I were a citizen of New York. An unproved, young leader is a crap-shoot; taxing the rich, while excellent in theory, can have its own sort of backlash. What is clear is that it’s not about us.

I wish Mamdani luck in running one of the craziest, biggest, richest, most diverse cities in the world. I hope he succeeds.