Zohran Mamdani

I see in the news that Zohran Mamdani has won the Democratic primary for NY mayor. I would not have voted for him, even though Bernie did endorse him. Wouldn't have voted for Cuomo either. Maybe I would have voted for Brad Lander.

But anyway, why not Mamdani? It's not because he's a socialist - I like that stuff. It's because of his apparent attitude towards Israel/Jewish people ...

Mamdani’s Comment on ‘Intifada’ Motto Fuels Tension in Mayor’s Race

[...] Mr. Mamdani, a critic of Israel, was asked during a podcast interview if the phrase “globalize the intifada” made him uncomfortable, and he declined to condemn it. Palestinians and their supporters have called the phrase a rallying cry for liberation, but many Jews consider it a call to violence invoking resistance movements of the 1980s and 2000s.

In the interview with The Bulwark, Mr. Mamdani said he believed the phrase spoke to “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.” He said the U.S. Holocaust Museum used a similar Arabic term for “uprising” to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, and stressed his own commitment to nonviolence and fighting antisemitism.

The blowback was swift ...

And then there's his official statement after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israelis ...

The "occupation"? Israel left Gaza in 2005.

"Dismantling apartheid"? Arab citizens of Israel have the same rights as any other Israeli citizen - they can vote, can run for political office, have freedom of movement in the country, etc.

But he knows this, of course.