This week, Zohran Mamdani made history as the first Muslim and South Asian to become mayor of New York City. A first-generation immigrant born in Uganda and raised in the US, he also defied the city’s long-standing undercurrent of anti-immigrant sentiment. He is only the seventh immigrant to hold the office in the past 200 years.
Mamdani ran as an unapologetic democratic socialist and outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights. It’s safe to say that no American politician with this mix of convictions and experiences has won a major election since the last socialist entered Congress nearly a century ago. Against a backdrop of mostly white, male politicians peddling gloom and caution, Mamdani campaigned on joy, passion, and inclusion, qualities in short supply in American politics.
For six decades, the Israel lobby has successfully crushed nearly every national candidate who veered from its pro-Israel orthodoxy. In 2024 alone, it spent $100 million to sink a slate of “anti-Israel” contenders, including a Jewish incumbent from a storied Michigan political family.
Yet all the king’s money and all the king’s men couldn’t stop Mamdani. Twenty-six billionaires poured $22 billion into two super PACs that flooded the airwaves with attack ads; half of those donors were pro-Israel Jews.
The money made a dent; Mamdani’s share of the Jewish vote dropped from 50% in the primary to 33% in the general, but it didn’t change the result. He beat former governor Andrew Cuomo by more than nine points, winning 51% of the vote.
Beyond the billionaires, pro-Israel Jewish groups and leaders launched a relentless barrage, branding Mamdani “anti-Israel” and “antisemitic.” Rabbis even called from the pulpit for their congregants to vote against him, unprecedented in American synagogues, where electoral politics is usually treated with circumspection.
A faction of rabbis, calling themselves The Jewish Majority (any group that needs to declare itself a “majority” usually isn’t), issued an anti-Mamdani statement signed by more than 1,200 clergy. While Jewish leaders have long spoken on political issues, it was virtually unheard of for them to target a specific candidate.
Progressive rabbis quickly responded with their own letter, Jews for a Shared Future, which drew 1,400 signatures in support of Mamdani.
Zionist groups attacked him because he defended Palestinian rights and called the Gaza slaughter a “genocide.” They attacked him for refusing to denounce pro-Palestinian slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Globalise the intifada.” He became the antisemitic poster boy for the pro-Israel establishment.
Yet despite the vitriol, New Yorkers weren’t swayed. More than 100,000 Jewish voters backed Mamdani, and thousands canvassed for him in the final weeks. Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice rallied in his defence. The establishment dismissed them as “fringe”, a familiar refrain against Jewish critics of Israel, but the results spoke for themselves.
The Israel lobby's shot across the bow
The Israel lobby isn’t retiring to lick its wounds. It is redoubling its efforts to sabotage Mamdani over the next four years of his term. A joint statement from several major Jewish groups warned: “The Mayor-elect holds core beliefs fundamentally at odds with our community’s deepest convictions and most cherished values... We will... ensure that our city remains a place where our Jewish community, and all communities, feel safe and respected. We call on Mayor-elect Mamdani... to govern with humility, inclusivity, and a deep respect for the diversity of views and experiences that define our city.”
Considering that they lost the election, and massively so, this is not conciliatory. It does not call for dialogue. It is the equivalent of a set of demands, with an implied threat if they are not met.
The statement is full of unsupported claims. These groups claim to represent our community, but they don’t. They never have. The split between them and unaffiliated Jews, who constitute the overall majority, has never been clearer.
These largely unaffiliated, and often alienated from the Zionist “consensus,” Jews represent our deepest convictions and values, not the Ashkenazi gerontocracy that runs these organisations.
Zionism is no longer the consensus view among New York Jews. Support for Israel is no longer universal. Over the past two years of Israel’s genocide, New York’s Jewish community has become more sceptical and discerning on these issues.
The ADL, too, is piling on. It has generated controversy with its Mamdani Monitor, intended to undermine the incoming mayor by highlighting so-called antisemitism and blaming him for its existence. The goal is clearly to establish a record to be used as a cudgel against him during his term.
The group’s own national antisemitism “audit,” which always reports a massive year-to-year increase, is often cited by the media as authoritative. Several independent analysts have documented its questionable methodology. For example, it counts protests by JVP and similar groups as antisemitic. Undoubtedly, the monitor will follow the same pattern and should be examined closely before trusting any of its findings.
Mamdani’s victory is a frightening phenomenon because Zionist Jews will enjoy no special privilege. Their money will no longer “talk.” They will be one constituency among many. No one will show them special favour or respond to demands and backroom deals, the lobby’s normal modus operandi. Remember the AIPAC lobbyist who said, “You see this napkin? In 24 hours, we could have the signatures of 70 senators on this napkin.” Not in New York City. Not anymore.
Of course, the lobby is not dead. It’s not going anywhere. This defeat will likely energise it to redouble its efforts. There could still be setbacks for the progressive movement. But the Zionists have been thrown back on their heels. They’ve lost momentum. This cheesy AI video, trying to rebrand AIPAC after it supports Israeli genocide is proof of that flailing for relevance.
The New York election result will reverberate nationally. Though the moderate wing of the party, heavily influenced by the lobby, retains power, Mamdani’s victory is a watershed moment. It reinforces the image of a weak leadership courting irrelevance, a party rudderless amid the gravest crisis since the Civil War. What is the party gerontocracy doing to address this?
In contrast, Mamdani offered a stem-winding speech in which he boldly and aggressively confronted Trump, ridiculing him and daring him to come for the city. That’s the sort of fight rank-and-file Democrats crave. It should be the party’s future. But given the entrenched hierarchy, the jury’s still out on the outcome.
Now he joins the progressive wing of the party, which is no longer cowed by the lobby and its hundreds of millions. No longer afraid to utter the word “genocide.” No longer frightened by the taboo against calling for an end to military aid to Israel. Candidates once eager to take AIPAC’s campaign cash are now refusing it. I can’t recall any candidate doing so before.
Are Democrats going to become a fighting party unafraid to take on the billionaire class and the Israel lobby? Not so fast. But we’re getting there. Will it happen overnight? No, we’re not there yet. The older generation of politicians must die out, and the younger one must be encouraged, or pressured, to chart a new course.
There is a similar battle within the Jewish community. Can it embrace diversity? Can it integrate young Jews? Can it incorporate the growing number of anti-Zionist Jews? Or will it continue to insist they are upstarts, fringe radicals, irrelevant?
I am not sanguine about the future of American Jewry. The vitality and coherence of Jewish identity have weakened considerably since WWII. Zionism has replaced Judaism. Nationalism has supplanted religion. Violence in the name of religion has replaced learning and social justice. I don’t foresee any trends that can reverse this slide.
Richard Silverstein writes the Tikun Olam blog and is a freelance journalist specialising in exposing secrets of the Israeli national security state. He campaigns against opacity and the negative impact of Israeli military censorship.
Follow him on Twitter: @richards1052
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