Most Jews, including those who supported Mamdani, were very much aware of what his program was. He hid nothing, no matter how much he smiled.
Follow us on GoogleIf elections last week for the Knesset did not provide enough interest, this week’s midterm elections for America’s Congress will keep us on the edge of our seats, at least until we resolve our own elections results.
This Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day in the US, although advance and mail-in balloting began weeks ago.
The Jewish narrative of American elections used to be either “but my parents and grandparents voted Democrat” or “why would you think to vote Republican?”
That first began to change when Ben-Zion Netanyahu helped persuade the Republican Party to put a Jewish statehood plank in its 1944 platform for the first time.
These past few years, however, Jewish concerns as regards elections have been focused on the successes of Muslim candidates.
Steeped in liberalism and now progressivism, and with no small spicing from the woke generation, Jewish voters seem to be unable to distinguish between a candidate who just happens to be Muslim and a candidate who is championing Islam with no intention of being a part of the melting pot ideology.
The first prominent examples of this trend were the elections of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in the 2018 congressional races, who set out to alter America’s foreign policy from a pro-Israel to an anti-Israel position. It did not matter to them if they employed antisemitic tropes in the process, for their target was to weaken American Jewry’s support for Israel and Zionism.
Their advantage was the growing activity and visibility of Jewish anti-Zionists, as well as the traditional Jewish fascination with revolutionary ideas.
The Democratic Socialists of America, for some strange reason still a part of the Democratic Party establishment, have become America’s version of the European Red-Green alliances that have been forged between radical Islamists and Marxists, with the issue of a “Free Palestine” a central lynchpin.
Zohran Mamdani’s election in 2025 as mayor of New York City, with its massive Jewish population, was a turning point. It was not only because of his politics and earlier “Globalize the Intifada” rabble-rousing cries, but because the public discourse about voting for him was very much a part of the campaign.
Most Jews, including those who supported him, were very much aware of what his program was. He hid nothing, no matter how much he smiled.
As a state assemblyman, he initiated the “Not on our dime!” bill in 2023. It was intended to prohibit tax-deductible donations from being used to “expel Palestinians from their land and to prevent other activities widely regarded as war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.”
Certain Jewish charities he framed as just masquerading, when what they were engaged in was subsidizing Israel’s “illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.”
With the Hamas October invasion of Israel, that theme dovetailed with the charges of genocide. The legislation’s current movers claim that charities registered under New York state law “have sent tens of millions of dollars to fund war crimes waged by Israeli military units devastating Gaza,” according to their website.
On the local scene, Mamdani has emboldened anti-Israel Muslims in schools and on the streets, reduced Jewish security, and, more importantly, is engaged in disassociating New York’s Jewish community from its leadership establishment and promoting an alternative.
As strange as it may appear, his substitute players come off the bench of the intensely anti-Zionist camp, together with the most illiberal hassidic courts. They are the ones with whom he meets and whom he fetes. They are also appointed to committees and task forces that oversee the implementation of Jewish programs and needs, isolating the pro-Israel elements.
The writing on the wall
Moving from the East Coast to the Midwest, there is Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for election as Michigan’s senator, a very powerful Washington position.
The fawning of some prominent Jews in support of an Islamist with family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood is as astonishing as it is depressing.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s Jewish attorney-general, urged Jewish voters to put their own concerns – even their security – second to broader political and moral considerations when deciding whether to support El-Sayed in August. Andy Levin, a former congressman, endorsed El-Sayed despite disagreements with him on Jewish issues.
On October 23, Mandy Patinkin, a prominent Jewish actor, released a statement that included the following: “Jewish safety is tied to the health of our democracy. We can’t protect one without protecting the other. And in this Senate race, Abdul is the candidate who understands that and is willing to fight for it.”
Just one day later, the Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed was requested to “soothe” anti-Israel voters in Dearborn in an appearance with local activist Osama Siblani, who has called Hamas and Hezbollah “freedom fighters” and called for Israeli Jews to be sent “back to Poland.”
Two days after that, a most vicious antisemitic political video was released in support of El-Sayed by the Rebellion PAC. Campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “This ad is not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign,” but El-Sayed himself did not condemn its messaging.
The ad claims America has set aside money that would keep food prices down “for killing Palestinians.” It also suggested that American taxpayers were paying for Israel’s universal healthcare, blaming Israel for American economic difficulties and invoking antisemitic scapegoating themes.
Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens saw it as a “type of fearmongering.”
The writing, as it were, is unambiguous. America’s Jews have experienced Tlaib, Omar, and Mamdani. They do not need to add to their troubles by listening to Jewish anti-Zionist progressives.
Last January, the liberal Moritz Wimmer wrote on the Cicero website about Islamism in political Berlin as a phenomenon in which “first comes the infiltration, then the submission.”
That may be what American Jewry and America are facing.
The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.
Follow us on GoogleSource: The Jerusalem Post · YISRAEL MEDAD
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