Mamdani’s Antisemitism Strategy Is a Farce

It seems that each day brings a new attack on the Jewish people – whether on the streets of New York or aboard the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv that nearly ended in catastrophe just a few days ago. The tide of antisemitism unleashed around the globe following the October 7 massacre wasn’t just confined to Hamas sympathizers in the region – it galvanized antisemites around the world to express their hatred for Jews under the flimsy guise of “anti-Zionism.”

Nearly three years after those attacks and one year after the ceasefire, the threat remains across the West, including in the United States. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. climbed to 8,873 (a 140% increase) in 2023, with the majority of attacks taking place after October 7; reached a record high of 9,354 incidents in 2024; and 6,274 in 2025 (still the third-highest recorded). New York led all states with 1,160 incidents reported in 2025, and antisemitic crimes in New York climbed by more than 8% in 2026. 

Progressive haters of Israel like to pretend that this is a regrettable response to the “genocide” perpetrated by the Israeli government. This allows them to quickly pivot to the topic that obsesses them: perpetuating this modern-day blood libel against the world’s only Jewish state.

When anti-Israel politicians like Zohran Mamdani are confronted with the natural consequences of their rhetoric – an uptick in antisemitism – they need a PR plan to cover their tracks. Enter Mamdani’s farcical “Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” released earlier this week to widespread criticism from the Jewish community.

The document is a typical exercise in hiding the ball, claiming to address a key security challenge for the city while ignoring the key motivator that has driven the surge in antisemitism over the past three years. While the document acknowledges the increase in anti-Jewish crimes since October 7, there is no mention of “anti-Zionism” – which functions as both the fig leaf and rallying cry for so much of this hatred. Nor is there any analysis of the way in which the October 7 attacks themselves energized antisemitism in New York and around the world. The college protests and encampments that have made Jewish students feel unsafe on their own campuses are not mentioned. Incredibly, there is no mention at all of Islamist or Left-wing antisemitism, despite the fact that these are key ideological vehicles for contemporary hatred of the Jewish people. In fact, the only specific attacks on Jews that the plan references are to white supremacist incidents from several years ago – omitting recent attacks motivated by hatred of Israel, such as the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., last year.

But actions speak louder than words, and here are some telling actions that preceded the release of this strategy: On Day 1 of his administration, Mayor Mamdani revoked executive orders barring city agencies from boycotting or divesting from Israel, and another that adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. He also revoked Executive Order 61, which strengthened NYPD protection around synagogues and set protest buffer zones near houses of worship. He threatened – without any legal basis – to have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested for war crimes, singling out the leader of the world’s only Jewish state while ignoring the Iranian regime that killed more than 40,000 of its own people in the past year alone. And he sided with the protestors who menaced attendees of an event at the Park East Synagogue in May, and has consistently ignored or downplayed other antisemitic crimes.

Rabbi Yosie Levine of the Jewish Center remarked, “When I was growing up, the only time we saw security outside of my synagogue . . . was when the mayor came to speak. The police were there to protect him. Today, every time the mayor speaks, we need the police to protect us.”

We need to recognize Mamdani’s antisemitism strategy for what it is: a cynical ploy that whitewashes the very phenomenon it purports to address. It’s consistent with the modus operandi of so many of the DSA activists positioning themselves as the new vanguard of the Democrat Party, and it should be called out at every turn.

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