A Crushing Blow To Zionism

What Mamdani's win means for the left and why you shouldn't abandon hope

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As of this writing, Zohran Mamdani has pulled off an incredible feat. He has become the Democratic nominee for mayor of the largest and most Jewish city in the United States, defeating the scandal ridden and corrupt heir of a political dynasty Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor of New York City and calls himself a Democratic Socialist. All of the worst forces at work in politics in the Democratic party and the mainstream media united to try to prevent this victory and to make this election a referendum not on New York, but on Israel. They succeeded, just not in the way they hoped. This was indeed a referendum on Israel, but it was a rejection of Zionism and it’s accompanying smears and an embrace of a politics that addresses material conditions. At every turn Mamdani was hounded with questions about “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state”, about “globalize the intifada”, about visiting Israel as mayor, about antisemitism. He was the only candidate that constantly had to field these questions in a blatantly racist attempt to tar him as a scary Jew-hating Muslim. In fact, this was probably the most racist ratfucking attempt I’ve ever witnessed in politics. Happily, it didn’t work. While I’m under no illusions that this means that the Democratic Party is reformable, even I, a communist, can understand the significance of this win and what it means for the fight against Israel and for economic justice everywhere.

The left has suffered a number of devastating setbacks over the last 10 years. We’ve been coopted, we’ve been smeared, we’ve been iced out, we’ve had those who seemed to be our biggest hope let us down and disappoint us and capitulate to the forces that want to destroy us again and again. It’s enough to make a permanent cynic out of anyone. Despite that, I believe that we must hold onto optimism in these moments and use them as a springboard into a real movement that can defeat the forces of evil that have completely dominated this country.

The Smear Campaign

The absurdity of this mayoral race was made plain to anyone paying attention, when instead of the prime topic being about how ridiculously unaffordable the city had become for regular people, it became a proxy battle over Zionism. The mainstream press spent more time targeting the only Muslim candidate running with endless questions about Israel than it did on a single one of his policies for New Yorkers. Notably, Andrew Cuomo - the man who is Netanyahu’s lawyer! - didn’t get asked a single question about doing pro-bono work for a war criminal with a warrant from the ICC. The endless needling about Israel reached a fever pitch during the mayoral primary debate, when the moderator went completely off-book to ask Mamdani - and only Mamdani - whether he believes in Israel’s right to exist. I’ve critiqued Mamdani’s answer here, but it did succeed in flipping the question on its head and highlighting the very undemocratic nature of the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East”.

After these attempts at the debate didn’t land, Zionists pulled out all the stops in the final stretch when Mamdani appeared on “Never Trump Republican” podcast The Bulwark. Tim Miller, Former communications director for Jeb Bush, hit Mamdani on the phrase “globalize the intifada” commonly heard at pro Palestine protests, but Mamdani didn’t demur. He explained that even the Holocaust Museum called the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising the “Warsaw Ghetto Intifada” on its Arabic language page and that it was just an Arabic word that people twisted to sound scary. His “refusal to condemn” this phrase instantly became a hinge point for those seeking to destroy his campaign, just as it was intended.

Leaving aside the abject racism in reading malign intent into common Arabic words, and hammering the only Muslim candidate about use of Arabic words that I don’t think he’s ever even said, these attacks seemed to make no impact. But not for a lack of effort. A slew of wildly islamophobic articles immediately flooded the mainstream press.

So many of the same characters who have brought us to this point in our politics where the “opposition party” to Trump has a 29% approval rating, where we are materially supporting a genocide, where income inequality has reached levels unseen, where more than half the country are two paychecks from disaster, has tried every trick in the book to make a NYC mayoral race about Israel and Israel only. Not about the free buses, the publicly owned grocery stores, the rent freeze that Mamdani champions. Not about anything that will materially help working class New Yorkers. And in their immense effort, they’ve succeeded by failing. They’ve proven that you don’t have to cower before the Israel lobby, even in the most Jewish city in the country. They’ve proven that people aren’t falling for the antisemitism smear anymore. They’ve proven that you can be pro Palestine and win elections. They’ve proven that Israel’s absolute stranglehold on our nation’s politics is weakening.

What This Means For The Left

I don’t believe that this changes the calculus for socialists - the Democratic Party is still a bourgeois institution incapable of reform - but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate this as a victory. The implications of this are far reaching for what it means to take a principled stand against Zionism. And while Mamdani did temper his rhetoric in ways I don’t think he particularly needed to, he has demonstrated that you can take on the Israel lobby, the mainstream press, the think tanks, the neoliberal “thought leaders”, and win. You can be a Muslim who calls himself a socialist and win. You can be smeared every which way as an antisemite terrorist and win. This matters if you want to bring people into a movement that can actually make change. There are millions upon millions of people who are done with the old ways of doing politics, who are expanding their vision of the possible, who could be part of a real grassroots working class movement. Whose entry point may well be the “socialist” mayor from New York - just as many were drawn in because of Bernie - but who have the potential to go far beyond that and into mass party building.

Zohran has demonstrated that you do not need to prostrate yourself before the people who got us into this mess, who support genocide, who cynically weaponize antisemitism to serve an agenda for the ruling class. You can actually just tell the truth and people will reward you for it. The most important takeaway from this election actually has little to do with Mamdani himself. It is about unlocking the potential for less fear and more honesty in our politics. A much bigger leap than someone like AOC has been willing to take, who has consistently allowed herself to get baited into apologizing for bad faith accusations of antisemitism when she could’ve been brave enough to stand ten toes down and call Israel exactly what it is.

Zohran will likely make decisions that disappoint us and are not in any way “socialist”, probably a lot of them. But that isn’t the important part of the story. What matters is that the Israel lobby and its lackeys suffered a devastating blow. Even in the most Jewish city in America the Zionist playbook has lost its purchase. The deathgrip that Israel has on every facet of our political lives is demonstrably weakening. This has opened a space for someone even bolder, even braver, to speak the truth rather than cower before AIPAC. There is finally a visible horizon for mandatory political support for Israel.

Mamdani’s win represents an opportunity — there are hundreds of thousands of newly engaged people who are open to the concept of socialism and can be radicalized towards a mass workers movement. Letting go of cynicism is a difficult task when you have suffered defeat after defeat, but it is necessary if we are ever going to find our way out of this and build something better. If all else fails, allow yourself a moment to bask in the glow of the worst people you know being really, really miserable right now.

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