Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York was experienced this Wednesday in Israel as a defeat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who never misses an opportunity to describe Donald Trump as “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House”) is significantly silent on the election of a Muslim socialist as mayor of the city with the largest Jewish community outside Israel. Yes, three of your ministers have spoken. Amijai Chikli, the controversial person responsible for the link with the Jewish communities outside Israel and for the fight against anti-Semitism, defined him as “the last of the criminals who support the rapists and murderers of Hamas” and accused him of defending “similar positions” to those of the authors of the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. And the head of National Security, the ultra Itamar Ben-Gvir, lamented “the triumph of anti-Semitism over common sense.” In the national press, headlines range from disappointment to Islamophobic hysteria.
In a long message on social networks “I invite you to actively consider your new place in the Land of Israel”, a biblical term that includes both Israel and Palestine, because “the city that was once a symbol of global freedom has handed over its keys to a Hamas sympathizer”.
“This is a crucial turning point for New York. The decision you have made undermines the very foundations of the place that has provided freedom and opportunity for success to multitudes of Jewish refugees since the late 19th century,” he continued. Chikli, one of the main defenders of the policy of networking with the European far right and friend of the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal (with whom he participated in an ultra Spanish event in Madrid), ventured that the city “will never be the same again, especially for its Jewish community” because “it walks with its eyes wide open towards the abyss into which London has fallen”, a city which since 2016 has also had a Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan. shame. “Wasting words to say that everything will be fine: nothing will be fine in this city,” the minister said.
According to a CNN exit poll, at least a third of New York Jews think differently, having voted for Mamdani. It is the same percentage found among Catholics and just nine percentage points less than among Protestants and other branches of Christianity. Another far-right minister, Amijai Eliyahu (Legacy), called them Jews who hate other Jews. “They have been among us since the annals of our history (…) It is a painful but real reality that we also see in Israel.”
Despite Chikli’s account, the new mayor condemned (with the words “horrific war crime”) the Hamas attack of October 2023, which resulted in around 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages, of which only seven bodies remain in Gaza. The Islamist movement has pledged to return them as part of the ceasefire, after handing over 21 in recent weeks, most recently on Tuesday.
But Mamdani also accused Israel of launching a “genocidal war” in Gaza (in line with growing academic consensus) and promised to arrest Netanyahu (whose arrest the International Criminal Court has been calling for since last year for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity) if he sets foot in the city.
Last month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded directly to a tweet by Mamdani (then only mayoral candidate) regarding the second anniversary of the Hamas attack and subsequent invasion. He accused him of “acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda,” which “excuses terrorism and normalizes anti-Semitism.” “He only stands with the Jews when they are dead. It is shameful,” noted Israeli diplomacy.
“Declared anti-Semitic”
It is also the line with which Ben Gvir spoke this Wednesday, defining the new mayor as an “enemy of Israel and an avowed anti-Semite”. Avigdor Lieberman, MP and leader of the opposition Israel Beiteinu party, called him “populist, racist and Islamist”, in a publication on social networks accompanied by a photo combo of his face and the attacks on the Twin Towers with the word in Hebrew: “They forgot!” He also urges New York Jews to immigrate to Israel.
In the national press, most of the headlines this Wednesday focus on the new mayor’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his status as a Muslim or how his victory will affect the local Jewish community, which Mamdani winked at in his speech.
The diary Maariv He dedicates a piece to the gathering of hundreds of demonstrators after the victory, in which they shouted “Free Palestine”. The headline: “Chilling images from New York: Is Israel’s worst nightmare already coming true?” Israel Hayomanother right-wing newspaper, chooses a handful of unofficial voices to focus on how – “from Gaza to Qatar”, as it headlines – the “Islamist axis” in the Middle East celebrates victory. Illustrate the information with a photo of Mamdani asking knaffe (a typical dessert of the region) in a place where a Palestinian flag flies in the background.
The Islamophobic TV channel 14, the favorite of supporters of Netanyanu’s coalition (the most right-wing in the history of Israel), underlines in its headline that Mamdani began his speech in Arabic. The i24 network’s Arab affairs commentator, Zvi Yehezkeli, called for “remembering this day” because the elected mayor is part of a “silent jihad” that will “conquer the whole world, especially the West.” “Thirty years after the impact of the planes on the Twin Towers, the mayor of New York is Muslim,” he added.
