Emotions are riding high in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York. The three-term state assemblyman’s shock upset against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo this past Tuesday has inspired no small amount of celebration and euphoria — but also an unusual amount of alarm, fear, and outrage.
On Thursday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had what was for an elected official an unusually animated response to a caller’s question on New York City public radio’s The Brian Lehrer Show about the Muslim American Mamdani’s win and the supposed “threats facing the Jewish community” that have come as a result. Asked several times by the show’s host to correct the record and point out that Mamdani has never advocated for violence nor supported terrorist organizations, Gillibrand declined.
New Yorkers were “alarmed” by his recent win, she said, pointing to alleged “past positions,” of Mamdani’s, “particularly references to global jihad” — references that are wholly nonexistent. “This is a very serious issue, because people that glorify the slaughter of Jews create fear in our communities,” she said, suggesting Mamdani was one of these people.
When Lehrer pointed out that Mamdani had never used the phrase “globalize the intifada” but had simply said he wouldn’t condemn it because the word “intifada” is a broad one that encompasses nonviolent resistance, Gillibrand got heated.
“It doesn’t matter what word you have in your brain,” she said. “It is not how the word is received.” Pointing to the fear that some members of New York’s Jewish community have expressed since Israel began its now two-year-long war in Gaza, Gillibrand stressed that someone trying to lead a diverse city like New York “should denounce it. And that’s it. Period.”
“If you want to be a leader, you have to recognize how these things are felt and received,” she said, her voice cracking….
Auteur: Branko Marcetic
