More Zohran
By: Larry Gordon
What I appreciate about Mayor Zohran Mamdani are his crisp, finely tailored white shirts and thin black ties he wears. Beyond his sartorial choices, I’ve rarely encountered a political figure as openly hostile and, shall I say, contemptible as he is.
People say all the time that Mamdani bristles with anger toward many groups, but none more than the Jews. In the past two weeks, two very different figures have publicly confronted him: Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Long Island Attorney Elizabeth Chaya Forspan. And oddly and interestingly enough, although Mamdani is dead set on targeting and ostracizing Jews, it seems that other ethnic groups in New York City have also had their fill of Mamdani’s divisive rhetoric.
It has reached the point where the Irish, Italians, and other communities started an online petition calling for Mamdani not to attend the 25th 9/11 remembrance ceremony taking place in lower Manhattan next month.
I couldn’t help but notice the other day that Mamdani’s home country, Uganda, dedicated a statue of Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, a’h, who perished in July 1976 during the Entebbe rescue operation back when Uganda was run more along the lines of what Mamdani would like to do to New York City.
Uganda is an authoritarian dictatorship run by President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. Uganda and Israel today have a very strong relationship. I’m sure that thrills Zohran. Israel trains the Ugandan military and there are formal agreements in place between the two countries. Israel provides them with military training and technology while Uganda offers Israel a key partner in East Africa. Have you ever heard Mamdani say anything about that?
My guess is no.
The hypocritical mayor is concerned about having the ability to arrest Bibi Netanyahu when he is in New York in September for the UN General Assembly. But just like his fake free bus scheme and his dreams of discounted food, this delusion is far from anything resembling reality. Mamdani was hoping to make a name for himself with his terrorist-supporting minions by dealing a diplomatic blow to Bibi.
Mamdani and his terrorist cohorts often repeat the canard that Netanyahu committed genocide in Gaza in the aftermath of October 7th. A further deception spewing out of Mamdani is that the corrupt International Criminal Court could have, but did not, charge Netanyahu with genocide. Zohran and City Hall are doing that.
Practically out of obscurity the other day, a letter was sent to Mamdani by Attorney Elizabeth Forspan, president of the Brandeis Association of Queens, a group of Jewish legal professionals. In the letter, she pointed out the absence of any Jewish representation on Mamdani’s 18-person judicial panel that will advise him on his judicial nominations. In a city where Jews comprise roughly ten percent of the population and there are tens of thousands of Jewish lawyers and former judges, Mayor Mamdani found it within his very prejudiced self not to appoint a single Jew to the committee.
It is relatively early but the question remains as to how long Mamdani will be able to effectively wear his hatefulness on his sleeve. Those with some knowledge of history describe this as a page out of the Nazi reign in Europe beginning in 1933 and culminating in 1938 with the confiscation and destruction of Jewish property and Kristallnacht, a precursor to the Holocaust that murdered six million Jews.
It was in 1933 that the Nazi government removed Jewish judges, civil servants, professors, and legislators from key positions on the courts and in the government. The Third Reich also purged other professions such as doctors, lawyers, tax consultants, and notaries so that others appointed in their place could marginalize and sideline the Jews and ultimately assign them an illegal status as a people, stripping them of all rights.
This might be the thought process that squirrels around Mamdani’s little head. Over the last few days, President Herzog of Israel did not mince words when he said that, “[Mamdani] is basically spreading blasphemy, hate, and antisemitic rhetoric. He should understand that he’s risking his own citizens. He’s risking their safety, well-being, and life.”
That is a serious accusation from a head of state unless the person you are speaking about wants to be known as an antisemite and wants to endanger the lives of Jews in New York and around the world, which might very well be the case.
On Monday, Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, additionally articulated that in his estimation, Mamdani is nothing less than a Jew-hater. He called on the mayor to change his anti-Israel rhetoric before Netanyahu’s visit in September.
Also on Monday, a top assistant to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ophir Falk, said on WABC regarding Mamdani that he’s not certain whether Mamdani is a mayor or a clown. I vote for a cartoon character.
Forspan wrote Mamdani a letter saying that the snub over the judicial panel has left many Jewish New Yorkers feeling marginalized. (I can’t imagine that bothering him too much.) Mamdani responded that to date, he has had the privilege of appointing a dozen qualified judges from a range of backgrounds, including Jewish. That is, of course, a classic Mamdani lie and deception since the last dozen judges he is referring to were appointed to the bench by former Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Mamdani is going to attempt as best he can to undercut Jewish influence in the city that’s home to two million Jews. It’s a big job for a Jew-hater (my words), but as we have seen, he is chomping away at the bit and is just getting started.
It was an obvious mistake to elect him in the first place, and there is a great deal of buyer’s remorse. He’s not what he promised to be and few people are surprised.
Strangely silent amid all this antisemitic rhetoric is the shomer Yisrael, Senator Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States. Schumer has been strangely mute even though someone managed to squeeze a book out of him on the subject of antisemitism a few years ago. Schumer, who wants to stay in the Senate, is anticipating a possible challenge in 2028 from either Mamdani or his partner in anti-Israel hatred, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
To her surprise, Elizabeth Forspan’s letter to the mayor has turned into the shot heard around the world. There isn’t a media outlet anywhere that has not picked up the story. Zohran Mamdani lies about a lot of things every day, but you can’t build a foundation of an administration with words that crumble to pieces minutes after they are uttered by him.
How long can the mayor go on lying?
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
