Thoughts on the Mamdani Win

As long as we’re on the subject of mindless Jew-hatred, there’s now the matter of New York City’s mayor-elect, Ugandan-born Zohran Mamdani. Aside from the fact that he may have entered the U.S. illegally, but that’s a matter for the Department of Justice.

Naturally there’s concern regarding his rhetoric about freezing rents. But that’s likely to backfire on the mayor-elect since calls to freeze rents scare developers, who are reluctant to build in areas where their properties are subject to rent controls. And New York City already has a housing shortage of several hundred thousand units. Rent freezes have the deleterious effect of chasing away the additional supply that would create more affordable housing units.

Other than that, there’s not much he can do to hurt private homeowners except bring down the value of their homes, which for the average family is the largest asset they own. But the flip side of that coin is that real estate prices will increase dramatically in places like Nassau, Westchester, and Suffolk counties, out of the reach of the Mamdani administration.

That essentially means that young families looking to buy their first home for their growing family will have to look elsewhere, anyplace but the five boroughs of New York City, which means they will consider places like Rockland or even Sullivan Counties.

As far as Mamdani’s threat to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu if and when he arrives in New York City, it’s an empty, nonsensical, childish threat. New York City and the NYPD have absolutely no power to arrest a foreign diplomat regardless of the reason. In this case, Mamdani claims he’s determined to carry out the order of the International Criminal Court. Perhaps Zohran doesn’t know, but the U.S. is not a signatory to the ICC, which means they have no power anywhere in the U.S., including New York City.

Of course, if Bibi really wants, he can fly into Islip and spend his time in Nassau County as the guest of the newly re-elected County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

Mamdani’s threats against Israel and Netanyahu are the expressed manifestation of what it means to be an avowed hater of Israel and Jews. The thing about all this is that it’s intended to upset people, and on that level, it’s successful.

Mamdani says he was drawn into the socialist, anti-Israel movement by the issue of “Palestine.” But at this point, most of the Gulf States and the other Muslim countries are losing interest in the idea of “Palestine,” and the ability to get involved in building resort properties on the shores of Gaza has become a much more interesting proposition.

So now Zohran has to latch his anti-Jewish wagon onto another issue while he figures out how he’s going to pay for all the free things he promised his voters while Trump withholds tens of billions of dollars in funding for New York. Cut the guy who tells the Mayor it’s time to smile. 

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.