Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS

On the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani published a post describing Israel’s actions as “genocidal,” recycling Hamas talking points and unverified casualty figures.

Mamdani also emphasized Palestinian suffering while downplaying and even erasing Hamas’ role as aggressor, its torture of Israeli hostages, and its vow to strike Israeli civilians “again and again” until the Jewish State is destroyed.

This is far more than political rhetoric. It is a dangerous rewriting of reality that legitimizes antisemitism and endangers Jewish lives.

When a politician poised to lead America’s largest city repeats Hamas propaganda and cloaks lies in moral language, the harm reverberates far beyond New York.

The Anatomy of Distortion

Minimizing the aggressor

Mamdani acknowledged Hamas’ attack but quickly pivoted to the “scale” of Israel’s response — as if the size of a defensive response is the sole moral measure –and to the supposed illegitimacy of Israel itself.

Mamdani spent most of the statement attacking Israel, and implied that the Jewish State somehow “deserved” October 7. This framing turns deliberate mass murder into an abstract policy debate, concealing the fact that Israel defended itself against an openly fascist theocracy with a genocidal mandate.

Moral inversion

Calling Israel’s defensive war “genocide” isn’t an exaggeration — it’s a lie with a purpose. It turns the attacker into the victim and the defender into the villain, echoing ancient antisemitic tropes: Jews as aggressors, Jews as bloodthirsty, and Jews as deserving their own destruction.

In truth, Israel has maintained one of the lowest civilian-to-combatant casualty ratios in modern warfare — lower than that of the United States in Iraq or Afghanistan. Yet Mamdani brands this restraint and effort to avoid civilian casualties as “genocide.” Such rhetoric inflames ignorance and hate; it does not inform.

The “apartheid” libel

Mamdani also invokes another favorite fiction of the far-left — accusing Israel of “apartheid.” The charge is as false as it is cynical.

Israel’s Arab citizens vote, serve in parliament, sit on its Supreme Court, and hold senior roles in medicine, academia, the military, and business. There is no apartheid in a country where Jews and Arabs share city councils, courtrooms, universities, and hospitals.

The term wasn’t coined to describe reality but to delegitimize Israel’s existence — to brand the Jewish State as irredeemable. Mamdani’s repetition of this libel isn’t human-rights advocacy; it’s moral warfare.

Refusal to confront extremism

Despite repeated calls, Mamdani has never condemned violent slogans like “Globalize the Intifada.” On the streets, that phrase isn’t a metaphor — it’s a call for violence against Jews everywhere. His silence, in a city home to 1.6 million Jews, is not neutrality; it’s perilous complicity.

When Lies Inspire Violence

On October 7, 2025 — the second anniversary of Hamas’ barbaric invasion, a day when terrorists and mobs of invading Gazans murdered more than 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250 — major cities from New York to London, and Paris to Melbourne hosted demonstrations steeped in rage and antisemitism. Protesters waved terror flags, vandalized synagogues, and taunted Jews with chants glorifying the massacre.

At the very moment of these rallies, Hamas was weighing President Trump’s proposed deal to end the war — the same deal it would soon accept after sustained US pressure and Israel’s advances in Gaza City forced its hand.

If those protesters — and Mamdani — truly believed a “genocide” was taking place, they should have been the loudest voices demanding Hamas accept the ceasefire and free the hostages. Instead, they were silent. Their outrage was never about protecting life, but about vilifying the Jewish State. Mamdani’s refusal to urge Hamas to accept the 21-point peace plan shows his alignment with this moral inversion. If he genuinely believed a genocide was unfolding, how could he not welcome the very agreement that stopped the war and freed the captives?

This Is More Than Local Politics

When a leading mayoral candidate declares the world’s only Jewish State evil and illegitimate, he sends a message to those who already hate Jews: your narrative is valid.

The training ground for violence is narrative. Extremists start with slogans and lies long before they pick up weapons. Once those narratives are mainstreamed by politicians and pundits, the path from speech to violence becomes terrifyingly short.

In New York — home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel — synagogues, schools, and Jewish community centers are part of the city’s fabric. When people in power frame Jews as oppressors and the Jewish state as uniquely monstrous, that visibility becomes vulnerability.

The Historical Pattern

Jewish history records what happens when racist lies go unchecked. Lies about Jewish power, guilt, or collective blame have never stayed theoretical; they’ve always ended in blood. The pattern is consistent: lies take root, the public grows numb to it or mainstreams it, and violence follows.

In the 20th century, that pattern didn’t protect Jews — it empowered fascism. Today, rebranding old antisemitism in the language of “social justice” won’t protect anyone either. Moral confusion doesn’t end violence; it guarantees it.

Bottom Line

Zohran Mamdani isn’t merely expressing a bad opinion about Israel. He’s advancing a worldview where truth is expendable, terror is excusable, and Jews are once again cast as villains in their own story.

Mamdani’s post became even more grotesque in hindsight, coming just hours before Hamas finally accepted a ceasefire that freed the hostages and required it to cede power in Gaza — terms he still hasn’t endorsed.

When power protects falsehood, safety is the first casualty. When truth is sacrificed for ideology, history always repeats itself. And for the Jewish people, those echoes are never far behind.

Micha Danzig is a current attorney, former IDF soldier & NYPD police officer. He currently writes for numerous publications on matters related to Israel, antisemitism & Jewish identity & is the immediate past President of StandWithUs in San Diego and a national board member of Herut.