Mamdani’s Plan To Protect Jews — Without Condemning the Intifada — Has Become a Target for New York’s Republican Candidates

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new campaign to tackle rising harassment and attacks against Jewish New Yorkers is hamstrung by the mayor’s refusal to define antisemitism or acknowledge anti-Israel sentiment as interconnected, a point Republican candidates have latched onto as they aim to offer a different vision for the Empire State ahead of Election Day. GOP Candidates in the running for governor, state attorney general, Congress and State Senate assailed the mayor’s seven-point plan to increase funding for security around synagogues and other non-profits and support cultural and education initiatives, promising to do more and questioning Hizzoner’s “credibility.”Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is within single digits of Governor Kathy Hochul in his bid to take over the Executive Mansion, according to two recent polls, called putting the mayor in charge of protecting Jewish communities “like putting the fox in charge of the hen house” in a statement Tuesday. “Mamdani’s credibility on fighting antisemitism is undermined by his use of hateful rhetoric and repeated refusal to condemn ‘globalize the intifada’ slogans associated with violence against Jews,” Mr. Blakeman said in a statement Tuesday.The mayor announced his action plan with a video message and post on X that included a rough translation of the oft-quoted Talmud teaching: “Whoever saves a single life, it is as though he had saved the world entire.”Caroline Shinkle, who is running against Micah Lasher to take over Congressman Jerry Nadler’s seat representing central Manhattan, echoed Mr. Blakeman’s call in a post on X responding to the mayor. “@NYCMayor why don’t you start with condemning ‘Globalize the Intifada,’” wrote Ms. Shinkle, who previously worked for the Bank of Israel in Jerusalem. Ms. Shinkle has touted support for her campaign from Democrats reaching across the aisle, including former Bill Clinton advisor Naomi Wolf, as a sign of pervasive discontent with Mr. Mamdani’s administration.Candidate for state attorney general Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York and chief of staff at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, offered her own action plan in contrast to the mayor’s.“I’ll give the Mayor this much: the plan acknowledges that antisemitism is real and growing in this city,” Ms. Komatireddy said in a statement that acknowledged value in the mayor’s funding commitments, but, she said, “someone has to make sure that we take that case into a courtroom and win it. Our Attorney General is not doing that. I will.”Ms. Komatireddy is running a tough-on-crime campaign in her quest to unseat progressive New York Attorney General Letitia James. Ms. James has not leveraged the full powers of her office to crack down on antisemitic harassment, Ms. Komatireddy said in her statement. She promised, if elected, to declare a state of emergency on antisemitism on Day 1, staff the office’s Hate Crimes Bureau to increase prosecutions, establish buffer zones to keep protesters away from synagogues, and bring civil rights actions on behalf of Jewish students who face discrimination or harassment. “I will judge the mayor by what he does, not what he says,” Ms. Komatireddy said Tuesday. “But Jewish New Yorkers deserve to know there is a law enforcement office in this state that will protect them no matter who sits in City Hall.”State Senate candidate Alina Bonsell, a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant who is running to represent District 28, which runs from the Upper East Side to Washington Square Park, called the mayor’s plan “not serious enough,” citing a recent case in which a 28-year-old man was pled guilty to a hate crime charge for stalking a group of visibly Jewish men through Times Square and assaulting one of them. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of probation for the attack.“Where is the accountability?” Ms. Bonsell said, calling for “meaningful consequences” in a statement shared with The New York Sun. “Prevention and education are important, but they cannot substitute for enforcement of the law.”

Mamdani’s Plan To Protect Jews — Without Condemning the Intifada — Has Become a Target for New York’s Republican Candidates

Mamdani’s Plan To Protect Jews — Without Condemning the Intifada — Has Become a Target for New York’s Republican Candidates

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