The Stakes at New York District 10

For a preview of where the Democratic Party appears to be headed, look no farther than New York’s 10th Congressional District. The district comprises all of Lower Manhattan and a swath of western Brooklyn — Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Gowanus. The Democratic primary later this month will pit the incumbent, Congressman Dan Goldman, and his challenger, the erstwhile city comptroller, Brad Lander.The race has the feel of a bellwether. Mr. Goldman, a scion of the Levi Strauss denim dynasty, boasts Democratic credentials that once would have read as impeccable. He was lead impeachment manager for President Trump’s first trial in the Senate and played a crucial role in the second one. He is endorsed by Governor Kathy Hochul, the United Federation of Teachers, and the state branch of the AFL-CIO. He backs the Green New Deal. He is scandal-free.The issue, though, is Israel. Mr. Lander, who ran against Mayor Zohran Mamdani only to molt into one of his biggest boosters — the challenger has City Hall’s backing in this race — is running on a platform of unmitigated hostility to Israel. Mr. Lander, who like Mr. Goldman is Jewish, accuses Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid” at every opportunity. Mr. Lander opposes military aid to Israel, and has of late been mum even on funding Iron Dome. So antagonistic is Mr. Lander to the premises of the Jewish state that at their son’s circumcision he and his wife declared that “We are thrilled to pronounce you a Jew without the Right of Return.” Talk about chucking out the birthright with the bathwater. Mr. Lander nevertheless has called himself a “liberal Zionist,” even as he has worked to ensure the election of a mayor so implacably opposed to the Jewish state that he refuses to march for it.Mr. Lander’s obsession with the perfidy of Israel has so dominated the race that at a televised debate on Monday Mr. Goldman cut in to remark “with all due respect, we’re now 10 minutes into this, and we’ve only spoken about Israel.” To that Mr. Lander retorted “This is one of the significant moral and humanity challenges of our time, and our representative failed.” When Mr. Lander was comptroller, he divested New York City’s public employee pensions from Israel. So how’s the race looking? Grim for Mr. Goldman. An Emerson College poll released late last month shows Mr. Lander with 57 percent of the vote to the incumbent’s 23 percent. That 34-point margin suggests that a blowout could be in the offing. Mr. Goldman, sensing which way the wind is blowing, has taken to apologizing for his vote to censure Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for her rhetoric a month after the massacres of October 7, 2023.Mr. Lander, though, has praised the Michigander’s “passionate & unapologetic advocacy” for “Palestinian freedom” as a stance that “radiates joy & inspires action.” On Monday Mr. Lander once again touted his ties to Hizzoner, writing that the “mayor deserves an ally in Washington, not an adversary in his own backyard.” Like Mr. Mamdani, Mr. Lander skipped the Israel Parade to picnic with those “outraged by Israel’s destruction of Gaza.”That Mr. Lander appears poised to win soundly in what Tablet calls the “defining Jewish American political election of our time” is yet another confirmation that the Democratic turn away from Israel is well underway. Further evidence of this shift can be found some 300 miles northeast of Prospect Park, in Maine, where Graham Platner’s Senate candidacy barrels through scandal on the basis of anti-Israel fervor. Mr. Mamdani was likely just the beginning.

The Stakes at New York District 10

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