One-Track Zohran

I’m sort-of sympathetic to Zohran Mamdani. Make that a quarter-sympathetic, with occasional spikes. He taught Democrats to focus on affordability. But If Benjamin Netanyahu, Mamdani’s archenemy, wanted to visit my house in Tulsa, I would be tempted to say that I’ll be out of town. I just don’t want to sit at my own dining room table sharing freshly baked challah with this particular Prime Minister.

It’s not that I’m a perfect person. I’ve told my share of lies, wished my antagonists ill, and drowned a bee in a jar full of mud. It’s the kind of thing that little boys do, feeling tortured for years for their cruel misdeeds.

But I’ve never tried to sabotage a democratic state, dismember its judiciary, or evade criminal justice. I’ve never capitulated to the manipulations of the Orthodox who want to protect their own while sending others to war. Netanyahu has done all of this during his tenure and complicated our lives as American Jews. I always thought the government of Israel felt obligated, but what matters to Netanyahu is only the upcoming elections.

Some of this registers with Zohran Mamdani, but Gaza stands at the center of his animus. That goes for the mayor and his farbrent (fanatical) wife, Rama. I like the boots she rented for the inauguration, but I’ve never felt a stronger measure of antagonism toward Jews. It seems to go beyond Israelis to encompass the whole of the Upper West Side. Tell me I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it.

As for Mamdani himself there’s a kind of moral tunnel vision. Let’s suppose for a moment that Israel is the worst. There are still plenty of contenders for second place. Despite its tradition of receiving refugees, Pakistan is now deporting Afghans. That’s four million migrants kicked out of the country, repatriated to a theocracy where they will likely be persecuted. Millions of Muslim Uyghurs are at risk of being caught in a byzantine apparatus of oppression, a Han-Chinese orgasm of ethnic cleansing. The situation in India is only slightly less dire, with the rapid ascent of authoritarian Hindu nationalism focused on marginalizing the Muslim minority.

In every case, Muslim citizens are the victims, but Mamdani has had absolutely nothing to say. No charges of genocide, no calls for justice, no promise to arrest political figures whose hands are covered with blood and suffering. Israel no doubt has much to atone for, including the lives of 20,000 children who were caught up in its zealous response to October 7th. But Mamdani doesn’t seem to see beyond the Jews.

For the record, I hate arguments grounded in what-aboutism. They are weak tools that contribute nothing to our understanding. But Zohran Mamdani seems to be on an obsessive tear. Late last week, he said that “Israel is not a country.” I have no idea what the hell he meant, but I know how that comment lands in my psyche. If Israel is not a country, Zohran Mamdani is not a man, at least not a man who deserves the support of his city.