The minute Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City he took a dramatic step that should have been an object lesson for every Democrat, be they progressive or conservative. Instead of learning a valuable lesson, the Islamophobic knives came out right away to accuse him of antisemitism.
Mamdani issued an executive order nullifying the executive orders of his corrupt predecessor, Eric Adams from the day he was charged with corruption to the day he left office.
That action stands in sharp contrast to the way Democrats responded to the criminal actions of, for example, the George W. Bush administration. The lack of response by Barack Obama to the massive campaign that Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and their neoconservative allies had orchestrated a to deceive the American people into backing (to the extent we did) the invasion of Iraq sent a clear message to the next Republican administration that they could get away with even bigger crimes.
They turned that message into an attempt to overturn an election by force. Yet even THAT elicited no action from Joe Biden against any of the people in power behind that coup attempt, particularly the current sitting President.
Mamdani did the duty Obama and Biden shirked. He nullified Adams’ actions, and rightly so. As a matter of principle, he simply swept them away, leaving the door open to reinstate any of them should the city deem them worthy. That is how you respond to criminal and corrupt acts by elected officials when they have shielded themselves against further prosecution as Adams has.
“We speak about this day as a new era. And in order to fulfill that hope, we have to reckon with why so many New Yorkers have turned away from politics over the last few months, the last few years, the last few decades,” Mamdani said Thursday at City Hall.
You’d think this would be celebrated, not just by progressives, but by liberals, moderates, even those conservatives who cans ee past MAGA and still believe in an accountable government. Instead, Mamdani was assailed.
Bad faith attacks come hard
The EOs Mamdani nullified dealt with various issues, but the media focused only on two. One removed the adoption of the contentious IHRA definition of antisemitism which equates virtually any criticism of Israel with antisemitism and the other barred city agencies from contracting with firms that boycott or divest from Israel and prohibits city agencies from doing so.
The reactionary representatives of the increasingly marginal, racist wing of the Jewish community wasted no time in attacking Mamdani. In a joint statement, the UJA-Federation of New York, JCRC-NY, ADL New York/New Jersey, AJC New York, New York Board of Rabbis, Agudath Israel of America, and Orthodox Union slammed Mamdani.
“[O]ur community will be looking for clear and sustained leadership that demonstrates a serious commitment to confronting antisemitism and ensures that the powers of the mayor’s office are used to promote safety and unity, not to advance divisive efforts such as BDS. Singling out Israel for sanctions is not the way to make Jewish New Yorkers feel included and safe, and will undermine any words to that effect,” their statement read.
According to these groups, Jews in New York can’t feel “included and safe” if their neighbors have the right to exercise their freedom of expression and to employ civil, legal, and traditional manners of protest against a discriminatory foreign country that uses their tax dollars to maintain an apartheid system. It’s clear to any thinking person that following such logic is a sure way to foment massive antisemitism, which, I suspect, is fine with these groups.
The groups got help from their usual ally, the New York Times. In their reporting, the Times headlined their story, “Mamdani Revokes Executive Orders That Adams Signed to Support Israel.” You’d have to read the piece carefully to realize that these were just two of a dozen EOs that Mamdani struck down and were simply part of a sweeping order meant to address the loss of faith New Yorkers experienced watching their former mayor, Adams, kowtow to whoever paid him, whether that payment came from Trump’s White House or Ankara.
Naturally, the Israeli government quickly jumped on the anti-Mamdani bandwagon. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X: “On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”
This is open incitement from a foreign country, not that anyone here will do anything about it. It’s also a preposterous statement on its face. The IHRA definition does not illuminate antisemitism or do anything constructive. It might, if used for its original purpose and in its original form, have been useful as an academic framework to discuss this critical issue. But it has long since been perverted by bad faith actors like the Israeli government, the ADL, AIPAC, AJC, and others to be nothing more than a way to criminalize or stigmatize any criticism of Israel.
These weren’t even the prominent issues, and even progressives missed that point
One noteworthy point is that when Mamdani nullified Adams’ orders, these two drew the attention, but these are simply not particularly important. Allowing people to decide whether their money should go to Israel or should accept a bizarre and twisted definition of antisemitism is simply not an especially important question for the mayor of New York City.
Mamdani has committed to fighting antisemitism. He made sure to spare the Mayor’s Office of Combatting Antisemitism and signed an EO of his own to enhance protection of houses of worship in response to some excessive protests at a synagogue. But the question of Israel and Palestine is not his problem.
The orders that Mamdani nullified included the Trump-backed creation of an Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain as well as rearranging the duties of various deputy mayors’ offices and reorganizing the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. This was a way to begin to address what many believed were orders Adams issued to enable more corruption.
Of paramount importance to many New Yorkers, Mamdani also reversed Adams’ granting permission to federal immigration authorities to conduct criminal investigations at Rikers Island.
There were more. They are all about city administration and most of them have far more real-world impact than the two Israel-related orders that got so much attention.
Even progressive and pro-Palestine groups missed this crucial point, and they really needed to make it much more strongly and frequently.
Progressive groups focused overmuch on the Palestine orders and reinforced the right-wing attention to them. This helps distort the picture of what Mamdani did.
Mamdani wasn’t trying to single out Palestine. He was trying to start his term as mayor by acting on a general principle, one that was not focused on any one issue, but which would symbolize how he intended to govern. The vehicle for that was to erase Adams’ corrupt actions. Unfortunately, even the progressive voices failed to help him do that, focusing instead on defending the issue of Palestine.
Rejecting the IHRA definition and supporting the right to use economic action against Israel are important for the cause of Palestine, of course. But in this case, the defense of Mamdani would have been stronger if Palestine solidarity New Yorkers had exposed pro-Israel groups for their focus on an issue which is not part of the NYC mayor’s job at the expense of issues that really matter to New Yorkers. That could have been done while still opposing IHRA and supporting the right of economic action.
Mamdani is going to stand on principle in his office, I expect. That will include Palestine. But he’s the mayor of New York, and in that role, he can do little more than most of us on the question of Palestine. He has a voice on it, and he’ll use it. But we also must help make it clear that the Muslim-hating forces that back Netanyahu and his criminal gang are going to try to destroy Mamdani with the issue of Israel. The best way to support him is to make it clear that his stance on Palestine is popular but there are more critical issues for the mayor of New York.
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