The New York City mayoral election of November 2025 marked far more than a local democratic contest—it signaled a wave of reevaluation in the relationship between the US and Israel, and brought the deeper questions of antisemitism, war crimes, and the role of advocacy organizations into sharp relief.
Erdan’s Post as the Bellwether
Israel’s former UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, captured the establishment’s alarm in a tweet responding to Zohran Mamdani’s victory. Erdan wrote,
It’s crucial to internalize this: an Israel-hater who sees us as an apartheid state that commits genocide...was elected tonight to lead the most important city in the world, home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. This is a dark day...what happened in New York could soon happen throughout the U.S.—including in Congress and even in the White House. This is a HUGE warning sign. And Israel must wake up and implement a comprehensive plan to rebrand ourselves....
Erdan’s focus on “branding” rather than on introspection about Israeli policies illustrates a core crisis: a loss of persuasive power about the justification and consequences of Israel’s conduct, especially in Gaza, among Americans—including 1 in 3 New York Jews who voted for Mamdani. While younger Jews, particularly, are driving this shift, establishment pro-Israel media such as Times of Israel worked to minimize its significance, claiming “between 10% and 33%” Jewish support despite clear and widely reported exit polls indicating the latter (33%)—revealing discomfort with shifting generational attitudes and political realities.
Rethinking Antisemitism and Lawfare
This moment is driven, in part, by reexamination of what counts as antisemitism. The Guardian’s November 5 exposé details how federal investigations into campus antisemitism surged since October 2023, yet most complaints were legally flimsy, equating criticism of Israeli policy—often pro-Palestinian speech—with actionable hostility against Jewish students. This conflation stems from advocacy by groups like ADL, ISGAP, and others, who promoted broad legal definitions (notably IHRA used via executive orders, not the law ) and advised on the weaponization of Title VI civil rights law. The “Mamdani Monitor,” created by ADL immediately following Mamdani’s election to protect Jewish New Yorkers from Mamdani, typifies the reactive posture of the US Jewish establishment, which refused to congratulate the victor and instead emphasized the purported danger to Jewish safety, despite little credible evidence of increased violence against Jews on campuses.
Instead, available evidence overwhelmingly documents violence and harassment directed at pro-Palestinian activists—including Jews—by police and organized pro-Israel counterprotesters. As the meticulously documented UCLA case demonstrates, physical and institutional abuse overwhelmingly targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, while counterprotesters were not prosecuted—a pattern confirmed by faculty and union investigations.The war on dissent has repeatedly misclassified peaceful protest and advocacy as threats to safety, distracting from the documented abuses and chilling free expression and academic freedom.
The Reckoning on War Crimes and Genocide
Recent months have seen an eruption of conscience among prominent Israelis and Jewish scholars: former PM Ehud Olmert, ex-ICJ lawyer Eyal Benvenisti, Shael Ben-Ephraim, Omer Bartov, and others have publicly condemned the war in Gaza as criminally immoral, with some even calling it genocidal. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) went further, with more than 80% of its voting members voting to recognize the Gaza war as genocidal.
Polling has revealed an extraordinary reversal in American opinion, especially among Democrats: more than 70% now agree that Israel is committing genocide. Meanwhile, AIPAC’s influence among Democrats has waned to the point of toxicity, with candidates and voters rejecting unconditional support for Israel—a tectonic change.
Fractures and Fading Narratives
Even Republicans are not monolithic: “America First” figures such as Tucker Carlson have challenged traditional Christian Zionist narratives, indicating cracks in the longstanding AIPAC-GOP alliance. The result is a loss of consensus across the spectrum.
The original NAS (New Antisemitism) narrative, which reframed anti-Zionist speech as the greatest threat to Jewish safety, has backfired. Its weaponization of US civil rights law to suppress campus speech and activism, coupled with attempts to label leading humanitarian and legal organizations as “Hamas supporters,” has led to dramatic disillusionment.
Toward Accountability and Conscience
The unfolding events unmask the profound risk in elevating the US-Israel “special relationship” above constitutional principles and civil rights. Unconditional support, justified by a now-fading consensus and enforced with “lawfare,” has resulted not in Jewish safety, but in democratic erosion and widespread moral outrage—a lesson written in the images of bombed Gaza, starving children, and the silencing of dissent.
The Mamdani election and the reaction it prompted, expressed most anxiously by Erdan, should be a wake-up call: the old politics of branding and suppression have failed. The story now is one of conscience—cracks in orthodoxy, a loss of consensus, and a call for accountability. True democratic resilience means restoring a balance between solidarity and truth, questioning policies, and refusing authoritarian creep. The early signs of this reaction may yet rescue both American democracy and Jewish dignity from the wreckage left by the excesses of NAS lawfare and uncritical support for war and occupation.
Sources / References:
The Guardian, “Surge in antisemitism investigations at US universities after October 7 attacks, data shows,” November 5, 2025.
Yahoo News, “Jewish NYC vote breakdown: 63% for Cuomo, 33% for Mamdani in ...” November 5, 2025.
AA News, “New York mayor-elect Mamdani found strong support among Jewish voters: Polls,” November 4, 2025.
Roya News, “How many Jews voted for Zohran Mamdani to become mayor of NYC?” November 4, 2025.
New York Times, “Zohran Mamdani’s Critical Views on Israel Continue to Divide Jewish New Yorkers,” November 5, 2025.
Times of Israel, “Facing an anti-Zionist mayor: Mamdani’s election win puts NY Jews into uncharted waters,” November 5, 2025.
TRT World, “‘Erase Amalek’: Poll reveals mass Israeli support for expulsion ...” May 26, 2025.
POLITICO, “With slim majority, Mamdani takes over a divided city,” November 5, 2025.
NPR, “A question of intent: Is what's happening in Gaza genocide?” September 25, 2025.
Pew Research, “Israeli Public Increasingly Skeptical About Lasting Peace,” June 2, 2025.
Boston Review, “UCLA’s Unholy Alliance,” Robin D.G. Kelley, May 18, 2024.
New York Times, “Democrats Pull Away From AIPAC, Reflecting a Broader Shift,” October 2, 2025.
Fox News, “ADL chief warns NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani poses a ‘clear and present danger’ to Jewish community,” November 5, 2025.
Times of Israel, “Mamdani holds wide edge among Jewish voters in new NYC poll,” July 31, 2025.
NY Post, “Anti-Defamation League launches ‘Mamdani Monitor’ to combat ...,” November 5, 2025.
Jewish Insider, “ADL launches a Mamdani monitor to track mayor-elect's policies,” November 4, 2025.
Times of Israel, Liveblog, “ADL announces 'Mamdani monitor' to track incoming NYC ...” November 5, 2025.
Jewish Times, “ADL to Launch 'Mamdani Monitor,' Jew-Hatred Tipline,” November 4, 2025.
“History and Impact of the IHRA Antisemitism Definition,” Mondoweiss PDF, April 28, 2025.
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