With her endorsement of Zohran Mamdani, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is showing that she has given up on combating antisemitism.
Hochul on Sunday announced that she was backing Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race. It is an interesting move for Hochul, who has tried to position herself as a Democratic fighter against antisemitism and claims that she discussed with Mamdani “the need to combat the rise of antisemitism urgently and unequivocally.” She has deemed it sufficient that she has seen Mamdani “meet with Jewish leaders across the city, listening and addressing their concerns directly.”
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Hochul has spent the last several years trying to boost her credibility on opposing antisemitism. She reprimanded antisemitic student activists and said that she would condemn “the fear” caused by rampant antisemitism “every chance I get.” She put Title VI coordinators on every college campus to ensure that “New York is combating antisemitism and all forms of discrimination head-on.” She even ordered the City University of New York to remove a “Palestinian studies” professor position to force the university to, according to her office, “conduct a thorough review of the position to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom.”
Now, Hochul is signaling that all of that was insincere, unserious, or politically expendable. Mamdani is exactly the kind of antisemite that Hochul’s condemnations are meant for, a product of elitist left-wing activism and the antisemitism that accompanies it. Mamdani has defended the use of the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” which is a call to violence by pro-Palestine activists, referring to the First and Second Intifadas that killed over a combined 1,200 Israelis.
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Mamdani also wants New York City to no longer use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Instead, he wants to adopt the Biden administration model of the “National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.” If you don’t recall, Biden included the antisemites at the Council on American-Islamic Relations in his plan to help develop “strong relationships with other faith communities” as CAIR leaders celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians.
Hochul is doing this to try to capitalize on the enthusiastic support of Mamdani’s left-wing base, after she limped through the 2022 election and is preparing her 2026 reelection campaign. In doing so, she is showing that antisemitism is less serious to her than the possibility that she could lose an election. To Hochul, antisemitism is just another part of the political game, which is why she is so willing to ignore it when it comes to Mamdani’s left-wing campaign.