I understand where you're coming from. I'm not from New York, but I grew up in a town even more Jewish than New York (by percentage). I have known lots of Jews with close ties to Israel — including many Israelis. But that part about the conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is kind of an aside, even though I really wonder …
I understand where you're coming from. I'm not from New York, but I grew up in a town even more Jewish than New York (by percentage). I have known lots of Jews with close ties to Israel — including many Israelis. But that part about the conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is kind of an aside, even though I really wonder how it would come across if he were, say, a Hispanic woman from the Bronx who used to be a bartender, rather than Muslim of Indian ancestry born in Uganda.
Because even if you were to decide that Mamdani thinks Israel shouldn't exist — something he has specifically refuted, but something I have heard very reasonable Muslims from the Middle East say to me, personally — then maybe that's bad, maybe it's anti-Semitism, but I do wonder what relevance it has to the role of New York mayor in particular.
I understand where you're coming from. I'm not from New York, but I grew up in a town even more Jewish than New York (by percentage). I have known lots of Jews with close ties to Israel — including many Israelis. But that part about the conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism is kind of an aside, even though I really wonder how it would come across if he were, say, a Hispanic woman from the Bronx who used to be a bartender, rather than Muslim of Indian ancestry born in Uganda.
Because even if you were to decide that Mamdani thinks Israel shouldn't exist — something he has specifically refuted, but something I have heard very reasonable Muslims from the Middle East say to me, personally — then maybe that's bad, maybe it's anti-Semitism, but I do wonder what relevance it has to the role of New York mayor in particular.