JTA — The audience of the popular daytime talk show “The View” applauded Zohran Mamdani after the New York City mayoral candidate said that he would “describe what is happening in Gaza as a genocide.”
The Democratic candidate, appearing on the ABC show Wednesday, said his “belief in a universality in international law” led him to make the declaration.
Mamdani was being questioned on his Israel beliefs by “The View” co-host Sara Haines, who has a Jewish husband. Haines, wearing a yellow pin for the Israeli hostages, told Mamdani he has “made inflammatory statements, like calling Israel an apartheid state and questioning its right to exist as a Jewish state.”
In response, the nominee reiterated what he said were his beliefs about Israel and its war in Gaza. “Millions of New Yorkers, myself included, care deeply about what’s happening in Israel and Palestine,” he said. “And so to be very, very clear, of course I condemn Hamas. Of course I’ve called Oct. 7 what it was, which is a horrific war crime.”
He then used the term “genocide” to describe conditions in Gaza, a definition he has used before and that Israel and its allies have rejected. But the crowd at “The View” gave the statement a warm reception.
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The home audience of the top-rated daytime talk show is dominated by middle-aged women, according to industry data. It is one of several demographics where support for Israel has declined sharply in the two years since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and during the subsequent war in Gaza. A poll released this week found that Americans now sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, in a reversal of the historic dynamic, and that the shift has been starkest among older Democrats who are college-educated.
After the audience applauded, Mamdani continued, “What we see is a war crime being answered with war crimes. And what we see is, every single hour, the Israeli military killing a Palestinian child for close to two years.”
He added, “I can’t stop that as the mayor of this city. I can make clear my own values, my own commitments.”
Jewish fears about Mamdani’s fierce criticisms of Israel have emerged as a major focal point of the mayoral campaign. A growing number of Jewish groups are lining up behind the candidate’s main challenger, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has said his pro-Israel bona fides are unmatched even as he, too, has recently distanced himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On “The View,” Haines pushed back against Mamdani. “You recognize that people do disagree with you. I am one of those people on some of these points,” she said, without offering specifics.
In response, Mamdani said, “Absolutely, and your disagreeing with me doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be in this city or that you shouldn’t be celebrated.” He added, “If a New Yorker disagrees with me about Israel, I’m still fighting for them to make sure that they can afford this city, be safe in this city and see this city as their own.”
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