June’s primary victories by left-wing candidates in New York have been described as a political earthquake, with insurgent socialists winning races statewide, including high-profile congressional victories and nearly a dozen more downballot. In many of these races, Palestine became a central issue. Voters wanted candidates who spoke boldly against the horrors that Israel has unleashed on the Palestinian people, and rewarded those candidates with decisive wins in race after race.
In New York’s 7th congressional district, progressive Borough President Antonio Reynoso had similar policy prescriptions to socialist Assemblymember Claire Valdez, but while Valdez has been a long-time advocate for Palestinian rights, Reynoso never called for a ceasefire, and did not acknowledge Israel’s genocide until he ran for Congress. AIPAC donors noticed, sending Reynoso thousands of dollars — voters noticed too, and Valdez won by 20 points.
One nuance between them — according to Valdez herself — was her endorsement of Jewish Voice for Peace NYC’s Break the Bonds campaign. Break the Bonds is a national effort to end investment in Israel Bonds, financial instruments that act as unrestricted loans to the Israeli government, underwriting Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and beyond. In response to the campaign, states from Maryland to Michigan have divested millions of dollars in Israel Bonds holdings.
Here in New York City, Break the Bonds is fighting Comptroller Mark Levine’s promise to re-invest city pension funds in Israel Bonds. Levine has expressed his intention to re-invest in these unreliable bonds numerous times, though he has not yet. Former Comptroller Brad Lander ended decades of special treatment for Israel in 2023 when he stopped the purchase of Israel Bonds. Lander was another Mamdani-backed insurgent, and he toppled pro-Israel incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman by 30 points.
After the primary, it’s clear that any attempt by Levine to reverse Lander’s policy would not just be morally obscene and fiscally irresponsible, but politically catastrophic.
Down ballot, Aber Kawas, a Palestinian organizer who spoke at a November Break the Bonds rally, defeated a well-connected opponent for the state Senate. David Orkin, a JVP member and anti-Zionist Jewish New Yorker, trounced a Zionist, Hindu nationalist incumbent for Assembly. In the most Jewish city in the United States, the future of the Democratic Party has arrived and it is unapologetically pro-Palestine.
Over the past year, Break the Bonds NYC has garnered more than a dozen elected officials’ endorsements. In June, we won nearly as many new supporters in one fell swoop through the defeat of incumbents. Levine can join the ranks of elected officials who have changed their minds on funding Israeli violence, or he can prepare to join the ranks of washed-up incumbents who lose after falling out of touch with voters on the defining moral issue of our day.
Despite the political revolution we are witnessing, conditions on the ground in Palestine continue to be horrific and accountability for the genocide seems impossibly far off. And yet, we know that campaigns like Break the Bonds can achieve material impact, both in restricting money and weapons to Israel, and in ending the narrative that normalizes investments in death and destruction.
Palestine will be free. And the politicians who stood in the way of that freedom will be held to account. It’s not too late for Mark Levine to rescue his legacy, and his career, by backing down from his threats to purchase Israel Bonds. It will be up to him whether he does so — we’re ready either way.
Levine is a media coordinator with Jewish Voice for Peace. Kaplowitz works in the labor movement and is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace – New York City.