(June 22, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, drew criticism from both U.S. and Israeli lawmakers after he said at a rally with Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) that AIPAC is a \u201cmonster\u201d that moves \u201cdark money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested in New York and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, spoke from a podium that stated \u201cour team, our year,\u201d in front of seated people holding signs for congressional candidates Brad Lander and Claire Valdez. Both of the latter, the Jewish former city comptroller and a state Assembly member respectively, have accused Israel of \u201cgenocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor has also backed Darializa Avila Chevalier, who has made the same claim of \u201cgenocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani said from the podium that \u201cmonsters take many forms today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those who fund television ads that blanket the airwaves with misleading and bad faith attacks about Claire, Brad and Dari. Those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cIn AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu\u2019s wars.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal,\u201d he said. \u201cTo preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the JNS annual conference in Jerusalem on Monday, Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, said that the \u201creal monster in New York City is the antisemite currently occupying Gracie Mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) also commented on Mamdani\u2019s statements.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Monsters.\u2019 \u2018Dark money.\u2019 A hidden hand \u2018turning us against one another.\u2019 Swap \u2018AIPAC\u2019 for \u2018Jews\u2019 and it\u2019s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books,\u201d he stated. \u201cThat\u2019s not criticizing a lobby. That\u2019s laundering antisemitism from your podium as mayor of a city with more than a million Jews. This bulls*** is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to talk about real monsters, let\u2019s start with the North Koreans, Russians, Sudanese, the Iranian regime and their proxies\u2014Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad\u2014and other terrorist groups who\u2019ve killed scores of Americans,\u201d the Jewish congressman said.<\/p>\n
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated that \u201cwhenever he gets the chance, Zohran Mamdani uses his public platform to attack the Jewish community and spread anti-Israel rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Mamdani, when you describe AIPAC as \u2018monsters moving millions in dark money to preserve power,\u2019 you are invoking some of the oldest and most blatant antisemitic tropes in history,\u201d the Israeli envoy said. \u201cThe only real monster in this story is the hatred you continue to normalize.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Anti-Defamation League office in New York and New Jersey stated that the mayor has to apologize.<\/p>\n
\u201cReferring to members of the Jewish community, who advocate for causes they care about, as \u2018monsters\u2019 wielding \u2018dark money\u2019 is shockingly offensive and unacceptable for a mayor who claims to represent all New Yorkers,\u201d the ADL said. \u201cThis is not about political disagreement. It is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow fear-mongering, conspiracy theories or the demonization of Jews to become normalized in our public debate,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, stated on Sunday that \u201cit\u2019s been three days since Mayor Mamdani took the stage to demonize and denigrate his Jewish constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI initially didn\u2019t say anything, because I felt certain he would retract his incendiary comments or at least explain them. I was wrong,\u201d Greenblatt stated. \u201cThis is the kind of bigoted conspiracy-mongering that you expect from unhinged streamers or white supremacists. It\u2019s not the language that we should expect from the mayor, whose jurisdiction suffers from the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a principled disagreement. This is prejudice pure and simple,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt is deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(June 22, 2026 \/ JNS) Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, drew criticism from both U.S. and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-505607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}