{"id":535706,"date":"2026-07-11T03:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/535706\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T03:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:18:13","slug":"its-great-poll-gives-mamdani-higher-favorability-than-netanyahu-among-us-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/535706\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s great’: poll gives Mamdani higher favorability than Netanyahu among US Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> said Friday that it was \u201cgreat\u201d to see a new AP survey showing him with higher favorability among Jewish Americans than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while insisting that his focus remained on making Jewish New Yorkers feel safe, at home and valued by the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll leave it to New Yorkers and pundits to make of it what they will,\u201d Mamdani told local television station NY1 when asked about the poll. \u201cMy focus is on delivering for each and every New Yorker, and I\u2019m proud to be the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani says Jewish support is \u2018great\u2019 after poll puts him ahead of Netanyahu<\/p>\n

(Video: Spectrum News NY1)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mamdani said the city\u2019s responsibility toward its Jewish population should not be framed only through the fight against antisemitism, even though he called that effort \u201ccritical and necessary.\u201d He said he wanted to go beyond \u201cjust the question of keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe,\u201d and ensure that they \u201clook at this city and understand themselves to be home\u201d and feel \u201ccherished and celebrated by the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI take a real pleasure in being able to be the mayor of this same city,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mamdani was also asked about a proposed two-state framework for Israelis and Palestinians that includes freedom of movement and an internationally administered capital in Jerusalem. He said he was not sufficiently familiar with the proposal, but repeated his view that any future arrangement should guarantee equal rights for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that makes me so proud to be an American is that equality is enshrined in our Constitution,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that helps me understand how the world should look as well, with that same equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments followed the publication of an AP survey conducted in June among 1,022 Jewish Americans. Forty-four percent of respondents said they viewed Mamdani favorably, compared with 39% who viewed him unfavorably and 17% who had no opinion.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu received a 32% favorability rating, while 59% viewed him unfavorably. President Donald Trump ranked even lower among those surveyed, with 29% holding a favorable opinion of him and 70% viewing him negatively.<\/p>\n

The results do not necessarily indicate support for Mamdani\u2019s views on Israel. They also reflect the erosion of Netanyahu\u2019s standing among American Jews. Seventy-three percent of respondents said Israel\u2019s initial military response to the October 7 Hamas attack was justified, but only 42% supported the continuation of military operations in Gaza, compared with 43% who opposed them.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d6\u05d5\u05d4\u05e8\u05d0\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d6\u05d5\u05d4\u05e8\u05d0\u05df<\/p>\n

(Photo: AP Photo\/Adam Gray)<\/p>\n

Thirty percent said they believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, while 49% rejected the claim. Only 33% supported the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, while 36% opposed the idea and 30% said they neither supported nor opposed it.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s popularity in the survey drew attention because he won only 26% of the Jewish vote in New York\u2019s most recent mayoral election. Since taking office, he has faced sustained criticism from Jewish leaders and Zionist organizations over his positions on Israel and his support for pro-Palestinian activists.<\/p>\n

He has refused to recognize Israel specifically as a Jewish state, said he would not visit the country and pledged to seek Netanyahu\u2019s arrest should the Israeli prime minister enter New York, citing the International Criminal Court\u2019s arrest warrant. That pledge could face a practical test in September, when Netanyahu is expected to travel to the city for the United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n

Officials in Netanyahu\u2019s office have already described the issue to ynet as a \u201cheadache\u201d for the mayor.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also boycotted this year\u2019s annual Israel Day Parade, backed economic boycotts and divestment from Israel and supported congressional candidates who made harsh statements about the country.<\/p>\n

His administration faced further embarrassment this week after it emerged that City Hall\u2019s international affairs chief, Ana Maria Archila, had planned to meet Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani.<\/p>\n

According to a report in the local outlet City Journal, the meeting was scheduled for July 7 at the United Nations and was to include two other senior city officials. The State Department, which had not been informed in advance, intervened and clarified the limits of permissible contacts with Iranian officials.<\/p>\n

The report said Archila had not informed Mamdani, was reprimanded and was ordered to cancel the meeting. \u201cThis meeting did not take place and will not take place,\u201d the mayor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

It was the second time the State Department had intervened to block a planned diplomatic meeting involving Mamdani\u2019s administration and a figure hostile to Israel. Last month, the Trump administration pressured Colombia to cancel a planned meeting between Mamdani and the country\u2019s outgoing president, who is known for his anti-Israel rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and his representatives have not yet held a meeting with any official Israeli representative.<\/p>\n

Tensions with the Israeli Consulate in New York also intensified over Mamdani\u2019s wife, Rama Duwaji, who is serving as a co-host of a luxury women\u2019s retreat in Corsica focused, according to the consulate, on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and solidarity with Palestinian women.<\/p>\n

\"\u05e8\u05d0\u05de\u05d4<\/a>\"\u05e8\u05d0\u05de\u05d4<\/p>\n

Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji <\/p>\n

(Photo: AP Photo\/Andres Kudacki)<\/p>\n

Participation in the retreat costs between approximately $3,100 and $5,260. Promotional material for previous workshops described Mary as \u201ca Palestinian woman who gave birth under occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consulate said Jesus was Jewish and was born in Judea to his Jewish mother, Mary, and accused those presenting him as Palestinian or implying he was Muslim of distorting history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first lady of the city is pushing a false and dangerous narrative against Israel,\u201d the consulate said, adding mockingly that calling Jesus Palestinian was \u201cas ridiculous as claiming the New York Knicks lost the NBA championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, Mamdani appeared this week wearing a hard hat and holding a shovel beside Israeli-born businessman Tal Kerret, president of real estate giant Silverstein Properties, at the groundbreaking ceremony for 2 World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

The 55-story, 1,227-foot tower will be the final commercial office building completed at the rebuilt World Trade Center site and is expected to serve as the new global headquarters of American Express. It is scheduled to open in 2031.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said the project would create more than 3,200 construction jobs, inject nearly $6 billion into the city\u2019s economy and support more than 20,000 jobs after completion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand today on sacred ground,\u201d he said, at a ceremony that offered a different, and far rarer, image of the mayor\u2019s relationship with Israelis in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that it was \u201cgreat\u201d to see a new AP survey showing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-535706","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\/535706","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=535706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}