NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A few weeks before his stunning loss to Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic mayoral primary, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo put forth a political calculus long accepted as fact in New York: \u201cBeing a Democrat,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s synonymous that you support Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani, who would be the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor, could be on the cusp of shattering that convention.<\/p>\n
An unstinting supporter of Palestinian rights, the 34-year-old democratic socialist has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, backed the movement to boycott the country\u2019s goods and pledged to have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he sets foot in New York.<\/p>\n
In a city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, where mayors have long been expected to make the long pilgrimage to the Jewish state, Mamdani identifies proudly as an \u201canti-Zionist.\u201d <\/p>\n
While he says he supports Israel\u2019s right to exist, he describes any state or social hierarchy that favors Jews over others as incompatible with his belief in universal human rights.<\/p>\n
City officials, Mamdani often points out, have no say in American foreign policy. And he has consistently and emphatically rejected claims that his criticism of Israel amounts to antisemitism, promising to work closely with those whom he doesn\u2019t agree with if elected.<\/p>\n
But as Cuomo and others have framed the race as a referendum on Israel, political observers say a Mamdani victory could reverberate far beyond New York, offering permission for Democrats to speak out on an issue long seen as a third rail of politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis race is a proxy for where the party goes from here in terms of support for Israel \u2014 and that\u2019s causing a lot of consternation,\u201d said Basil Smikle, a former chief executive of the state\u2019s Democratic Party. \u201cWe\u2019re treading in territory that we\u2019ve not really dealt with before.\u201d <\/p>\n
The \u2018most important\u2019 issue in the race<\/p>\n
From the beginning, Cuomo has staked much of his political comeback on painting himself as a defender of Jewish security, both in New York and the Middle East. <\/p>\n
Shortly before launching his campaign, he announced that he had joined Netanyahu\u2019s legal defense team to defend the prime minister against war crimes charges brought by the International Criminal Court. He cast antisemitism as the \u201cmost important\u201d issue facing the city and himself as a \u201chyper aggressive supporter of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s own views, he said, presented an \u201cexistential\u201d threat to New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Other candidates quickly rushed to burnish their own pro-Israel credentials, including Mayor Eric Adams, who announced he would run on an \u201cEndAntisemitism\u201d ballot line.<\/p>\n
As they competed for support among Brooklyn\u2019s prominent rabbis and other Jewish voters, each equated protests for Palestinian rights with support for terrorism and backed a contentious definition of antisemitism that includes certain criticism of Israel.<\/p>\n
Days before dropping out last month, Adams shared a smiling photo with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
The strategy appeared willfully ignorant of polls showing growing public disapproval in the U.S. of Israel\u2019s prosecution of the war in Gaza, according to Alyssa Cass, a longtime Democratic strategist.<\/p>\n
She said a handful of deep-pocketed campaign donors and some city news outlets \u201ccreated an impression that you could not ever question Israel, and that impression was completely divorced from reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unique dynamics in New York were masking a broader, larger migration in public opinion that had been brewing for some time,\u201d Cass added. \u201cThey didn\u2019t realize that the ground beneath them had shifted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shifting political winds<\/p>\n
Still, with less than two weeks to go before the election, Cuomo has only leaned into the issue, claiming at Wednesday\u2019s debate that Mamdani had \u201cstoked the flames of hatred against the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The broadsides have won support from the Anti-Defamation League and pro-Israel donors, like the hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman. But there is little indication that the strategy is working among ordinary New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
In a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in early October, 41% of likely voters in New York City said Mamdani\u2019s views on Israel aligned closest with their own, compared to 26% for Cuomo. <\/p>\n
A Fox News poll conducted in mid-October found that 50% of registered voters in New York said they identified more with the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict, compared to 44% who identified more with the Israelis.<\/p>\n