The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democrat’s intern for the Mayor’s Office of New York is not just a local electoral milestone. It is a deep symptom of the direction that is taking the western left and, in particular, the American: a growing shift towards extreme left positions, where democratic socialism amalgams with an explicit antisionist discourse.
Mamdani, a young Muslim assembly of Queens, barely 33 years old, defeated nothing less than Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and symbol of the New York Democratic establishment. His campaign was presented as inclusive and anchored in economic promises: freezing rentals, free public transport, child care at no cost. However, behind that well -being agenda, a deeper political and cultural phenomenon is glimpsed: the adhesion of broad progressive sectors to positions that, under the clothing of anti -rule, in facts derive in anti -Jewish positions.
Voters
Mamdani’s choice presented a generational and cultural change. He won not only in progressive bastions such as Park Slope in Brooklyn, but also in Harlem, Staten Island and areas of Queens and the Bronx traditionally alien to the radical left. His rise was based on a clear speech, without nuances, which attracted tired voters of centrist pragmatism, but also in an antiisraeli narrative increasingly normalized in the American left.
Paradoxically, this turn occurs in one of the cities with the greatest Jewish population in the world. Grandchildren of survivors of the Shoá today renounce Israeli policies, hugging from the “exile” an anti -ionism that in many cases ends legitimizing hate speeches against Israel as a state and, by extension, against the Jews as a people. Mamdani’s electoral pact with Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, Jew and figure of the Democratic liberal base, shows the complexity of this transformation: a Jewish progressism that, in the name of human rights, legitimate allies that promote the delegitimation of Israel.
“I think that the United States, and New York specifically, must stop subsidizing a genocide. It is difficult to explain to my voters in Queensbridge why they live in substandard conditions while the government refuses to finance public housing but finds billions for bombs that kill tens of thousands of Palestinians,” Mamdani marked in an interview with Political.
When asked if he recognized Israel as a state and his right to exist, he replied: “Yes. I recognize Israel. What I ask is the end of exceptionalism policy.” However, its narrative avoids any mention to Israeli law to defense against existential threats and normalizes the idea of a State whose legitimacy is subject to conditions imposed by the international community.
Finally, he justified his appearance in the streaming of Hasan Piker, accused of anti -Semitism, saying: “I am willing to talk to everyone. It is time for the Democrats to leave our bubbles while the extreme fascist right threatens the lives of our neighbors.”
Issues
Mamdani’s victory raises an even more structural problem for New York and the Democratic Party. Its ascent not only marks an ideological shift, but also a risk of governance. As a recent publishing house warned, New York cannot assume its greatness. Mamdani’s radical socialism promises policies that sound attractive on the surface – public support, frozen rent for a million homes, free buses, minimum wage of 30 dollars per hour – but their costs can lead to ruin.
Already in the 70s, the city lived fiscal humiliation when the promises of generous public services collided with the massive escape of capital and the collapse of the tax base. Mamdani proposes to repeat that cycle: an annual 2% tax over the richest 1%, raise the state corporate tax from 7.25% to 11.5%, paradinance public transport and discourage real estate investment, just when New York needs to sustain its role as a global financial and cultural capital.
In addition, its hostility open to capitalism – which qualifies directly as “theft” – and its initial proposal to dismantle the police, although then moderated it, anticipate a future of growing legal and physical insecurity. Recent history shows examples of large metropolis that were believed to be invulnerable until poor management sank them, as the accelerated decline of Hong Kong.
Reperfilation
In a global scenario where polarization dominates the debate, the American left is increasingly distant from the Pro-Israeli positions that historically characterized the Democratic Party. Mamdani’s victory is not an isolated event: he enrolls in the wave that led Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to Congress and holds Bernie Sanders as a moral reference of this radical left.
For New York, this election redefines the immediate future of the most important city in the country. For the United States, it raises an existential challenge to its link with Israel. For the world, it is an indicator that Western progressism is aimed, without modesty, towards a new version of its ideology: one that combines social justice with an explicit rejection of the Jewish state.
In his victory speech, Mamdani raised Lander’s hand and spoke of “the policy of the future.” The question is what future will build a progressivism that, in its fight against injustices, ends up hugging those who deny Israel’s right to exist.
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