Last week, President Trump had an opportunity to go on record denouncing what we believe was Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s outrageous antisemitic statement, but unfortunately, he took a pass. Apparently, he was more interested in making a very public display of reaching out to Mamdani than to do what he knew was the right thing. But so it goes, even for someone with the remarkable record of support for Israel and the Jewish community.
As has been widely reported, on November 19, there was a protest outside the Park East Synagogue in New York City where an event was being hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh inside. Nefesh B’Nefesh is the non-profit organization that facilitates Jewish immigration to Israel.
The protesters shouted slogans condemning the idea of Jews moving to Israel together with calls for violence including, “Death to the IDF” and “Globalize the Intifada,” both of which most deem to be antisemitic.
A day later, Mayor-elect Mamdani issued a statement through a spokesperson that read in part: “The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” and “He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation and that these sacred places should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Predictably, Mamdani’s statement became the subject of intense scrutiny with critics alleging that his response was weak and equivocal – saying only that he “discouraged” the language the protesters used rather than unequivocally condemning it as the antisemitic incitement that it was. He was also guilty, we think, of shifting the blame by criticizing the synagogue event for allegedly promoting activities in “violation of international law,” thereby justifying the protest.
But the thing also is, at his much-ballyhooed meeting with Mamdani a few days later, President Trump could have chided him for the antisemitic overtones in his statement or at least alluded to it by speaking generally about the evils of antisemitism. But he didn’t. And with the antisemitic crowd, failure to denounce is to encourage.