Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani falsely accused Israel of “genocide” three times in Thursday night’s debate in the race for New York City mayor.
“I was horrifid by the genocide of Palestinians,” Mamdani said, in explaining why he left his ballot blank in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary.
The reason for a ceasefire in Gaza was for “the end of the genocide,” he said, in backtracking on his earlier refusal not to call for Hamas to lay down its weapons — adding that Israel was guilty of “apartheid.”
“He signed up to be Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal defense team during the course of this genocide,” Mamdani said later, attacking Cuomo for defending Israel’s democratically elected leader.
There is no evidence of genocide or genocidal intent by Israel, despite the scale of destruction in Gaza. The war was started by Hamas with the explicitly genocidal intent of killing as many Israelis as possible.
Military expert John Spencer recently noted in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that Israelis had been jubilant at the end of the war and the return of the hostages — the opposite of “genocidal” intentions:
I had spent several days in and around Gaza City, where I was talking to division, brigade and battalion commanders and their soldiers actively destroying Hamas. I had no idea that I may have been with them during the last day of major fighting in the war. They discussed how they succeeded in moving civilians out of harm’s way, removing Hamas’s main weapon. They described adapting to the thousands of IEDs Hamas had placed seemingly everywhere, and how their units had responded to the terror group’s new urban and guerrilla tactics. Most palpable was that they were optimistic the military pressure was working—not because they were intent on “genocide,” but because the thought of going home, with all the hostages returned, made them happy.
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Of the thousands of reasons Israel wasn’t committing genocide or ethnic cleansing, this moment is proof enough. Israel is joyous over a deal that ends the war with no ethnic cleansing. Joy isn’t what you feel when your deepest ambitions have been thwarted. It is what you feel when your nation has survived, your hostages are home and your children can dream again. It turns out Israel’s goal was never destruction—it was peace.
Mamdani’s stance has come under close scrutiny in the city that has the largest population of Jews outside Israel. Jewish leaders are increasingly speaking out against him, noting that his false claims of “genocide” are offensive to Jews and increase fears for their safety.
Mamdani is considered the heavy favorite to win, given that his opposition is split between disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani has stressed cost-of-living issues in the election, even though his proposed socialist solutions — such as price-fixing — have been tried and have failed in the past.
Asked during the debate how he would make the city safer, Mamdani said that he would hire a new staff of mental health professionals to allow police to focus on responding to emergencies.
The idea of replacing police functions with mental health experts and social workers dates to the Black Lives Matter movement — which Mamdani enthusiastically supported, including its calls to defund police. The proposal ignores the fact that many violent criminals are also suffering from mental and emotional problems.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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