A politician hostile to Israel soon to be mayor of New York? Aged 34, of Muslim faith and born in Uganda, Zohran Mamdani, is the big favorite in the polls for this election which takes place on Tuesday November 4. This radical left outsider could thus succeed Democrat Eric Adams and contrasts radically with the conservative politics of Donald Trump, who describes him as “mad communist”.
However, the American president is not the only one to be wary of Zohran Mamdani. Some commentators point out certain controversial positions taken by the candidate, who became an American citizen in 2018. His anti-Israeli speech is particularly criticized. In France, Bernard-Henri Lévy relayed old comments from Zohran Mamdani, who assured that Israel was linked to police violence in the United States: “When Zohran Mamdani dares to assert that “when the boot of the NYPD (the New York police, editor’s note) presses on the back of your neck, it is the IDF (the Israeli army, editor’s note) which laced it”, there is no longer any room for debate, no longer any refuge in the old pretext of “anti-Zionism””tweeted the philosopher, believing that it was a “pure and simple, unvarnished anti-Semitism”. “May the voters of New York remember this”underlined the essayist.
Bernard-Henri Lévy refers to statements made in 2023, during a convention of the Democratic Socialists of America. “To ensure that everyone feels concerned about these issues, we have to make them local, very concrete. We must make it clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it is the IDF that laced it.”affirmed Zohran Mamdani.
The latter seemed to echo the NYPD’s collaboration with several international partners in the fields of intelligence and the fight against terrorism, including Israel, the United Kingdom and France. The candidate for mayor of “the Big Apple”, who multiplies his anti-Israel comments, also assures that there is “many opportunities to show how the struggle taking place there is closely linked to capitalist interests here.”
