In his article, “Zohran Mamdani Is the Greatest Challenge to the Western World,” published in Hebrew in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, Odeh Bisharat chooses an admiring tone to depict the new mayor of New York City, as if presenting a unique and worthy moral alternative to other politicians in Israel and the United States.
He begins by characterizing Mamdani’s condemnation of the U.S. arrest in January of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a courageous and noteworthy act.
Then, he quotes the poetry of Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish, writing “just as grass sprouts between the fissures of the rock” to frame Mamdani as a humble warrior against Islamophobia within a hostile Western sphere that has “exchanged its animosity toward communism for animosity toward Islam.” In this context, Bisharat portrays Mamdani as a leader striving to provide a sense of home for all city residents, including its Arab population, while drawing unflattering comparisons to other locales, including Israel.
Bisharat, author of the novel The Streets of Zatounia, captures the duplicity of the political world, complete with the chasm between good intentions and impending reality. Yet he chooses to mediate Mamdani and bolster the significance of his election as a Muslim man in the West, exemplifying a social phenomenon in which the symbolic and the imaginary are privileged over palpable facts on the ground.
The most pressing issue in New York today is not Islamophobia, but rather an unprecedented surge in antisemitism. According to data from the New York City Police Department and the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, the number of incidents targeting Muslims in the city amounts to only a few isolated cases per month, whereas antisemitism has served as the primary driver of hate crimes since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Out of 576 hate incidents documented in 2025, some 330 targeted Jews, accounting for approximately 57% of all occurrences. According to additional reports, roughly 60% of hate crimes throughout the city were categorized as antisemitic. This trend is particularly alarming due to the shift in the nature of these offenses. While a significant portion of such hate crimes in the past involved property damage, such as graffiti, the last two years have seen a sharp increase in crimes against people, including aggravated assaults.
Against this backdrop, Mamdani’s inaugural measures evoke deep concern. Immediately upon assuming office, he rescinded the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which posits that antisemitic expressions, encompassing rhetorical and physical manifestations of hate, can include the targeting of the State of Israel, “conceived as a Jewish collectivity.”
Furthermore, he removed restrictions on the activities of the BDS movement against Israel, and is viewed by many Jewish communities and organizations as blurring the line between political criticism and the collective delegitimization of Jews. He also terminated the special police protection traditionally provided around synagogues during demonstrations, a move that undermines the sense of security and religious freedom of the city’s Jewish community.
The composition of appointments within Mamdani’s inner circle is equally significant. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League found that at least 20% of his senior appointees are linked to radical anti-Zionist groups, with some having previously made statements justifying the events of Oct. 7. It is therefore unsurprising that a recent survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute revealed that 67% of Jewish respondents in New York believe that Mamdani’s initial steps place them in tangible danger.
The recurring imagery of humanistic collectivism under Mamdani’s leadership, as woven into Bisharat’s article, fails to mention Jews as part of the vision of coexistence between Muslims and American Christians in New York. And it serves as a reminder of the dangerous discrepancy between image and reality—between a figure presented as a utopian symbol and the deleterious policies enforced on the ground.
The criticism Bisharat directs toward Israeli society is valid, similar to criticism required in other parts of the world where much work remains to promote coexistence and multiculturalism. Recognizing this does not mandate a blunting of the critical eye or choosing to whitewash rising Jew-hatred across the United States and the world. Nor should it ignore political actors like Mamdani, who, despite his declarations, adopts policies that may contribute to fanning the flames.
