When Karen Diamond, one of the victims of the attack on Jews marching on behalf of the hostages still held by Hamas, died of her wounds, Zohran Mamdani posted a heartfelt message of condolences.
I am heartbroken by the news from Colorado where Karen Diamond, a victim of the vicious attack earlier this month, has passed away.
May Karen’s memory be a blessing and a reminder that we must constantly work to eradicate hatred and violence.
This isn't something new or out of character for Mamdani. He condemned the Boulder attack when it happened, as well as the shooting of two Israeli diplomats outside the Jewish Museum in DC (which he linked to "the appalling rise in antisemitic violence."
But after this latest post, I saw quite a few people reply to Mamdani with the same basic quip: "Why are you heartbroken? They globalized the intifada."
The line, of course, is a reference to Mamdani refusing to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada" (while also saying it's "not the language I use"). And the people who posted it feel very clever about themselves.
But if the goal is for Mamdani to actually stand up for Jews (and, to be fair, I think presenting that as the goal is giving these people far too much credit) they are being remarkably short-sighted. As should be obvious, responding with sneering hostility when a politician does stand with the Jewish community facing threats disincentivizes them from doing it in the future.
It's not just the negative reinforcement, though it is that. It's that even -- especially -- for a politician attentive to Jewish feelings, hearing that one's messages of support are unwelcome indicates that one should refrain from giving those messages when the community is in pain. Why ladle pain on top of pain? If the above sentiments represent the consensus Jewish view -- and to be clear, I see no evidence that they are, significant reservations towards Mamdani notwithstanding -- then the respectful thing for Mamdani to do would be to refrain from issuing further supportive comments. Which, of course, would then be used against him as well ("he couldn't even issue a statement!").
Now, there's a sense in which I'm being too harsh. These sorts of rejectionist comments are rational if one actively desires to remain in a state of hostility towards the speaker. If one views the putative expression of sympathy as being made in bad faith, for example, then one doesn't want to allow it to be leveraged to give them impression of a positive, reciprocal relationship that doesn't actually exist. Or even if the statement itself is concededly sincere, one might nonetheless want to remain in a hostile relationship if one finds the person's values so repugnant that you'd actively prefer they not stand up for you. If we think about Donald Trump purporting to condemn antisemitism, for instance, we can see both rationales: in many cases, it's obviously insincere, and even to the extent he does "genuinely" oppose certain forms of antisemitism, most Jews have no interest in aligning ourselves with Donald Trump and tying the noble cause of Jewish safety to his hateful, fascistic agenda.
For Mamdani, by contrast, the former (bad faith) rationale I think is entirely implausible -- I see no basis for assuming Mamdani is at all insincere in grieving the victims of the Boulder and DC attacks. So the impetus behind these rejectionist responses is more likely a version of the latter -- these people detest Mamdani and what he stands for so much that they actually don't want him to stand with the Jewish people when we face threat. Again, I'm not going to say that's per se irrational in the sense that one could never harbor such a desire for antagonism (see the Trump example) -- but note how it flies in the face of what so many people say they want out of Mamdani. They say they want him to stand up for the Jewish community; but what they actually want is to hate him for not standing up for the Jewish community. They want to bask in an anger that by design can never be placated.
And what upsets me the most about all of this is that there are valid concerns Jews can have over things Mamdani has said and done, and it's important that there be open lines of communication to talk through those concerns and to see how Mamdani responds to them. That process is being sabotaged, possibly irreparably, by irresponsible rabble-rousers who engage in histrionics about Mamdani's alleged elation over antisemitic violence (or who nitpick the tiniest details of every one of his posts to explain why it's woefully insufficient).'
But again, the sabotage is the point, because the process might yield the realization that Mamdani is not our enemy -- and that, far more than imagined or even real antisemitism, is the saboteurs greatest fear of all.
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