Mamdani, in New Interview, Calls Israelis Child-Killers Mayoral candidate abandons affordability to lash out at U.S.-funded Gaza “horror” Ira Stoll
The Democratic Party’s mayoral candidate in New York City, Zohran Mamdani, is intensifying his anti-Israel rhetoric with new comments blaming Israeli soldiers for killing and maiming children in Gaza.
Some press accounts had suggested Mamdani might focus his general election campaign primarily on “affordability” rather than U.S. foreign policy. That might potentially allow Mamdani or his allies to try to claim that his more extreme anti-Israel rhetoric or policy positions, such as support of a boycott of Israel or arresting its prime minister, were irrelevant or the stuff of the past. Mamdani did recently issue a video about fast and free buses in dedicated lanes, a proposal he associated with in the video with the administration of Mayor Bloomberg.
Other press accounts emphasized Mamdani’s recent claim that he has not used the phrase “globalize the intifada” and that “I discourage its use.”
Yet the new comments from Mamdani suggest that, rather than taking a conciliatory approach on the Israel issue, demonizing Israelis as child-killers is going to be an aspect of Mamdani’s general election campaign for mayor of New York City. The stereotype of Jews as bloodthirsty child-killers has been a staple of hateful anti-Jewish propaganda for centuries.
Mamdani’s comments came in an interview with my former New York Sun colleague Errol Louis on NY1, a New York City cable television channel. They were posted online in podcast format on Friday afternoon July 18 with a short text summary that did not include the child-killing allegation. When Louis asked what Mamdani would do to unify New Yorkers if rhetoric like “globalize the intifida” became a stumbling block, Mamdani replied:
“Refocusing on what has caused so many New Yorkers anguish, especially in this moment. You know, it was just a few months ago that I met a New Yorker in Brooklyn who told me of how more than 80 members of her family had been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza. This is a devastation that many New Yorkers are feeling personally. It’s one that for others, they are witnessing on a day to day basis, and it continues until today. You know, just last week, NBC News reported that the Israeli military bombed a health clinic in Gaza, killing 10 children, including a one year old who had just uttered his first words hours before. We are speaking of a place that is now home to the greatest number of child amputees in modern history. And what offends so many in our city, this horror is one that is subsidized by our country, and it is something that I know has been of concern for New Yorkers, even during the presidential election, when I went to Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I heard not just about a desire for cheaper groceries and the cost of living that was easier to navigate, but also for an end to our tax dollars paying for the killing of children, and Donald Trump exploited that despair only to heighten it with policies that have intensified this horror, be it in Gaza or elsewhere. And what it behooves us as Democrats to do is not just speak up in opposition to these policies and these decisions, but also for a vision of the world where international law is not simply an aspiration, but a reality, and where we understand there is no hierarchy for all of God’s children.”
Mamdani’s statement is full of lies, missing context, and half-truths. For example, the claim that “the Israeli military bombed a health clinic in Gaza, killing 10 children, including a one year old who had just uttered his first words hours before.” Even the New York Times, whose news coverage had been tilted against Israel, reported that the Israeli strike did not directly target the health clinic, but, as the Times described it, “near a health clinic.” The Times reported, “The Israeli military said that it had struck a Hamas fighter who participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.” Mamdani doesn’t mention that. The Times says, “A CCTV video from the moment of the strike, verified by The New York Times, shows two men walking down a street with a group of about a dozen women and children sitting on a pavement close by. Suddenly, the two men are hit and a cloud of dust fills the screen.” That suggests the target was the Hamas fighter, not the children. Hamas uses civilians, including children, and health clinics as human shields for its terrorist operations.
The claim that Gaza “is now home to the greatest number of child amputees in modern history” is also questionable. If it were true, it would be a testament to a medical care system that is able to treat and save wounded children rather let them bleed to death. Elements of the UN, which is afflicted by anti-Israel bias and dominated by enemies of Israel, have claimed that “The Gaza Strip now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.” But making a claim about “now…per capita” is different from Mamdani’s propaganda claim about “the greatest number in modern history.” And even the numbers the U.N. is citing come from the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, and are based on an “estimate” with phrases like “it is reasonable to expect” and “there is likely to be.” A July 2024 estimate cited by UNICEF for its “now…per capita” claim said “It is reasonable to expect that there are between 3105 and 4050 limb amputations,” but that was an extrapolation based on actual records of 145 amputations performed between January 10, 2024 and May 16, 2024. Those were the records of all amputations performed, not just those on children. Hamas, whose fighting forces have been depleted in the war, has been using older children, particularly males, as fighters.
As for the NBC report that the strike killed ten children, it was written by a London-based editor. No NBC reporter was at the scene. The “ten children” claim was attributed by NBC to Project Hope, an aid organization that operates in Gaza and that thus, though NBC does not say it, is reliant on Hamas for its continued presence there.
Even Mamdani’s person who claims that “80 members of her family had been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza” deserves to be taken skeptically. In Gazan culture “family” often includes an extended clan, different from what we think of in America as family. Some of those family members may have been terrorists, or killed not by the Israeli military but in Hamas or Islamic Jihad missile misfires, which were frequent in the early days of the Gaza war.
Will Mamdani’s opponents challenge the candidate’s lies and half-truths? Will the Jewish community in New York City fight against the demonization and the tired antisemitic tropes of Jews as child-killers? Will the broader faith community stand up against Mamdani’s use of the name of God — “all God’s children” — in the course of demonizing the Jewish state and its army? That army is not perfect or beyond criticism—it is human—but it takes extraordinary care. Where are the editors of a mostly docile press corps when a major-party politician in America’s largest city turns to demagoguery against the army of the Jewish state?
And one other thing. What kind of pretentious phony uses the word “behooves”? “What it behooves us to do as Democrats?” The only thing worse than an Israel-hating socialist bigot is a pompous Israel-hating socialist bigot.
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