Three years ago, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) boasted about fending off growing pro-Palestine sentiment within his party.
“We have to have more and more attention and frankly political power to fight this antisemitism. And to understand how to fight it and to have the people in Congress in particular who can talk to the left, which is the progressives, and keep them pro-Israel,” the congressman told an audience at a primary debate. “A Jewish member of Congress who has the positions that I have and has the ability to work with the progressives… has shown the ability and the willingness to use the resources to prevent BDS from getting a foothold on the left.”
“The fact is I’m endorsed by both AIPAC and J Street, I’m the only candidate of whom that’s true because of my success in deepening the Israel-American relationship and in getting progressives to stand with Israel, which no one else has been able to do,” he added. “And I have been able to do that. And that’s why you get votes like 421 to 7 on funding Iron Dome.”
At the same debate, Nadler declared that he had been fighting against the BDS movement for decades, to great success.
“I’ve been fighting BDS since 2001 when it first reared its ugly head after the Durban conference,” he explained. “It’s not a question of freedom of speech, quite the contrary. BDS itself is a violation of freedom speech because it denies Israeli academics, Israeli performers the right to come here and speak. So BDS is anti-free speech…I have led the fight in Congress against it.”
“The bill that passed against BDS– Brad Schneider and I wrote that bill,” he continued. “On the public, we need a large-scale educational effort about BDS, and there’s no way around it, but I have been able to stop it dead in Congress and make sure that it hasn’t taken a foothold in the progressive caucus.”
Now, in 2025, Nadler is apparently working behind the scenes to build more support among New York City’s Jewish community for Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. While other local Democratic lawmakers have refrained from endorsing Mamdani in the general election, Nadler was one of the first politicians to back the campaign.
Mamdani is a vocal supporter of the BDS movement, and he’s consistently condemned Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He co-authored legislation that would prohibit New York charities from funding illegal West Bank settlements and, despite ongoing pressure from Zionist groups and pro-Israel leaders, he has refused to condemn the phrase, “Globalize the Intifada.”
What’s changed? Nadler is obviously still a big supporter of Israel, but it’s clear that he sees the writing on the wall and maybe even fears a progressive primary challenger if he decides to run again. His willingness to go bat for Mamdani is one example of the sea change currently occurring on this issue.
A recent Jewish Insider article by Matthew Kassel quotes a number of pro-Israel leaders who feel betrayed by Nadler.
Brooklyn Assembly member Kalman Yeger is miffed that Nadler would back Mamdani without addressing “the multitude of his troubling positions.”
“It’s certainly fair to question his judgment and commitment to standing up for the safety of Jewish New Yorkers,” says Yeger, who is referring to the co-chair of the House’s Jewish Caucus.
An anonymous pro-Israel community leader told JI that Nadler had “thrown the Jewish community under the bus” to protect his congressional seat.
Jeff Leb, a Managing Partner at Capitol Consulting who co-organized an independent expenditure committee aimed at stopping Mamdani, said that Nadler had “sold out” the Jewish community.
None of these complaints, attacks, or accusations of betrayal have seemed to slow down Mamdani, who is still projected to become New York City’s next mayor in the fall.
At that 2022 debate, Nadler said he had the power to stop BDS from gaining a foothold on the left. That turned out to be untrue.
Israel lobby in a panic over Dems
Earlier this week, new Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) President Brian Romick put out a long statement condemning a number of “troubling developments” within the Democratic Party.
The group is troubled over the fact that Mamdani won the primary. They’re mad that he refuses to condemn the phrase, “Globalize the Intifada,” which they claim to be a “call for bloodshed.”
They’re also upset about Democratic Party leaders in North Carolina, who recently backed a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
DMFI says that the move is “divisive,” that it lets Hamas off the hook, and that it was “forced through without following the proper process and procedure.”
Additionally, Romnick is concerned about the National Education Association (NEA), where members voted to endorse a proposal cutting ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over its long history of suppressing social justice movements and equating criticisms of Israel with antisemitism.
“None of these incidents occurred in isolation. Together, they reflect a troubling pattern: the erosion of core pillars of the Democratic Party and the marginalization of pro-Israel voices across the progressive landscape,” warns Romnick.
“The path forward demands courage, clarity, and conviction — and DMFI will not waver,” he continues. “In this moment, Democrats must remain united in defending democracy and our shared values. The pro-Israel community has always been and will always be part of that coalition, working together to ensure our party reflects both our ideals and our commitment to a just, inclusive future for all.”
This language is a departure from DMFI’s usual rhetoric. The group’s very name is intended to highlight the fact that Israel enjoys vast support within the Democratic Party, and their public statements tend to reinforce that narrative. However, the Romnick statement reads like a list of losses.
Just two days after Romnick released the statement, the organization was dealt another setback when the liberal Zionist group J Street announced that it wouldn’t back the AFL in its battle with the NEA.
When DMFI formed in 2019, former CEO and president Mark Mellman assured the New York Times that opposition to Israeli policies wasn’t creating a major issue within the Democratic Party.
“Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel, and we want to keep it that way,” said Mellman. “There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem.”
Sure seems like it has.
Odds & Ends
💸 Statewide campaign aims to end Illinois’ investment in Israel
🇺🇸 This is how the U.S.-run GHF tried to build a local network of ‘aid collaborators’ in Gaza
🤝 As Trump and Netanyahu meet in Washington, Israel unveils a concentration camp in southern Gaza
𓂆 12 countries announce Israel sanctions and renewed legal action to end Gaza genocide
🇮🇷 Responsible Statecraft: Israel’s war on Iran broke the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
🚀 Electronic Intifada: Space agency heads to Venus with help from genocide profiteer
🐘 Truthout: US Aid Has Always Been a Tool of Control. Under Trump, It’s a Tool of Death.
👀 Politico: Mamdani expected to clarify his position on ‘globalize the intifada’
🪧 Drop Site News: To the Field First, Comrades!
📄 Counterpunch: The “Economy of Genocide” Report: A Reckoning Beyond Rhetoric
⚖️ Axios: U.S. ambassador makes an unprecedented visit to Netanyahu’s trial
🗺️ New York Times: Why Trump’s Abraham Accords Have Not Meant Mideast Peace
Here’s an addition to Odds and Ends, an essay in the London Review of Books titled “The World Since Oct 7”:
The destruction of Gaza grinds on – ‘war’ seems an inadequate term, if not an obscene obfuscation, of such a lopsided struggle. The majority of its inhabitants have been forced into a sliver of land in the south, amounting to about 15 per cent of the territory. Potable water is scarce, baby formula impossible to find; raw sewage floods the streets; drones circling overhead produce a relentless, unbearable din. During the war with Iran, the IDF killed hundreds of people in Gaza waiting in line for food from the misleadingly named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation….Massacres that would have caused a scandal a decade ago are now an almost daily occurrence. On 30 June, the IDF killed 41 people at al-Baqa Café, a popular seaside establishment in the north. It has killed more than seventy healthcare workers in the last two months… ‘Unless Israel decides to forcibly expel hundreds of thousands or even millions of Palestinians into Egypt or Jordan,’ Yezid Sayigh, a Palestinian analyst based in Beirut, told me, ‘it can’t overcome the principal obstacle to total colonisation, which is the fact that the Palestinians are still there, in Gaza and the West Bank. Which is to say: Israel has set itself on a trajectory for which it has no solutions other than a final solution…
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n13/adam-shatz/the-world-since-7-october
I’m one of Jerry Nadler’s Jewish constituents, and I am delighted with how far he’s come. I hope he’ll go even further.
So J Street won’t support the ADL [I assume AFL is a typo for ADL]! Things are moving.
And here is a quote from Jesse Wente, a Canadian Indigenous man:
By simply existing, Indigenous people challenge settlers’ right to be in these “new” nations. Our presence is a constant reminder of the crimes committed to seize and hold these lands. Doesn’t that explain why Israel wants to get rid of all the Palestinians?
It remains unhelpful for Palestinian intentions to not be discussed and be defined by “the other”.