This week, Zohran Mamdani’s victory as New York City’ as the’s Democratic nominee for mayor was certified, handing a decisive defeat to the political establishment, corporate donors, and the mainstream media. The New York Times launched an all-out smear campaign against Mamdani, and prominent Democrats refused to endorse him. Some even spread lies and Islamophobic fear-mongering in the final days of the race. But none of it worked, because the public is changing, even if the institutions that claim to represent them are not. As Phil Weiss reported, the Times’s failure to grasp the depth of anti-genocide sentiment among Democratic voters reveals just how out of step elite opinion has become. And Michael Arria documented the lengths to which Mamdani’s opponents went, proving once again that smear campaigns are no match for a movement grounded in justice.
Mamdani’s victory reflects a growing political reality that has been years in the making. People across the United States are no longer willing to support politicians who justify or ignore Israel’s apartheid system. The Democratic base is overwhelmingly opposed to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the U.S. support of it. That opposition is beginning to appear at the ballot box. That opposition, and even anger, isn’t confined to “activist circles” anymore. It’s finally beginning to reshape U.S. politics on this issue.
As I write this newsletter, there is a chance that conditions in Gaza may improve, at least temporarily. Reports suggest a 60-day ceasefire could be within reach, during which humanitarian aid would finally be allowed in, coordinated by the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Of course, it is obscene that Palestinians must rely on fragile deals to receive the bare minimum of humanitarian relief. But a sustained pause in Israel’s assault could save lives, and it’s being driven by the very pressure Israel and its U.S. backers are struggling to contain.
That pressure isn’t just diplomatic, it’s political. On Monday, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet to discuss how to “reshape the Middle East.” Their vision includes disarming resistance groups, expanding normalization deals with authoritarian regimes, and crushing the possibility of Palestinian freedom. It’s a strategy that’s increasingly out of step with global opinion.
But while people around the world are waking up to the truth about Israel’s abhorrent behavior, the Israeli public is moving in the opposite direction. A recent Hebrew University poll shows that a vast majority of Jewish Israelis now believe there are “no innocent people in Gaza.” Let that sink in. This is not a fringe position; it’s a consensus view in Israel today. And it’s horrifying.
It also signals something deeper: Israelis are living in a completely separate reality. In the United States, support for Israel has collapsed among key demographics, especially young people and people of color. The images and stories coming out of Gaza are shifting public opinion faster than most establishment leaders can process. Yet in Israel, public opinion is marching in lockstep with a government carrying out ethnic cleansing in real time.
This disconnect matters. It shows why appeals to “shared values” or “peace processes” are so empty. Israeli society isn’t just indifferent to Palestinian life; it has been conditioned to deny it entirely. And as support for apartheid weakens in the U.S., Israel is doubling down, hoping it can outlast the outrage and maintain impunity with help from the White House and the political establishment in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
But Mamdani’s win is proof that something is changing. The ground is shifting under the feet of those who thought the old rules would always apply. A ceasefire in Gaza, even a temporary one, will not reverse the destruction. But it could mark the beginning of a new political era, where complicity comes with consequences and resistance comes with momentum.
In solidarity,
Dave Reed, Publisher
Must Read: Next week, Trump and Netanyahu will meet at the White House to plan their ‘New Middle East’
Mitchell Plitnick: On Monday, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet to discuss the next steps in their plan to reshape the Middle East. Their vision includes expanding normalization, disarming adversaries, and ending any Palestinian aspirations for freedom.
Catch-up
🗽 Phil Weiss: The New York Times completely failed in its effort to upend Zohran Mamdani. They are unable to understand his wide support because they refuse to acknowledge the rage surging through the Democratic base over Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
🫏 Michael Arria: Despite his decisive primary victory and impressive campaign, many Democratic lawmakers are refusing to endorse Zohran Mamdani and are spreading baseless lies and smears in the process.
🍞 Hassan Herzallah: I have risked my life to get food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centers in Gaza, where Israel opens fire on aid seekers from every direction. I have an impossible choice: slow death from hunger, or gambling my life for a chance of survival.
🇵🇸 Qassam Muaddi: The Palestinian communities of Masafer Yatta have been in Israel’s crosshairs for 40 years. Its inhabitants now fear that a recent Israeli military order is a bid to expel them from their lands once and for all.
🇵🇸 Mohammad Hesham Huraini: A recent Israeli military order threatens to displace 1,200 Palestinians from our homes in Masafer Yatta, but we refuse to be erased.
🇮🇱 Jonathan Ofir: A Hebrew University poll shows an overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis agree with the genocidal idea that there are “no innocents in Gaza.”
✊ Carrie Zaremba: Counterinsurgency against U.S. social movements has evolved since the 1960s. What was once the exclusive domain of state agencies has now been privatized. This is seen perhaps most clearly in the ongoing campaign to neutralize the Palestine movement.
🇮🇷 The Mondoweiss Podcast: What really happened during the so-called “12-Day War” between Israel, the U.S., and Iran — and why it’s not about nuclear weapons.
🇹🇷 John Klopotowski: Much of my family left Turkey after my great-grandfather was murdered in the Armenian Genocide. Turkey, Israel, and many other countries still deny that this genocide occurred. It’s a denial that enables genocides like that in Gaza to take place today.
So how should Zohran Mamdani – or any American politician – speak about Israel? I have some rules for him:
First, only say things that have been said by prominent Israelis – nothing should come out of your mouth that hasn’t already been said by some Israeli politician or security expert. That won’t insulate you entirely from criticism but it will make it much harder for people to label you as anti-semitic or anti-Israel.
Second, quote those Israelis who believe that Israel isn’t capable of making peace on its own and needs America to intervene. I’m thinking particularly of Ami Ayalon, who says his book “Friendly Fire” is directed to America, but there are others who say the same.
Third, make it clear that you’re not anti-Israel, you’re not pro-Israel, you’re not anti-Palestinian or pro-Palestinian, you’re pro international law and common sense justice.
Ami Ayalon’s piece in the Guardian – “I used to run Israel’s security agency – now I’m sounding the alarm about our extremist government”.
“This applies to governments who are Israel’s allies and Jewish communities around the world who we regard as our greatest friends. It is for this reason that I and many others embroiled in the struggle for Israel’s future were so pleased to see members of The Board of Deputies of British Jews – the UK Jewish community’s largest representative community body – speak out in solidarity with us and in support of this existential battle we are waging.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/29/israel-security-agency-extremist-government-war
IMHO, if you’re shooting +600 people trying to get into barbed wire corral “feeding stations” every week it’s a fucking death camp, not a damned “safe zone”:
‘Inappropriate Distortion of the Holocaust’ | Yad Vashem Slams Israeli Journalist for Comparing IDF’s Gaza Plan to Concentration Camp — Ha’aretz
Arad Nir, a journalist from Israel’s Channel 12, apologized after saying that ‘a concentration camp is a concentration camp,’ adding, ‘and when you concentrate people in one place, it’s a concentration camp’
Yad Vashem called the comparison “a serious and inappropriate distortion of the meaning of the Holocaust.”
During Wednesday’s afternoon broadcast, Nir, who heads Channel 12’s foreign news desk, referred to the term being used to describe the plan – humanitarian safe zone – as “a synonym for a concentration camp.”