by Paul Goldman

Virginia does more business with Israel per capita than any other state due our unique Virginia-Israel state agency. This distinction may soon put us in the crosshairs of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He needs a new anti-Israel attack since his campaign promise just got exposed as phony.

Mamdani has long said the Israeli policies toward Palestinians remind him of apartheid in South Africa. He sees Palestinians as the heirs to Nelson Mandela constituents. This tells me where he is likely to go next.

Due to recent developments in New York City, the Mayor is suffering a social media credibility gap among anti-Israel progressive Democratic voters. They powered his upset Democratic primary victory last November. 

Candidate Mamdani’s campaign promise — that if elected, he would order the NYPD to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited the United Nations — has recently been exposed as cynical voter manipulation. He knew the Mayor of New York possessed no such authority. But he made the campaign promise anyway to get votes.

Accordingly, to save his credibility, I believe he will therefore soon champion a different anti-Israeli policy — boycotting the country — which defined his initial political activism.

But first some history.

During last year’s Democratic Mayoral primary, Mr. Mamdani labelled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal.” He promised to have him arrested based on an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court based at The Hague. In my experience, underdog candidates like Mamdani often make stark, knowingly false promises strictly to get votes. He is a shrewd campaigner. In political lingo, he knew he needed to get to the “left” of all the other primary candidates to have any chance of pulling an upset. Years ago, he defined his initial political persona by championing a boycott against Israel in the name of Justice for Palestine.

His whole career is based on blaming Israel and appeasing Hamas, according to his political critics. But I don’t see it that way. Mamdani has not been an apologist for terrorists like Hamas. That’s a libelous charge. His critics should stop saying it. Rather, he is clever politician who “read the room” before other mayoral wannabes. Indeed before most Democrats.  He realized Netanyahu had become politically toxic in progressive Democratic circles. 

In campaign lingo, Mamdani needed a way to get to the “left” of all the other liberal candidates. He discovered attacking Netanyahu simultaneously resonated with several key progressive voting blocs. Are some of the voters in those groups anti-Semitic? Very possibly. 

But again: During campaigns, both candidates and their critics say things strictly to appeal to the voters without necessarily worrying about the truth or falsity  of their statement. It is simply a manipulative amoral vote grab. I don’t much like that kind of politics. But it does sadly exist in both parties.

The point being: Once Mr. Mamdani got elected, I read history as suggesting he would jettison stuff he knew to have been said for pure political self interest. As a chief executive of America’s greatest city, I thought he would realize his responsibilities were far different and far more important than as a struggling underdog candidate.

He knew the Mayor of New York City couldn’t arrest the leader of a country coming to speak at the United Nations. Yes, the International Criminal Court, a part of the UN, had called Netanyahu a war criminal and issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader. But Mamdani also knew the United States doesn’t recognize the authority of the ICC. Indeed, former President Biden and President Trump have both condemned the ICC for issuing such a political unjustified warrant. Mr. Mamdani knew the ICC warrant didn’t give him any authority to do anything. But the ICC was a great political tool in the primary.

In 1960, Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy accused his opponent, Vice-President Richard Nixon, of being part of an Administration allowing the United States to fall behind the Soviet Union in missile technology. The campaign called it the “missile gap.” JFK solemnly promised to close the gap. This allowed the liberal Bostonian to look Cold War tough against the Russians. But JFK knew it was a lie. Like I say, even the best candidates do these kinds of things. It wins votes. 

Yet for some reason, Mr. Mamdani apparently viewed the promise to arrest the Israeli Prime Minister as essential to his political persona. Having been involved in New York City politics, I can’t remember any candidate making this kind of international issue part of a mayoral campaign. But I’ve seen the 2025 polls of New York primary voters. Thus I understand why he used the issue in the campaign. But the campaign is now over. Except apparently for him. 

Accordingly, earlier this month, now Mayor Mamdani purposely did a widely covered interview on his “arresting”  promise. He said he was looking into whether he had the authority to arrest Mr. Netanyahu when the Israeli PM came to New York to address the United Nations in a few weeks.

But again: He knew he didn’t have the authority. Roughly a week later, Mamdani admitted city lawyers said he didn’t have the authority. At which point, he called on President Trump to arrest Mr. Netanyahu as a war criminal. Another pointless, cynical, political statement.

So I asked myself: Why is the Mayor going down this rabbit hole? All he’s done is exposed the manipulative, phony nature of the campaign promise. So what is he up to here?

There are, of course, politicians that don’t think the United Nations should be headquartered in America. But there’s no evidence the mayor is one of them. 

In my view, it is to the great benefit of the United States of America to have the United Nations in New York City. Whatever the shortcomings in the organization, the world is a better place for having the United Nations in our country.

The idea of such a League of Nations goes back to a Virginian: Staunton native Woodrow Wilson. He is the last Virginian to become President of United States. Admittedly, Mr. Wilson was a racist, sexist eugenicist. He also lied about not having plans to get us into WW I. But those qualities aside, he was right about the world being a safer place if we had an international organization where leaders of the world could gather. His original idea eventually germinated after the World War II into the United Nations. From the very start, our leaders understood we were the only country who could possibly host the United Nations. 

Over the years, politicians in both parties have suggested we get out of the UN. It is easy to find fault with the United Nations. But let’s remember the following: the Cuban missile crisis would have ended in nuclear war but for the United Nations. President John F. Kennedy, through UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, was able to expose the Russian lie claiming the Soviet’s had not put nuclear weapons in Cuba. Stevenson’s brilliant performance dominated the televised United Nations session. According, we all likely would not be here today if the United Nations didn’t exist in New York City.

Accordingly, the United Nations being in New York City has already saved the world once from catastrophe. But like anyone ever having occasion to try and park their car in New York City, I can tell you  it can be quite frustrating and incredibly expensive. Unless of course you’re a foreign diplomat with the United Nations. They get to park anywhere. They never have to pay a ticket. Their limos never get towed. They also can never get arrested for crimes. So, yeah, quite exacerbating indeed more than that at times believe me. But providing this kind of immunity is required to keep the United Nations in our country.

Mr. Mamdani  knows the person living in the White House (although I’m sure President Trump will painted it gold before long), not the person living in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side (official residence of the NYC Mayor) controls foreign policy. Yet Mr. Mamdani is under no obligation to host the Prime Minister of Israel. Indeed he can stand outside the Israeli embassy and lead a protest.

Or announce an economic boycott of Israel.

Which, would be the logical extension of his political activism starting in his college days. 

It was an economic boycott which eventually set the stage to enable Nelson Mandela to end apartheid in South Africa. What Mandela accomplished by sheer oratory and personal courage is of course something never seen before in world history. But as he has acknowledged, the economic and financial pressure put on the white regime by the economic boycott  played an indispensable role in his success.

With Mr. Mamdani’s arrest-warrant politics now exposed as cynical, it seems to me he will go back to square one. In college, he championed an economic boycott of Israel in the name of “Justice for Palestine.”

Boycotts or at least calls for these boycott are traditional parts of politics across the globe. Calling the elected leader of a country a war criminal is in effect saying the voters in that country knowingly elected a war criminal. That’s a very heavy moral verdict for someone like Mamdani who has no real credibility in such areas. Moreover, it’s clear he was paying politics with what he claimed to be a moral issue. That’s not a good look.

He will be a lot safer politically and morally if he takes the lead for an economic boycott. There are unfortunately any number of people in other countries which will buy into his college mantra. His outrageously comparing Israel to old South Africa tells me a lot about the mayor. But in America, he’s free to say what he wants. 

Such boycotts can only be effective if they attract the support of many other people. Accordingly, the mayor won’t be going this one alone, being the judge and jury.

Bottom line: I could see him going the boycott route. I’m sure there’s some contracts and whatever he could cancel I as Mayor to  highlight his boycott. There  is a rising anti-Israeli sentiment on the progressive Democratic left. This is the key voting group for the mayor and  his reputation has been tarnished by making a knowingly false promise. They will back a boycott. 

If he does go the boycott route, the path will lead to Virginia. Read the website of the Virginia-Israeli Advisory Board. The people and companies of Virginia and Israel do a lot of business together. 

Israel has been one of the best business partners of our state for years. It’s in the interest of Virginia to stop any foolishness on the part of the Mayor of New York which could interfere with this economic pipeline.

Given his history and previous statements, I could see Mayor Mamdani trying to lead an economic boycott of Israel. Time will tell. 

Paul Goldman is former Chair of the VA Democratic Party, a former candidate for mayor of the City of Richmond, and author of “Remaking Virginia Politics.”