By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — In a hellzapoppin week, Jewish Texan Jeremy Fistel was charged partly for telling New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani that he should know how Jews in southern Israel felt on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Would be even better if you had to watch your wife and kids murdered in front you before they end your pathetic miserable life,” Fistel allegedly wrote Mamdani in an email, authorities told New York City news media on Thursday.
The Fistel case is striking because it has the potential to intensify the already frightening environment that Jews worldwide must endure. He allegedly wrote or called in possible death threats to Mamdani.
Fistel’s alleged acts stuck out amid such events as the U.N. Security Council’s failed vote demanding an immediate and permanent cease-fire; members of the U.S. Congress introducing legislation to recognize a Palestinian state; the decisions of Britain, Canada and Australia to also recognize a Palestinian state; Israel’s implausible plan to raid Gaza City; NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desperate endorsement of Mamdani followed by a Democratic leader’s dramatic break with her; and a federal judge’s order to deport pro-Arab student leader Mahmoud Khalil.
Today’s level of persecution of Jews requires no further instruction. Any reasonable person fears what can happen next – even without one individual threatening a prominent political figure who is widely feared by the Jewish community.
A segment of the world is effectively blaming the entire Jewish people for whatever the Israeli government is doing in Gaza. There are plenty of decent people who distinguish between individual Jews and the Israeli government, but we are still left in an untenable position.
It is critical to find a way to diminish these conditions.
Any one Jewish person who would make death threats to someone like Mamdani could readily worsen the situation.
The 44-year-old Fistel pleaded not guilty in a Queens criminal court to charges of making a terroristic threat and aggravated harassment as part of a 22-count indictment, The New York Times reported. According to prosecutors, Fistel left a series of messages over seven weeks beginning in June.
New York City police officers extradited him last week from Plano, Texas, and in court on Thursday bail was set at $30,000. Judge Michelle Johnson issued Mamdani an order of protection against Fistel, according to the Times. Fisdel faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted for the terroristic threats, the most serious of the charges.
Fistel attended Orthodox Jewish private schools in Sharon, Massachusetts, and works for an investment firm in Texas. A graduate of the University of Maryland, he was convicted in 2012 of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, the Times reported.
His comments, chronicled in The New York Daily News, were guaranteed to anger anti-Israel activists, per his first call to Mamdani on June 11: “Hey Zohran. You should go back to Uganda before someone shoots you in f-ing head and gets rid of your whole f-ing family too.
“All right, you piece of s-,” the caller continued. “They’re not compatible with our western values, so stop spewing your antisemitic rhetoric. Shut the f- up and get the f- out of America.”
A caller on June 18 warned that a bomb would be planted in Mamdani’s vehicle, saying, “Go ahead and start your car, see what happens. And keep an eye out on your house and your family.”
A July 8 email sent to Mamdani’s office reads: “I hope you get terminal cancer and die a painful death very soon. I’d love to see an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) bullet go through your skull. Would be even better if you had to watch your wife and kids murdered in front (of) you before they end your pathetic miserable life.”
Mamdani moved from South Africa to New York City as a child and became a naturalized citizen. Now, as the Democratic nominee for mayor, he slaps Jewish New Yorkers in the face each time he pledges to divest from Israel, avoids condemning the phrase “globalize the intifada,” accuses Israel of apartheid and genocide, and threatens to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in NYC.
Fistel never should have shared those thoughts with Mamdani. Threats of violence cannot be the way we operate in society to begin with, and we must consider what the anti-Israel mob can do with it. Of course, nothing has stopped anti-Israel activists from breaking the law and even assaulting innocent people.
Mamdani thinks he is offering consolation when his campaign offers this statement: “Zohran remains steadfast in his conviction that New York must be a city where every single person – regardless of faith, background or identity – is safe, protected and at home.”
How can New York Jews feel safe whenever Mamdani opens his mouth about divestment, apartheid or genocide?
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.
And many Jews will vote for him just because he is a ““Democrat.”