Israel is not the most important issue in this district — Defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, June 1.
By Bruce S. Ticker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
If Israel were not the most important issue, Goldman would be on his way back to Capitol Hill. He was targeted by one of three of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s stooges who were viewed as tough on Israel, if not full-throated anti-Israel.
Goldman’s constituents lost four years of seniority on Tuesday when former City Comptroller Brad Lander ousted him in the Democratic primary with an estimated 65 percent in the 10th Congressional District that covers Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. Rep. Adriano Espaillat built up 10 years of seniority before Democratic Socialist challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier – who attended a celebratory Oct. 8 rally – defeated him in the 13th district. State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, a native Texan who moved to New York City in 2015, overcame Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the 7th District.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani sponsored all three winning candidates.
Jews nationwide might have been shouting at our television sets Tuesday night when the results were broadcast, but maybe it will not be so bad in the future. Democrats are faced with a bitter internal fight over support for Israel. It looks like the Israel-bashing “Squad” in Congress will be stronger in January. Many of those nominated on Tuesday and in other state primaries will automatically get elected in November because their districts are heavily Democratic.
When the smoke clears, it will be interesting to know how many candidates like Chevalier and Valdez will join Congress. They will constitute a sizeable number, but there are 435 House members, and pro-Israel Democrats can join with Republicans to help Israel. Pro-Israel lobbyists must maneuver to ensure that their supporters in both parties work together.
With the NYC primary, I count six candidates who will be harsh with Israel if they are elected in November. Besides the new NYC trio, two others represent districts in New Jersey and the sixth in Philadelphia, where I live. Fortunately, he will not be my representative.
Our worries may be for naught. Israel is planning new parliamentary elections shortly before our midterms. If a more moderate political organization replaces the hardliners who dominate the Israeli government now, maybe they will change policies and practices to mend fences with the United States, not to mention the rest of the world.
By all means, Chevalier and her comrades will employ every excuse possible to bash Israel, no matter how the next government operates. However, a more centrist government will probably give anyone in America and elsewhere far less reason to complain.
I am not giving Israel a free pass. Critics have expressed legitimate concerns about Israel’s attacks on Gaza, but those who call themselves “progressives” single out Israel. They rarely if at all demand much of the terrorist group Hamas, their enablers Turkey and Iran or even Egypt, which blocked Gazans from fleeing there.
Chevalier was such a champion for Hamas that she attended a rally in NYC the day after the terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis in southern Israel and kidnapped 250 others on Oct. 7, 2023. Last week, she showed off her ability to deceive voters when she thought she was explaining her reason for showing up at the Oct. 8 demonstration:
“I have been advocating for the human rights of Palestinians for my adult life. And as someone who has seen a pattern, whenever anything happens on the ground (in Israel), there’s always a really outsized reaction that costs thousands of people their lives. That is what I was worried about.
“At the core of it all for me is human dignity,” she continued. “And I think so often we get lost in the ‘well on this date, and that date’ when it’s all cyclical, if we don’t get to the core of how we disregard the human rights and dignity of some people over others.”
Wow. What a BS artist. She is especially poor at this game because no sensible person will believe her. Does she expect her future colleagues in Congress to buy that? A half-year before she takes office, Chevalier will head to Washington with absolutely no credibility.
Mamdani did the same to his credibility when he described the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its pro-Israel supporters as “monsters” at a campaign rally five days before the primary.
“Now is the time of monsters,” the mayor said. “These monsters take many forms today. In those who fund…bad faith attacks…those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes.
“In AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s wars,” he added. “They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.”
That begs the question: Who contributes to Mamdani’s campaigns?
Mamdani’s comments could inspire assassins to “take violent action against AIPAC and its supporters,” such as Elias Rodriguez, the Chicago man charged with killing two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington DC in May 2025, according to The New York Post.
“Mamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans. This is pure incitement,” Steinmetz said. “Well, I’m an AIPAC supporter. And Mamdani is inciting hatred against people like me.”
Strangely, I caught a Seinfeld rerun on Thursday that could have presaged Jerry’s recent encounter with a progressive who asked him to utter “Free Palestine.” Instead, Seinfeld corrected him, saying, “It doesn’t exist.”
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.