How Trump can save NY: He showed Iran who’s boss. Now he must strong-arm Curtis Sliwa.
After nearly two years of harassment and high tensions, New York doesn’t feel like “Hymietown” anymore.
That derisive dig by Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaign in 1984 put New York Jews on edge, but we fought back and won.
Now we face something much worse — the mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. He does not oppose Israeli or Netanyahu “policies” but rather the very existence of the Jewish state (as in “Palestine shall be free, from the river to the sea,” a chant he won’t criticize). Mamdani’s doubling down on his refusal to sanction those who would “Globalize the Intifada” will make New York Jews less safe.
If that’s not bad enough, when he’s not focused on deriding Jewish values and putting Jewish lives at risk, Mamdani is determined to wreck New York’s economic engine to further his utopian socialist vision.
If there’s a path to derail Mamdani’s coronation, we should follow it. At the moment, that appears to be coalescing behind Mayor Eric Adams.
But signaling support for Adams isn’t enough. Jewish leaders must do what they failed to do in the Democratic primary — build coalitions with other communities threatened by Mamdani, educate the broader community to the catastrophe that awaits New York if he’s elected, and execute a get-out-the-vote drive.
Meanwhile, Mamdani forces are hard at work, as illustrated by two fact-deprived Jewish-authored opinion pieces in the New York Times last weekend (read Gary Rosenblatt’s column about that); by numerous other articles that sugarcoat Mamdani’s positions, and in TV and podcast appearances by Jewish fifth columnists young and old.
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Uniting behind Adams is essential if there’s any chance — and it’s a longshot — of stopping Mamdani. That requires the withdrawal of both a failed Andrew Cuomo (who’s still on the November ballot as an independent) and a doomed Curtis Sliwa (the Republican nominee).
Only President Donald Trump is in a position to read the riot act to Sliwa, make him a job offer in Washington that he “can’t refuse,” and get him to withdraw. Trump can also nudge New York’s Republican county leaders to see the light and select Adams to replace Sliwa on their ballot (adding the GOP line to Adams’ two independent lines). But whether Trump sees such a move to be in his interests is debatable.
A Mayor Mamdani would be a Trump whipping boy, perhaps rightly so; and while the president would certainly not deride New York as “Hymietown,” he would paint the city in grotesque colors and add to the damage done by Mamdani. While even California Gov. Gavin Newsom has moderated his leftist worldview under Trump’s assault, Mamdani, who’s pushing a socialist vision with messianic undertones, is unlikely to do so.
New York Republicans, along with Trump, must decide whether the future well-being of New York and support for Israel trumps scoring political points for their party (as a disastrous Mamdani mayoralty almost certainly would do). Meanwhile, suburbanites should not assume this won’t affect them: The earthquake of New York City’s collapse will quickly ripple through the region.
Sliwa will not be elected mayor. Full stop.
Just as every vote for Brad Lander was in effect a vote for Mamdani in the Democratic primary, every vote for Sliwa will help push Mamdani over the finish line in November.
Write: Editor@TheJewishStar.com
Link to last week's editorial: Wake up New York
