Zohran Mamdani, who will have his mayoral election certified on Tuesday, makes plain his antipathy to the state of Israel and that it should not exist as a Jewish state. He often couches his extremist and antisemitic position in the light of international law, but Israel, as a Jewish state — the world’s sole Jewish state — exists explicitly because of international law, international law which Mamdani himself fails to accept.
Indeed, it was 78 years ago yesterday, Nov. 29, 1947, in Flushing Meadows Park, where the United Nations voted overwhelmingly that a Jewish state should be created from the British Mandate of Palestine.
Resolution 181 was approved on a tally of 33-13, with 11 countries abstaining or not voting, the total being sufficient for the required two-thirds needed for adoption. Resolution 181 also called for an Arab state in Palestine, but the Arab world rejected the partition and went to war once the British Mandate ended and Israel was born six months later, on May 15, 1948. Resolution 181 says the words “Jew” or “Jewish” 47 times and an equal number of times says “Arab.”
A day after his election as mayor, Mamdani was in Flushing Meadows Park to announce his transition leadership in front of the Unisphere, just steps away from the Queens Museum. It was in the Queens Museum building, originally constructed as the New York City Pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair, that the newborn UN was using before its Manhattan headquarters was finished. That is where the debate and the vote on Resolution 181 occurred. And that is where the Jewish state received sanction under international law.
After Israel was declared at the end of the end of the British Mandate, President Harry Truman said: “This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.”
That’s the history and those are the facts, whether Mamdani likes it or not. Israel is part of international law. So when a bunch of anti-Israel protesters swarmed an Upper East Side synagogue sponsoring an organization that encourages Jewish immigration to Israel with chants of “Death to the IDF” and “Globalize the Intifada,” Mamdani’s spokeswoman said on his behalf that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” Any claim that the protesters were only upset about possible immigration to the disputed West Bank was not clear amid all the screaming.
Jewish immigration to Israel is not a violation of international law, but it does bother Mamdani greatly, who says that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state. The UN and international law say otherwise. So does just about everyone in the world and that includes most Arab states and even the PLO (that was the point of the Oslo Accords, mutual recognition). Those who don’t accept Israel as a Jewish state are the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah, the mullahs in Iran and Mamdani.
Even when Mamdani stood with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, he threw darts at Israel, falsely accused Israel of committing genocide. He also spoke of “funding violations of human rights,” which he means as Israel. Israel is always on his mind. He says he is pro-Palestinian, but he doesn’t want a Palestinian Arab state next to Israel, as envisioned in the 1947 Resolution, he wants a Palestinian Arab state in place of Israel.
Mamdani isn’t just opposed to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. He isn’t just opposed to the situation on the West Bank. He is opposed to all of Israel, from the Lebanese border in the north to the Red Sea in the south, from the Dead Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. The Jewish state, the one created under international law by the United Nations right there in Flushing Meadow, should not exist, according to Mamdani.
He is wrong, terribly wrong, on what is just, on the history and on the law.
