Belfast (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Israel and its hard line supporters have long relied on weaponizing charges of antisemitism to silence critics and anyone who tried to highlight the plight of the Palestinian people. Two recent elections on both sides of the Atlantic, however, have delivered a blow to this groundless bullying and harassment that depended on confusing critique of Israeli policy with bigotry toward ordinary Jews.
The first election was the mayoral election of New York in the United States. The American city with the largest Jewish population anywhere in the world outside Israel voted for its first ever Muslim mayor Zohran Mamdani. He is an American leftist Muslim who said during the election campaign that he would try to honor the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant and arrest the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes. Of course, such an arrest might be difficult to pull off, since the US does not recognize the ICC and it has no jurisdiction in the United States.
Despite Mamdani’s statement and his pro-Palestinian stance, Polls showed that 33% of NY Jews voted for him, and half of Jewish Democrats backed Mamdani. This outcome suggests that criticizing Israel is not seen as antisemitic by a substantial proportion of American Jews. The American Psychological Association recently formally agreed that anti-Jewish bigotry cannot be attributed to critics of Israel.
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The second election was a parliamentary by-election held in the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton in the United Kingdom. Initially it was feared that the far right Reform UK was going to take the seat from the ruling Labor Party, especially after its leader and Prime Minister Keir Starmer blocked the only Labor candidate who could have won the seat, Andy Burnham, for fear that Burnham would challenge Starmer as party leader. Against expectations, however, opinion polls started to shift in favor of the left-leaning Green Party. Its candidate, the 34-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer, won the seat from Labor. Reform came second, ahead of Labor, which came in third after representing the area for long decades.
What’s interesting about this by-election is that it is similar to the New York mayoral election but in reverse. The Green Party leader, Zak Polanski is Jewish, and like the Green Party, he is pro-Palestine and firmly against racism. Yet the Labor Party government has supported the Israel genocide in Gaza. It is no wonder that the advocacy group “Muslim Vote,” which endorsed four independent candidates who won in the 2024 general election after running an election campaign based on opposing the genocide in Gaza, recommendeds that voters back the Green Party
Surely if Mamdani or any of his policies were antisemitic, he wouldn’t have won the vote of half of Jewish Democrats in New York, where Jews are predominantly Democrats. Equally, if Muslims in Manchester were antisemites they wouldn’t have voted for a party led by a Jew. Without doubt, many voters cast their ballots on other issues such as the standard of living, housing and other socioeconomic issues. Nevertheless, supporting or opposing the genocide in Gaza was a key electoral issue. The results of these elections are also reassuring, since hard line Israel supporters, as usual, attempted to weaponize charges of antisemitism against candidates in order to shield Israel from any criticism and to silence those who stand for justice and peace in the Middle East. The tactic could have had a divisive effect on the concerned, communities but the gambit failed in these instances. We should be aware that this strategy will be attempted again, however.
These positive changes give a glimpse of hope amidst a toxic atmosphere of bloodshed. Ironically, the staunchest supporters of the bloodshed in the Middle East is the Western far right, which is known for its racism and antisemitism. For the moment, many right wing extremists are staunch supporters of of Israel, which is also governed by a government of right wing extremists. Far right ideology both in the West and in Israel is based on an illusion of ethnic superiority and eternal hatred of anyone different. If anything, Moshe Feiglin, who was the leader of the Jewish Leadership faction within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own Likud Party once praised Hitler, saying “Hitler was unparalleled military genius.” In 2008, he was banned from entering the UK on the basis that his presence might lead to inter-community violence.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Despite his extremist stances, Netanyahu allowed Feiglin to stand as a Likud Knesset candidate and consequently a lawmaker in 2013. Feiglin obsession with Hitler hasn’t faded away after almost three decades of praising him. In 2024 and while calling for ethnically cleansing Gaza he quoted Hitler with regard to the Palestinians in Gaza, saying “ As Hitler said, ‘I cannot live if one Jew is left’.’” Of course we all know what would have happened if a politician in another country said the same.
While we all cheered the victories in New York City and Manchester, it is important to learn lessons from these elections in order to build on them and to replicate them elsewhere. We must strengthen inter-community solidarity, focusing on issues that matter to ordinary people and highlighting the many dangers of the far right, whether in its white nationalist or Zionist guise.
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