The night before the New York mayoral primary, late-night host Stephen Colbert’s guest was Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner who went on to effectively win the Democratic nomination yesterday. But Mamdani also had a guest with him: Brad Lander, the city comptroller and fellow Democratic candidate for mayor.
All three were there for the same reason: to help elect Zohran Mamdani mayor.
The setting made sense. Mamdani had very pointedly refused to condemn the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” a popular chant among anti-Zionist progressives that calls for violence against Jews not just in Israel but all around the world. In fact, Mamdani has defended the phrase. In recent years, when progressive politicians have found themselves embroiled in anti-Semitism scandals they have tended to go on Colbert’s show, where the host helps them spin the narrative in a more favorable direction.
Colbert can be effective at shielding left-wing anti-Semites from criticism, but he cannot hold a candle in that department to Brad Lander, who also struck a deal with Mamdani that each man’s voters would support the other as a second choice in case the primary went multiple rounds.
Lander’s alliance with Mamdani, who is now the poster child for progressive anti-Zionism’s conquest of the mainstream Democratic Party, is the culmination of years of Lander’s efforts to kosherize anti-Semitism by serving as the blocking back for up-and-coming anti-Zionists as they rise within the party.
As comptroller, Lander’s communications director and senior adviser was Naomi Dann, an anti-Israel activist in BDS circles who worked for the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace before joining Lander. Dann is a proponent of the blood libel “colonialist” critique of Israel animating the current wave of Hamas advocacy on campus and elsewhere.
Lander has long been a supporter of one of the most prominent anti-Semitic activists around New York City, Linda Sarsour. When Sarsour said that a person cannot be both a Zionist and a feminist, Lander defended her. She has since been a fixture of the same progressive anti-Zionist circles in which Lander travels and campaigns.
Another former staffer of Lander’s is Shahana Hanif. When she left Lander’s employ to join the City Council, she immediately amplified a social-media post with the phrase “globalize the Intifada.” (Years later she deleted the tweet.) Soon after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, Hanif was arrested at a Democratic Socialists of America anti-Israel protest and accused Israel—before it had commenced its counteroffensive in Gaza—of genocide. She also joined the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia for a photo op.
This year, Hanif ran for her council seat against a Jewish challenger. In May, Lander joyfully gave Hanif his full endorsement in the race. “It has been a joy to watch her grow from a staffer and organizer in my office to a passionate elected official,” he said.
Which is all helpful background for Monday night’s Colbert show. The New York Times gushed that the two “Showcase[d] Their Unique Alliance.” Lander was more explicit: “there is something quite remarkable about a Jewish New Yorker and a Muslim New Yorker coming together to say, ‘Here’s how we protect all New Yorkers.’”
Of course, there is no such intent to protect “all” New Yorkers. But Lander receives little pushback from the Jewish-political world of city politics. Indeed, Sen. Chuck Schumer tweeted this morning how proud he was of Mamdani. When Cuomo criticized progressive anti-Semitism during the campaign, the head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs criticized Cuomo for it.
Lander is part of a larger story of the collapse of New York’s Jewish-political establishment, which has forced Jews to seek representation in non-Jewish politicians who inevitably get told to mind their business when they criticize anti-Semitism. Lander has played an important role in this collapse by being a sherpa of sorts for rising Jew-baiters. Schumer kissing Mamdani’s ring is merely the capstone of this project.
