Zohran Mamdani defended his decision to call AIPAC “monsters” on Monday after the remarks drew condemnation from Jewish leaders and advocacy groups. He had said last week that AIPAC “move[s] millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal — to preserve their power, so that they can turn us against one another.”
Josh Gottheimer on X
Josh Gottheimer attacked the comments on Sunday, writing on X: “Swap ‘AIPAC’ for ‘Jews’ and it’s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books.” He added, “That’s not criticizing a lobby. That’s laundering antisemitism from your podium as Mayor of a city with more than a million Jews,” and called the remarks “dangerous.”
Mamdani made the comments at a Thursday rally with Bernie Sanders for Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier. None of the House hopefuls in the three primaries he has endorsed were willing to criticize him; they either defended him or said nothing.
Yaacov Behrman and Moshe Indig
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman said he was “horrified” by the outburst and told POLITICO, “The bottom line is that the people who hear it see it as a silent endorsement of violence.” He added, “It’s incredibly dangerous,” and said he has met privately with the mayor to discuss efforts to combat antisemitism.
Moshe Indig offered a different reading. “The idea that ‘monster’ means antisemitism — definitely not,” he said, arguing that critics are upset because Mamdani is “fighting against AIPAC.”
Antonio Gramsci and AIPAC
Mamdani said he took “monsters” from a quote from Antonio Gramsci, though said he was repeating a common mistranslation of Gramsci’s work. He also pointed to AIPAC’s strategy of funding other PACs that act as shell organization, and said, “We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis.”
For New York Democratic politics, the fight now sits inside an already sensitive debate over antisemitism and AIPAC during Democratic primaries in New York. Mamdani’s allies have not broken with him, and the pressure point is whether he faces any political cost beyond the immediate backlash.
