If actions speak louder than words, then Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave New Yorkers an earful by smirkingly revoking nine of his predecessor’s executive orders, a third of them touching on antisemitism.
It sure looks like the other six got nixed simply to camouflage that fact.
Mamdani’s office said that the cancelled orders work “against the interests of working-class people,” and he said he was “proud” to cancel them.
That’s a funny way to describe a condemnation of Jew-hatred: One order tossed in the dustbin was a “working definition” of antisemitism that condemns “hatred toward Jews” directed against Jews, non-Jews and “Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Lefties don’t like this definition — formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance — because they say it can be interpreted as including anti-Zionist agitation as antisemitic, though it doesn’t even say Israel.
The IHRA definition is good enough for all the European Union nations, 35 US states and the State Department. But Mamdani apparently finds it too restrictive for his brand of tolerance.
The mayor also cancelled an order banning city agencies from boycotting Israel or divesting from Israeli investments for no good reason except discrimination against Israel: This clears the way for Mamdani, a lifelong fanatic about boycotting and sanctioning Israel, to cleanse the city’s supply chain of any Israeli connections.
Most ominously, Mamdani revoked an order instructing the NYPD to “evaluate” conditions for protests outside houses of worship.
Mayor Eric Adams issued this order following an ugly demonstration outside a Manhattan synagogue in November, when screaming protesters were permitted to directly confront worshippers, contrary to established police practice.
Mamdani insisted Tuesday that he will actually fight antisemitism more effectively by “funding hate crime prevention, by celebrating our neighbors, and by practicing a politics of universality.”
The “politics of universality” sound nice, but what does that have to do with people who target Jews for their particularity?
Again, more fine-sounding bloviation that amounts to: “Trust me.”
Trust him even though the new City Hall team also scrubbed multiple past anti-antisemitism posts off the mayoral X account — again with camouflage to make it seem like mere coincidence.
It’s not just Jews who should worry here, but all their neighbors across the city: With this civil-rights rollback and promotion of chaos and hate, Mamdani is winking at the fanatics in his base — the ones who wave Hamas headbands and exult in Hamas rocket attacks — letting them know that his heart is with them.
Mamdani may put a happy face on his despicable moves (that’s his specialty), but the implications of his speech are ugly as sin.
