The Mamdani Sweep: DSA Captures Three House Seats as Anti-Israel Politics Wins NYC

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s candidates swept Tuesday’s congressional primaries — Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman by 32 points in NY-10, Darializa Avila Chevalier (Columbia encampment alumna, refused to condemn Hamas) won NY-13, and Claire Valdez won NY-7. Palestinian-American DSA candidate Aber Kawas, co-founder of the ‘Not On Our Dime!’ campaign to end New York funding of organizations tied to Israel, won a State Senate seat. The night’s sole counter-narrative: pro-Israel candidate Adrian Boafo won the Maryland Democratic primary for Hoyer’s seat, backed by AIPAC and establishment Democrats.

• Lander 66%, Goldman 34% — with 89% of votes counted, the margin was not close; Goldman told reporters Israel played an ‘outsized role’ in the race.
• Avila Chevalier refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist when directly asked during the campaign; she wore a keffiyeh throughout and called Israeli actions ‘genocide.’
• Aber Kawas co-launched ‘Not On Our Dime,’ a campaign to tax New York-registered organizations that donate to Israel or Israeli charities — a direct BDS-aligned financial pressure campaign.
• Jewish Democrat Micah Lasher won NY-12 (Nadler’s open seat) over Jack Schlossberg and others, backed by Hochul and Bloomberg — the one Manhattan race that did not go to the DSA.
• Israel emerged as a ‘central point of debate’ in the primaries, with JDCA-backed candidates defeated in NY-10 and NY-13.

The DSA's anti-Israel platform won three House seats in the world's largest Diaspora Jewish community — that result confirms Mamdani's personal win was a movement, not an anomaly. The Democratic Party's emerging left flank now has concrete congressional power, and the 2026 midterms will stress-test whether this coalition can replicate outside New York City's ideological monoculture or whether the map limits its national reach.

The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is unraveling on day one: Iran’s parliament speaker called it ‘a declaration of America’s defeat,’ while Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio publicly contradicted each other on whether Iran would have a role in Lebanon. Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter warned that Washington talks are becoming a ‘train wreck’ after a US-Iran deconfliction cell was agreed to for Lebanon without Israel’s participation. IAEA chief Grossi confirmed inspections of bombed nuclear sites ‘are going to happen’ — but Tehran denied agreeing to the terms Trump announced, and Iran’s FM simultaneously called Hamas to discuss the deal.

• Iran’s parliament speaker told an OIC meeting that the deal shows Washington ‘retreated both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.’
• Vance says Iran agreed to IAEA inspections ‘into infinity’; Iran’s Foreign Ministry said bombed nuclear sites were not scheduled for inspection and ‘never will be.’
• Senate passed a war powers resolution 50-48 directing Trump to halt Iran military action — largely symbolic but a political rebuke; Trump called it ‘aid and comfort to the enemy.’
• The Trump administration is planning an $80 billion supplemental funding request to Congress to replenish war stockpiles.
• Israel’s Lebanon position: Katz said Israel will not withdraw from southern Lebanon even under US demands, as new Washington talks open on a US-backed plan to hand territory to the Lebanese army.

The Vance-Rubio messaging split on Lebanon is not a communications failure — it reflects a genuine White House policy fracture over whether Iran gets a role in the post-war Levant architecture. Israel's public 'train wreck' warning is unusually direct; it signals Jerusalem has assessed that the deconfliction mechanism, if implemented, locks in an Iranian veto over Lebanese security arrangements regardless of what the formal ceasefire text says.

The manifesto left by the gunman who killed a rabbi and a police officer in Cote-des-Neiges has been published, revealing a 104-page document fusing far-left ideology, antisemitic conspiracy theory, and incel grievances. The killer explicitly identified ‘influential Zionists’ as targets, described ‘the Judaeo-bourgeois class’ as controlling Western institutions, and drove several hours to reach Montreal’s heavily Jewish neighborhood. Quebec authorities identified the suspect as 24-year-old Evan Hatfield.

• The manifesto describes Jews and Zionists as wielding improper influence over finance, politics, media, and Western institutions — classical conspiracy-theory antisemitism.
• Hatfield drove from outside the city to reach Cote-des-Neiges, one of Montreal’s most densely Jewish neighborhoods, indicating deliberate target selection.
• The document was sent to multiple media outlets before the attack, classifying this as ideologically premeditated antisemitic terrorism.
• A Jewish civilian, a police officer, and the suspect were killed; a second officer was seriously injured.

The manifesto confirms the Montreal attack was ideologically targeted antisemitic terrorism, not a random shooting. The fusion of far-left anti-Zionist framing with classical Jew-hatred in a single perpetrator's worldview is a documented radicalization pathway — and the 'influential Zionists' language mirrors rhetoric circulating in mainstream progressive political spaces in the US.

Maryland state Delegate Adrian Boafo won the Democratic primary in MD-5 to succeed retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer, securing 32% in a 24-candidate field. Boafo was backed by Hoyer, AIPAC, and pro-Israel Democrats — a clean win for the establishment in a night that otherwise delivered losses for pro-Israel candidates in New York. He is a strong favorite in November in the safely Democratic district.

• Boafo secured 32% with runner-up Quincy Bareebe at 19% — a comfortable margin in a crowded field.
• AIPAC invested in Boafo, making the win a direct counterpoint to the New York sweep — pro-Israel candidates can still win Democratic primaries with the right coalition.
• The district — MD-5 in Prince George’s County and southern Maryland — is safely Democratic, making Boafo the presumptive next congressman.

Boafo's win keeps Steny Hoyer's legacy seat in pro-Israel Democratic hands and demonstrates the Maryland coalition-building model still works — AIPAC investment, establishment Democratic backing, and a candidate with deep district ties. The contrast with New York is instructive: Hoyer's successor was chosen in a multi-candidate field where AIPAC had maximum impact; Goldman's loss was in a two-person race where the Israel issue was impossible to dilute.