Mayor-Elect Mamdani Exposes Pro-Israel Community’s Biggest Blind Spot: State and Local Politics
Mayor-elect Mamdani’s victory in the New York City municipal election represents the most significant success to date of a systematic anti-Israel organizing strategy that has advanced virtually unopposed through state and local politics with the assistance of groups like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The Mayor-Elect’s political trajectory exemplifies precisely the pipeline ICAN has been warning about. He co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Bowdoin College, joined the Democratic Socialists of America specifically because of its anti-Israel positions (“Palestine brought me to this movement,” as he stated in 2021), defeated a five-term incumbent for the New York State Assembly in 2020, and now controls a city with an annual budget exceeding $100 billion.
Mamdani’s laser focus on Israel comes as Congress works to designate the Muslim Brotherhood—to which CAIR has alleged connections—as a terrorist organization, and as his own campaign receives significant backing from organizations under congressional investigation. His agenda prioritizes attacking the Middle East’s only democracy while pledging to dismantle the NYPD units that monitor terrorism threats in a city that has faced repeated Islamist terror attacks.
As ICAN’s Chief Policy Officer and Beverly Hills Councilmember, John Mirisch, wrote in “A Manhattan Project for pro-Israel advocacy at the state and local level,” the pro-Israel community needs a “Manhattan Project”- level commitment to quickly build state and local political infrastructure. Mirisch warned that “anti-Israel forces have been building political power at the state and local levels for years, while pro-Israel advocacy remains almost exclusively focused on Congress.”
The incoming Mamdani Administration proves Mirisch right, and ICAN has proven this model works. In California, Massachusetts, and Nevada, we’ve defeated anti-Israel legislation promoting ethnic studies curricula and BDS policies, secured policy victories in major school districts, exposed teachers unions, and helped several U.S. cities to adopt the IHRA antisemitism definition by building exactly the infrastructure the pro-Israel community needs:
- Systematic tracking of anti-Israel proposals in state and local jurisdictions
- Early warning systems for emerging anti-Israel politicians
- Coordinated response capabilities for state and local races
- Parent groups to advance K-12 policy and build new pro-Israel networks
- Data infrastructure to cultivate, identify, and support pro-Israel candidates
Recognizing this emerging threat, ICAN launched the Mamdani Index, which tracks anti-Israel politicians advancing through state and local offices across America. We currently monitor officials across 5 states who share Mamdani’s radical anti-Israel positions, and we are working to expand coverage every day.
The Index is named after Mamdani precisely because he epitomizes the threat: politicians who use local and state offices as launching pads for mainstreaming anti-Israel positions into American politics. His victory — from college activist to state legislator to mayor of America’s largest city in just a matter of years — validates our warning that, without systematic tracking and opposition, these politicians advance unopposed through the political pipeline.
ICAN has built a proven model; now we must scale it before the next generation of anti-Israel politicians advances through the pipeline.
To join this effort or bring ICAN’s model to your state, visit ICANAction.org or contact Shalom@IsraelUSA.org.