New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday that it was “great” to see a new AP survey showing him with higher favorability among Jewish Americans than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while insisting that his focus remained on making Jewish New Yorkers feel safe, at home and valued by the city.
“I think I’ll leave it to New Yorkers and pundits to make of it what they will,” Mamdani told local television station NY1 when asked about the poll. “My focus is on delivering for each and every New Yorker, and I’m proud to be the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the country.”
Mamdani says Jewish support is ‘great’ after poll puts him ahead of Netanyahu
(Video: Spectrum News NY1)
Mamdani said the city’s responsibility toward its Jewish population should not be framed only through the fight against antisemitism, even though he called that effort “critical and necessary.” He said he wanted to go beyond “just the question of keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe,” and ensure that they “look at this city and understand themselves to be home” and feel “cherished and celebrated by the city.”
“I take a real pleasure in being able to be the mayor of this same city,” he added.
Mamdani was also asked about a proposed two-state framework for Israelis and Palestinians that includes freedom of movement and an internationally administered capital in Jerusalem. He said he was not sufficiently familiar with the proposal, but repeated his view that any future arrangement should guarantee equal rights for everyone.
“One of the things that makes me so proud to be an American is that equality is enshrined in our Constitution,” he said. “And that helps me understand how the world should look as well, with that same equality.”
The comments followed the publication of an AP survey conducted in June among 1,022 Jewish Americans. Forty-four percent of respondents said they viewed Mamdani favorably, compared with 39% who viewed him unfavorably and 17% who had no opinion.
Netanyahu received a 32% favorability rating, while 59% viewed him unfavorably. President Donald Trump ranked even lower among those surveyed, with 29% holding a favorable opinion of him and 70% viewing him negatively.
The results do not necessarily indicate support for Mamdani’s views on Israel. They also reflect the erosion of Netanyahu’s standing among American Jews. Seventy-three percent of respondents said Israel’s initial military response to the October 7 Hamas attack was justified, but only 42% supported the continuation of military operations in Gaza, compared with 43% who opposed them.
Thirty percent said they believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, while 49% rejected the claim. Only 33% supported the creation of a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, while 36% opposed the idea and 30% said they neither supported nor opposed it.
Mamdani’s popularity in the survey drew attention because he won only 26% of the Jewish vote in New York’s most recent mayoral election. Since taking office, he has faced sustained criticism from Jewish leaders and Zionist organizations over his positions on Israel and his support for pro-Palestinian activists.
He has refused to recognize Israel specifically as a Jewish state, said he would not visit the country and pledged to seek Netanyahu’s arrest should the Israeli prime minister enter New York, citing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant. That pledge could face a practical test in September, when Netanyahu is expected to travel to the city for the United Nations General Assembly.
Officials in Netanyahu’s office have already described the issue to ynet as a “headache” for the mayor.
Mamdani also boycotted this year’s annual Israel Day Parade, backed economic boycotts and divestment from Israel and supported congressional candidates who made harsh statements about the country.
His administration faced further embarrassment this week after it emerged that City Hall’s international affairs chief, Ana Maria Archila, had planned to meet Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani.
According to a report in the local outlet City Journal, the meeting was scheduled for July 7 at the United Nations and was to include two other senior city officials. The State Department, which had not been informed in advance, intervened and clarified the limits of permissible contacts with Iranian officials.
The report said Archila had not informed Mamdani, was reprimanded and was ordered to cancel the meeting. “This meeting did not take place and will not take place,” the mayor’s office said.
It was the second time the State Department had intervened to block a planned diplomatic meeting involving Mamdani’s administration and a figure hostile to Israel. Last month, the Trump administration pressured Colombia to cancel a planned meeting between Mamdani and the country’s outgoing president, who is known for his anti-Israel rhetoric.
Mamdani and his representatives have not yet held a meeting with any official Israeli representative.
Tensions with the Israeli Consulate in New York also intensified over Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, who is serving as a co-host of a luxury women’s retreat in Corsica focused, according to the consulate, on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and solidarity with Palestinian women.
Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji
(Photo: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
Participation in the retreat costs between approximately $3,100 and $5,260. Promotional material for previous workshops described Mary as “a Palestinian woman who gave birth under occupation.”
The consulate said Jesus was Jewish and was born in Judea to his Jewish mother, Mary, and accused those presenting him as Palestinian or implying he was Muslim of distorting history.
“The first lady of the city is pushing a false and dangerous narrative against Israel,” the consulate said, adding mockingly that calling Jesus Palestinian was “as ridiculous as claiming the New York Knicks lost the NBA championship.”
Against that backdrop, Mamdani appeared this week wearing a hard hat and holding a shovel beside Israeli-born businessman Tal Kerret, president of real estate giant Silverstein Properties, at the groundbreaking ceremony for 2 World Trade Center.
The 55-story, 1,227-foot tower will be the final commercial office building completed at the rebuilt World Trade Center site and is expected to serve as the new global headquarters of American Express. It is scheduled to open in 2031.
Mamdani said the project would create more than 3,200 construction jobs, inject nearly $6 billion into the city’s economy and support more than 20,000 jobs after completion.
“We stand today on sacred ground,” he said, at a ceremony that offered a different, and far rarer, image of the mayor’s relationship with Israelis in New York.