Lander V. Goldman, Another NYC Election on Israel

Zohran Mamdani has yet to be sworn in, but New York City is already gearing up for another election where the candidates’ views on Palestine and Israel will help shape the race and determine the future of the Democratic Party: 

Whether the leadership in Congress continues to support the AIPAC line or finally aligns itself with the vast majority of its voters, who are strongly opposed to more military aid to Israel and support Palestinian rights. 

This week, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander — with backing from the mayor-elect — announced his campaign against Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents NYC District 10 on the lower end of Manhattan and the west side of Brooklyn. 

Lander has long been an outspoken Jewish advocate for Palestinian rights who made a tactical alliance with Mamdani during the mayoral primary: both candidates encouraged their voters to rank the other second in a joint bid against Andrew Cuomo.

Goldman served as the Democrats’ lawyer during Trump’s first impeachment and subsequently ran for Congress. An heir to the Levi Strauss fortune (Levi as in the jeans), he spent $4 million of his own money to finance his first campaign. Goldman has deep pockets, but Lander will definitely be giving him a run for his money. 

The primary will not be held until late June 2026, but polling already shows Lander in the lead — even before Lander announced his run! Back in September, a Demand Progress Action poll found that Goldman was unpopular in his district even against a generic Democratic: 

“What is particularly striking is that in a head to head between Goldman and an unnamed generic Democrat, Goldman goes from having a lead of just nine percent to a deficit of 14 percent with only three new points of information: his refusal to endorse Zohran Mamdani for Mayor, his support for Israel’s war in Gaza, and him being a top recipient of AIPAC money.” 

 

– Dan Cohen, a pollster who advised Demand Progress Action 

In a then-hypothetical matchup against Lander, Goldman got only 33% against Lander’s 52%. 

Goldman has been one of the staunchest backers of Israel in Congress, among a minority of Democrats taking hard-right positions. Goldman was one of 62 House Democrats who signed a letter expressing “disgust” at South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, one of only 22 Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib — the only Palestinian-American MoC —  and one of 30 House Democrats who signed onto a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio opposing recognition of a Palestinian state.

Not surprisingly, Goldman is a top recipient of AIPAC campaign money. In fact, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics, AIPAC is Goldman’s top donor, collecting nearly $200,000 in donations between 2023-2024, the last election cycle. 

Lander is making Goldman’s subservience to AIPAC an election issue, announcing in his first campaign video: “The challenges we face can’t be solved with strongly worded letters or high-dollar fundraisers. And not by doing AIPAC’s bidding in a district that knows our safety, our freedom, our thriving is bound up together.” [Emphasis mine.] 

The press is certainly picking up on the divide on Israel between the candidates, with the New York Times reporting: 

Mr. Lander, who like Mr. Goldman is Jewish, has been a vociferous critic of Israel’s handling of the war. Many Democrats now share Mr. Lander’s concerns, and a New York Times/Siena poll showed that New Yorkers overall are now more likely to sympathize with Palestinians than with Israel.

 

Mr. Lander said in the interview that he and Mr. Goldman agreed that Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7 was a war crime, but that only Mr. Lander believed that attacks on civilians by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, were also war crimes.

 

“That’s how most residents of the district feel,” he said.

A Lander defeat of Goldman would be further confirmation that AIPAC-style support for Israel has become a liability for Democrats, even in the most Jewish city in the country.

Mamdani could no longer be written off as a fluke — or a uniquely charismatic, social media-savvy candidate — but the first wave of new candidates centering their support for Palestinian rights in their campaigns. Such a dramatic upheaval of the norms of U.S. politics — where ironclad support for Israel used to be considered axiomatic — is unprecedented, and clearly has Zionists worrying. 

As the Zionist newspaper Jewish Insider noted, “The Democratic primary will offer an early test of the pro-Israel community’s ability to reelect a reliable ally.”

If Zionists, after failing to defeat Mamdani, cannot save Goldman, AIPAC’s hold on the Democratic Party, which is starting to crack, would suffer a major blow. 

That fear of suffering another setback was clearly on Todd Richman’s mind, the cofounder of Democratic Majority for Israel, when he lambasted Sen. Elizabeth Warren for endorsing Lander.

This is a race that is bound to pit Democrat against Democrat in a battle for the soul of the party, and Zionists are sure to go after any Democrat who sides with Lander.  

The day after Lander announced his run, the pro-Israel Jewish News Syndicate ran a hit piece on Lander, falsely accusing him of appeasing antisemites in his bid for power. Even worse accusations were made against Mamdani, but soon he’ll be sitting pretty at Gracie Mansion. And Lander may soon be a powerful Jewish voice for Palestine on Capitol Hill.