New York Mayor Mamdani Sparks Outrage With Fiery Anti-AIPAC Speech

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani triggered a political storm after calling members of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC “monsters” in a combative speech in Brooklyn on Thursday night. Speaking at a rally for progressive candidates ahead of the Democratic primaries, he accused AIPAC of spending millions of dollars in “dark money” to shape public opinion and said it works to block calls for ending the war in Gaza, which he described as “genocide.”

Mamdani also attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s conduct in Gaza, using the event to urge support for progressive candidates he portrayed as firmly anti-Israel. He specifically named state Assembly member Claire Valdez, former city comptroller Brad Lander, and Darialisa Avila Chevalier, who led the encampment protests at Columbia University.

Senator Bernie Sanders, the rally’s main speaker at the Kings Theatre, echoed the criticism. He told the audience, “The American people understand that a lot of our horrible foreign policy is influenced by AIPAC funding.”

The speech came amid heightened concern about physical threats to AIPAC activists and staff in the United States. Two days earlier, federal indictments were filed against five men accused of plotting to assassinate senior American officials, after an FBI investigation found one suspect had searched his phone for information on members of Congress backed by the lobby. On the same day as Mamdani’s speech, prosecutors also charged 27-year-old Forrest Kendall Pemberton of Florida in connection with an alleged mass-shooting attempt targeting employees at AIPAC offices in Plantation.