New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani again defended his remarks about the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC at a press conference in New York late Monday night into Tuesday, refusing to apologize or walk back what Jewish groups called antisemitic comments. He repeated his accusation that AIPAC is helping preserve an “immoral status quo” and said the group works against “real security” not only for Palestinians but for much of the region.
Mamdani also repeated the claim that AIPAC spends millions of dollars on misleading and deliberately deceptive advertising that floods the airwaves, while saying similar tactics are used by other lobbies as well. He again linked the lobby’s activity to the economic hardship faced by many Americans.
Last week, Mamdani had called AIPAC “monsters” and used what critics described as explicit antisemitic tropes. In that speech, he said AIPAC fears “the end of the genocide and Netanyahu’s wars” more than normal democratic politics, and accused it of spending “dark money” to keep power and turn people against one another. He also tied the group to low wages and social injustice in the United States.
The remarks triggered angry responses from the Jewish community, including the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations. American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch wrote on X that calling other New Yorkers “monsters” was “outrageous and dangerous.” Jewish Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer said replacing “AIPAC” with “Jews” reveals “one of the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories,” calling it not lobbying criticism but “whitewashing antisemitism” from the mayor’s podium in a city with more than one million Jews.
