New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani again defended his recent attacks on AIPAC at a press conference in New York, refusing to apologize for calling the pro-Israel lobby a “monsters” and accusing it of using “dark money.” The remarks came after a week of uproar in the Jewish community over what critics described as overtly antisemitic language.
Mamdani said he was referring to an organization that, in his view, backed the status quo and fought efforts to bring “real security” to people in Palestine and across the region. He called that status quo “immoral,” repeated his claim that AIPAC spends millions of dollars on misleading advertisements that flood the airwaves, and tried to broaden the criticism to other lobbies as well. He also again linked the group’s activity to the economic hardship of many Americans.
Last week, Mamdani drew sharp condemnation after saying AIPAC was “monsters” and using what the article describes as clear antisemitic motifs. He told cheering supporters that AIPAC feared nothing more than “allowing democracy to run as usual” except, in his words, the end of “the genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.” He added that the group spends millions in dark money to preserve its power and turn people against one another, and later connected it to low wages and social injustice in the United States.
The speech triggered angry reactions from Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and others. American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutsch wrote on X that calling other New Yorkers “monsters” was “outrageous and dangerous,” while Jewish Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer said replacing “AIPAC” with “Jews” reveals one of the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories and called the comments dangerous from the mayor’s podium in a city of more than one million Jews.
