The endorsement by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Socialist Democrat, in the city’s mayoral race is not a small error in politics. It is a collapse of principle. At the very moment Jewish New Yorkers are facing open intimidation in classrooms, subways and streets, Hochul has thrown her weight behind a man whose record is steeped in contempt for Israel and tolerance of rhetoric that Jews know all too well are threats to their survival.

Open about positions

Mamdani’s positions are not hidden. He has refused to repudiate the chant “Globalize the intifada.” He insists it is a political expression, brushing off what it truly is: a genocidal slogan born of uprisings aimed at killing civilians.

He embraces the BDS movement, a campaign designed to economically strangle Israel and stigmatize anyone who deals with it. He has pledged to overturn New York City’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Smitism, the most widely accepted safeguard against efforts to disguise old hatred in the language of politics.

These are not stray remarks. They are his platform. They place him squarely with those who demonize Zionism, excuse Hamas and portray the Jewish state as a global outlaw. A man who advances such ideas has no business seeking the mayoralty of New York, the city with the largest Jewish community outside Israel.

How could she do this?

Hochul knows all this, which makes her decision not just naive but unconscionable. Only days after the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, Hochul flew to Israel. She prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. She walked through Kfar Aza, where Hamas slaughtered families in their homes and declared that she would live the rest of her life “seared with the knowledge of what happened in this place.” She sat with hostage families, including New Yorkers whose sons were dragged into Gaza. She saw the blood and heard the stories. She looked survivors in the eye.

How does someone who stood in those rooms—still heavy with the stench of death—return home and later endorse a candidate who excuses genocidal chants, cheers on boycotts and seeks to dilute the very definition of anti-Semitism? That is not a misjudgment. That is a willful act of betrayal.