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What the Tale of Korach Tells Us About the New York City Mayoral Race
Zohran Mamdani, a New York City mayoral candidate, speaks on Primary Day at a campaign news conference at Astoria Park in Queens, New York, United States, on June 24, 2025. Photo: Kyle Mazza vis Reuters Connect.
Eric Hoffer was an American longshoreman and self-taught philosopher. His 1951 book The True Believer brilliantly dissected the inner workings of mass movements and the dangers posed by populism.
Writing with the simple clarity of someone who spent more time dealing with real people than attending conferences, Hoffer understood how populist ideology seduces the masses — by dazzling them with attractive ideas and unattainable utopian promises.
“It is startling to realize,” he wrote, “how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”
Hoffer died more than 40 years ago, but that line could have been written yesterday. Exactly this nightmare is unfolding before our eyes. Today’s grand illusion — dressed up in protest chants and viral campaign videos — is progressive humanitarianism, which emphasizes social justice, equality, and, most significantly, systemic change.
The younger generation is dazzled by its promises, lured by its slogans, and swept up in its moral certainty. Which is why, in an era where a well-edited TikTok carries more weight than a serious résumé, New York City has just handed its Democratic mayoral nomination to a former rapper whose primary credential is that he has mastered the art of being a progressive humanitarian — and knowing how to sell it.
I wish I were exaggerating. But alas, welcome to the era of viral mayors and Instagram messiahs. Zohran Mamdani — a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist with a flair for TikTok aesthetics and a résumé thinner than a swipe-left dating profile — has just triumphed over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.
Yes, that Cuomo. The former governor. The guy who once ran the entire state — taken down by someone who used to perform under the name Young Cardamom and now proudly refuses to condemn calls to “globalize the intifada.” We’re not in Kansas anymore — we’re in Queens, and the revolution is apparently being livestreamed.
Mamdani’s win is being celebrated in some quarters as a historic moment — the potential first Muslim and Indian American mayor of America’s biggest city. It’s “one in the eye” for the stuffy elites who just don’t get Gen Z, they say.
And in a sane world, that would be a proud milestone. But strip away the headlines and the hashtags, and you quickly realize that sanity has taken a leave of absence. Mamdani is nothing more than a populist ideologue — a man who packages radicalism in the language of justice, makes promises he cannot possibly keep, and, like so many before him, sells chaos dressed up as hope.
Let’s be clear: Mamdani isn’t some fresh-faced civic miracle. He’s a seasoned — and deeply ideological — activist who’s made a career out of opposing things rather than building them. His one tangible legislative win is a pilot program for free buses in a few neighborhoods. His campaign promises are free childcare, frozen rents, free public transport, and a sweeping expansion of affordable housing — all funded, apparently, by sprinkling magic tax dust on “the rich.”
He’s the kind of candidate who preaches equality and coexistence — unless you’re a Jew who believes Israel should exist as a Jewish state. While Mamdani has said Israel has “a right to exist … with equal rights for all its citizens,” he has declined to affirm its status as a Jewish state.
He adamantly refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” a rallying cry widely denounced by Jewish groups and even the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as incitement to violence against Jews and Jewish targets. He also introduced legislation — the “Not on our dime!” act — targeting New York nonprofits that fund Israeli charities.
Mamdani has mastered the art of moral posturing — always championing “humanity,” but only when the humans in question pass his ideological purity test.
Mamdani’s appeal is real — dangerously real. He’s charismatic, telegenic, multilingual, and youthful. His campaign videos drip with Bollywood flair and street-walking humility. He even walked the length of Manhattan for a photo op, as if performative endurance were a substitute for policy depth.
But it’s all carefully curated populist theater — a choreographed persona masking a radical, destabilizing agenda. Beneath the dance beats and righteous hashtags lies a far more perilous proposition: the dismantling of complex, functioning governance in favor of utopian slogans and impossible promises. And if left unchecked, this fantasy-driven politics will hollow out New York City, leaving behind a dysfunctional, diminished shell of what was once the world’s greatest metropolis.
Which brings me to the greatest populist in Jewish history: Korach. He, too, was a charismatic rebel — the man who stood up to Moses and Aaron and declared, in effect, “The old order is broken — it’s time for change.”
Korach didn’t challenge Moses on theology or principle. He challenged him on equality. “The entire congregation is holy,” he proclaimed. “Why then do you set yourselves above the people?” It sounded noble. It sounded democratic. It sounded like a grassroots revolution. It was, in fact, a catastrophe.
Korach didn’t want to elevate the nation — he wanted to topple its leadership. What he offered wasn’t a future — it was chaos. And the people, weary from the journey, tired of wandering, disillusioned by hardship, followed him. And they paid the price.
As the medieval commentator Ramban points out, what Korach did was not a spontaneous protest — he carefully plotted his move, waiting for the moment when morale was low and frustration was high. His rhetoric may have sounded righteous, but his true motive was to undermine the existing framework and thereby gain power. Korach cloaked personal ambition in the language of equality — and that’s what made him so dangerous.
Mamdani is reading straight from Korach’s script — only the costume has changed. He doesn’t want to improve New York; he wants to dismantle it. He doesn’t seek to reform flawed systems; he seeks to uproot and replace them with a radical ideology that divides rather than unites. To him, opponents aren’t fellow citizens with different ideas — they’re villains in a moral crusade.
He talks like he wants to do good, but the “good” he’s peddling will fracture New York along ideological, racial, and religious lines, undermine core American values, stir strife and resentment, and leave the city a battleground of slogans, not solutions. This isn’t idealism — it’s demolition wrapped in the language of hope.
The irony is that populists like Mamdani sell the snake oil but never deliver — and the people who believed in them are left to deal with the wreckage. The renters who find out that rent-freezing drives landlords out of the market. The bus riders who learn that “free” service means longer waits, broken schedules, and collapsing infrastructure. The city workers who face layoffs when the budget implodes.
And in the end, just like Korach, populists like Mamdani always go down with the ship they set ablaze.
Moses didn’t prevail because he was popular. He prevailed because he was right. Because leadership isn’t about slogans or soundbites — it’s about responsibility. It’s about ensuring every stakeholder has a place and making the future brighter than the present.
New York doesn’t need a culture warrior in City Hall. It needs a mayor. Because, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once said: “A society is strong when it cares for the weak. But it becomes weak when it cares only for the strong — or only for the weak.”
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post What the Tale of Korach Tells Us About the New York City Mayoral Race first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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