Uncategorized
Mamdani said NYPD boots were ‘laced by the IDF.’ What is the relationship between American police departments and Israel?
New York mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s recently resurfaced remark that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” has renewed concerns from some Jewish voters about his potential administration’s attitude toward Israel — and renewed questions about the Israeli military’s relationship with police departments across the U.S.
Mamdani made the comment during an August 2023 conference for the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani, a DSA member representing Queens in the New York State Assembly, was a keynote speaker at the conference and appeared on a panel about “Socialist Internationalism.”
Mamdani said during the panel that for Americans to care about international issues, “We have to make them hyper-local. We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF. We have to make — not specifically that example all the time — just to say that for working class people who have very little time, who have so many stresses, who are under so many pressures, there isn’t much time for symbolism. We have to make it materially connected to their life.”
Mamdani told CNN last week that he had been referring to training exercises that have taken place between the New York Police Department and the Israel Defense Forces, not suggesting that the two were in close collaboration.
American Jewish leaders have widely objected to the comments. Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the head of prominent New York Reform congregation Central Synagogue, said it “contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism.” Meanwhile, progressive groups outside the Jewish establishment say Mamdani hit on an uncomfortable truth about American law enforcement.
The image of an NYPD boot laced by an IDF soldier evokes a broader claim that the militarism and brutality of American law enforcement was imported from Israel in police training programs. The claim first gained traction in anti-Zionist spaces following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin.
The relationship between American police departments and Israel has since become the subject of ongoing criticism by groups who say Israel’s law enforcement practices promote aggressive surveillance, discrimination and violent intervention, and otherwise infringe on human rights.
But police aggression in the U.S. long predates Israel’s founding, much less American law enforcement training visits. The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, though it opposes the trips, has cautioned against the notion that Israel is the origin of American police violence or racism, saying that such claims “obscure the fundamental responsibility and nature of the U.S.” and “further an antisemitic ideology.”
So what is the actual relationship between Israel and American police today, and what is its impact on law enforcement tactics in the U.S.?
Roots in counterterrorism
American law enforcement’s relationship with Israel dates back to the 1990s, but accelerated after 9/11, when police departments across the U.S. were responding to the threat of terrorism. In September 2002, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, an American nonprofit, brought high-ranking law enforcement officials from several major U.S. metro areas — among them New York, Los Angeles, South Florida and Dallas — to Israel to learn best practices for terrorism deterrence and response.
According to a press release JINSA issued at the time, the Americans observed “methods and techniques” that included bomb disposal, forensics, crowd control and coordination with the media and the public. The release also said the group visited police and IDF outposts to study Border Guard operations in the Galilee and the West Bank.
Since then, the trips have become routine. As of 2020, more than 1,000 American police officers from across the country have made similar training visits, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. JINSA isn’t the only group organizing the trips; the Anti-Defamation League and a program called the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange have also led American police trips to Israel.
JINSA maintains that its trips focus on management and policy issues, and that officials do not learn about physical tactics. But that may be little consolation to groups that oppose the visits in the first place, who say that observers of any Israeli police operation in Palestinian areas are witnessing live demonstrations of repressive violence.
The trips are only one aspect of the relationship. There is also a more direct collaboration between the NYPD and Israel: the former has had an office — though it reportedly consists of a single officer — at the Israeli police headquarters since 2012, as part of the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts.
Backlash to the relationship
One group leading opposition to the trips is JVP, which in 2018 published a 57-page report about them called “Deadly Exchange.”
The report documented not only what officers encounter on the trips — for example, a network of hundreds of surveillance cameras around Jerusalem’s Old City — but also their parallel tactics in the U.S.; it points to a 5,300-camera surveillance system in Atlanta that the Atlanta Police Department said was modeled after the command center in Jerusalem. It also claimed that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police used Skunk, a foul-odor spray, on protesters in Ferguson in 2014 after seeing it deployed in Israel.
Not all of its claims are substantiated. One section that describes a Jewish lawmaker’s push for increased surveillance states that he was influenced by Israel’s example; that lawmaker never said such a thing and had not attended a police exchange program. Other cases cited in the report show similarities in American and Israeli law enforcement practices but do not show a causal link between them.
Still, the JVP report became a proof text following George Floyd’s death, when Black Lives Matter protesters were building coalitions with the pro-Palestinian resistance. Protesters pointed to the Minneapolis police officers’ attendance at a security exchange conference at the Israeli Consulate in Chicago in 2012, saying the knee-to-neck restraint Chauvin used to strangle Floyd was a hold IDF soldiers often employed on Palestinians.
Palestinians have described similar treatment by IDF soldiers. But records show neck restraints had been used in MPD training since at least 2002, and it’s unclear whether Israeli officials even taught the chokehold at the conference, or whether Chauvin — who was on the force at the time — was in attendance.
Moreover, reasons for increasing militarism in American police forces are manifold. To explain why American police departments look more like military bases now, observers would point to the military industrial complex and civilian access to military-grade weapons (which led law enforcement to keep up).
Nevertheless, the charge of Israeli influence has become all-encompassing; as in countless other examples, it is a simple explanation for complicated, maddening and seemingly unsolvable American institutional dysfunction. And as Mamdani said in 2023, it’s a convenient way to make international concerns feel “hyper-local.”
The post Mamdani said NYPD boots were ‘laced by the IDF.’ What is the relationship between American police departments and Israel? appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries
(New York Jewish Week) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the victories of the progressive candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries describing their success as a “shift in the balance of power.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the morning after the primaries, Mamdani touted the triumphs as a shift in the balance of power between “working people” and “special interests.”
Mamdani-endorsed candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won Democratic nominations for Congress. During the press conference, the mayor repeatedly highlighted their calls to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel and redirect federal funding to domestic priorities.
Following Mamdani’s election night sweep in New York, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”
The victories offered an early demonstration of Mamdani’s political influence beyond City Hall, as several Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, including Chevalier, defeated established Democratic incumbents in their districts.
“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said, adding that Avila Chevalier’s oft-repeated slogan of investing in “Babies not Bombs,” is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”
Mamdani responded to the president’s post on Wednesday, telling a reporter who asked whether his goal is to make America a “socialist” country that his “goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”
When asked about federal policies that could be affected by Mamdani’s endorsed candidates, the mayor cited Valdez’s support for “foreign policy that understands human rights for all” and Lander’s commitment to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the sale of certain U.S.-made offensive weapons to Israel.
Mamdani also dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about how the victories would play out in November as Democrats try to win back the House.
“Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” he said.
When asked whether the election of Chevalier, who has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and her appearance at an Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, could “complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole,” Mamdani replied “No.”
“[Chevalier] often speaks about a politics of life. She speaks about ‘Babies not bombs,’” Mamdani continued. “What could be a better example of what the people of the district want to see versus what the people of the district have been forced to experience, which is tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”
The post Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary
(New York Jewish Week) — David Orkin, a Jewish anti-Zionist attorney and democratic socialist, defeated incumbent New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Orkin won State Assembly District 38, which includes parts of Queens.
Orkin, an immigrant workers’ rights attorney and union organizer, received 58.8% of the vote, while Rajkumar, who has represented the district since 2021 and is the first South Asian woman ever elected to office in the state, received 40.9%. The district covers a swath of Queens, including parts of Ridgewood, Glendale, Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.
“Pro-Palestine candidates are sweeping in NYC tonight,” Jewish Voice for Peace Action wrote in a post on Instagram celebrating Orkin’s win Tuesday. “Palestine was on the ballot — and won. David will be a champion for Palestinian freedom in Albany.”
The post from JVP Action echoed a message Orkin had highlighted throughout his campaign.
“It’s so incredibly meaningful to me to be running this race as an anti-Zionist Jew, to be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices that is in an elected seat in the state government,” Orkin said in an Instagram reel posted by Jewish Voice for Peace Action earlier this month.
He added that, if elected, he would be able to go in front of the state legislature and assert that “criticizing Israel for genocide, demanding an end to the occupation, demanding an end to funding war abroad is not antisemitic.”
Orkin’s victory came amid a strong night for democratic socialist candidates across New York City, including left-wing congressional candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, who also defeated establishment-backed opponents in their primaries.
While Orkin was not endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose winning endorsements of Lander, Chevalier and Valdez signaled a pro-Palestinian lurch for the party in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel. Nonetheless, his victory elevated a self-described anti-Zionist to the ranks of New York’s elected officials at a time when debates over Israel have become increasingly prominent within Democratic politics.
While Israel-related issues were not listed on Orkin’s platform, which centered on affordability and immigration, he repeatedly expressed his support for a “free Palestine” and attacked Rajkumar’s record of support for the Jewish state during his campaign.
“In the past several years my opponent AM Rajkumar has walked in the Israel day parade but has said NOTHING against the war in Gaza, occupation of Palestine, or Islamophobic attacks faced by the people of New York,” Orkin wrote in a May post on X.
Rajkumar, who was a close political ally of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in her campaign platform vowed to combat antisemitism.
After establishing a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in Tucson, Arizona, in 2014, Orkin remained involved in pro-Palestinian activism as a member of the anti-Zionist activist group.
“I’ve been involved in the Jewish Palestine Solidarity Movement for 12, 13 years,” Orkin told Democratic Left last month. “I’ve dedicated part [of my] life to making sure that Jewish people are creating religious spaces outside of Zionism, and to making more space for Palestinian organizing to have an impact.”
On the campaign trail, Orkin received a host of endorsements from prominent progressive groups and lawmakers, including Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, JVP Action and NYC Democratic Socialists for America.
Rajkumar was endorsed by ActJew, the new nonprofit focused on combatting antisemitism, as well as the Queens Jewish Alliance and Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Kalman Yeger and Chuck Lavine.
Orkin received over $290,000 in campaign contributions for the election cycle, including over $156,000 from the office of the state comptroller, while Rajkumar received over $270,000, including $9,000 from health care executive Daniel Lowy.
“I have dedicated my life fighting for immigrants and workers, I am proud to have earned their support in this election, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life winning the beautiful and joyous lives we deserve,” Orkin said in a statement, according to QNS.
The post Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Half of Americans think the U.S. is ‘too supportive’ of Israel
(JTA) — A new survey found that 48% of American voters think the United States is “too supportive” of Israel, the highest since the pollster started asking the question in 2017.
The survey published Wednesday by Quinnipiac University also found that 60% of respondents reported that military intervention in Iran was “not worth it” as opposed to 34% of voters who said it was “worth it.”
The number of respondents who think the U.S. support of Israel is about right is 38%, while just 7% think the U.S. is not supportive enough of Israel, the poll found.
Broken down by party, 66% of Democrats think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, while 9% think it is not supportive enough and 18% think U.S. support for Israel is about right.
Among Republicans, 20% think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, 69% think American support for Israel is “about right,” and 6% think the U.S. is not supportive enough.
Among independent voters, 55% think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, 34% think U.S. support for Israel is about right, and 7% think the U.S. is not supportive enough.
The poll data were released one day after three Democrats critical of Israel swept their House primary races in New York City, and in races around the country even some reliably pro-Israel Democratic candidates distanced themselves from the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
A survey last year by Gallup found dwindling support for Israel among Democrats, as well as waning support among Republicans.
Still the party divide was also in sharp evidence in the latest poll. In responses to the question about whether the Iran war was “worth it”, Democrats disfavored military action in Iran at 93% and independents at 66%, while 75% of Republicans surveyed thought it was “worth it.”
Given a list of 10 issues and asked which, if any, they considered priorities in their decision-making process in the election for the U.S. House of Representatives, 41% of voters cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, above AI data centers (38%) and Donald Trump (38%). The high cost of living (70%) and health care (59%) topped the list.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from June 18 to 22, and includes responses from 1,165 self-identified registered voters.
The margin of error is 3.4 percentage points.
Among those surveyed, 48% said they had an unfavorable view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Twenty percent said they had a favorable opinion, and 30% “haven’t heard enough” about him.
“Netanyahu gets poor marks from American voters as their appetite for supporting Israel wanes, with the share of voters who think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel hitting a new high,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy wrote in the report.
Voters were also asked about their views on the June 17 memorandum of understanding with Iran, which begins a 60-day negotiation period that does not outline an end to Iran’s nuclear program.
“After months of diplomatic fits and starts, global economic repercussions and a broad loss of life in the region, a majority of voters make their feelings clear: the Iran war was a bad idea,” Malloy wrote.
Voters who are either not confident or “not so confident” that the deal will succeed numbered 59%, and 61% think it is either likely or very likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
The post Half of Americans think the U.S. is ‘too supportive’ of Israel appeared first on The Forward.
