Why this congressional candidate is making attacks on AIPAC central to his campaign
As criticism of Israel increasingly becomes a litmus test for progressive candidates seeking to define themselves against establishment Democrats, a New York congressional hopeful is making an attack on AIPAC central to his campaign. In doing so, he’s brushed aside his past support for the group and reversed earlier positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Michael Blake, a former state legislator who ran for mayor in the Democratic primary, accused Rep. Ritchie Torres, a three-term pro-Israel progressive from the Bronx, of putting Israel’s military interests ahead of addressing his district’s affordability crisis; he also accuses Torres of being influenced by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s support. “Ritchie Torres cares more about Bibi than he cares about the Bronx, more about AIPAC than he does about your academics,” Blake said in his campaign launch video last week.
Polling shows AIPAC’s influence is increasingly unpopular among some mainstream Democrats. Last year, the group’s United Democracy Project super PAC spent $28 million in high-stakes Democratic primaries. That included more than $14 million, which contributed to the defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a strident critic of Israel, in an adjacent New York district. Congressional candidates, including some Jewish Democrats, have promised not to take contributions from AIPAC.
In an interview last week, Blake said he was emboldened by the victory of Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in the mayoral election and the support he received from voters in his district. A plurality of New York City voters said that Mamdani’s criticism of Israel resonated with them. Nearly half of Mamdani voters, 49%, said his position on the Gaza conflict was a factor in their support, according to a CNN exit poll. A recent poll by the progressive Data for Progress found that three of 10 voters in New York’s 15th congressional district, which Torres represents, dislike AIPAC. However, a majority, 53%, didn’t have an opinion.
Critics ridiculed Blake, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and a former Obama administration official, for targeting AIPAC despite his own past support for the pro-Israel lobby, which included speaking at its events and annual policy conference and joining a 2010 trip to Israel. Blake has scrubbed most of his AIPAC and Israel-related content from his social media.
Some called the launch video — which included clips of social media influencers attacking Torres for his AIPAC support and defense of Israel — antisemitic. Noa Tishby, an author and activist who served as Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization of Israel, noted that the video featured Guy Christensen, an influencer who justified the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.
Mark Treyger, head of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of New York, said Blake’s campaign “further inflames an already inflammatory climate” in New York. “Hurling a bus-load of antisemitic tropes and platforming bigots who cheer antisemitic violence in a launch video is not the pro-humanity flex one thinks it is.”
Torres, who is endorsed by AIPAC, has since his election to Congress in 2020 been a vocal defender of Israel. He faced rising criticism from the party’s left and progressives for his support of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, though his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nuanced. Torres called for an end to the war in Gaza in July and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership was causing “irreparable damage” to the U.S.-Israel relationship. He has a 63% favorability rating in the district and has more than $14 million in his campaign chest, according to a recent FEC filing. He was listed as one of “25 young(ish) new Democrats to watch in 2026 by New York magazine.
Blake is among several primary challengers to Torres in next year’s election. Benny Stanislawski, a Torres campaign spokesperson, said Bronx voters appreciate their congressman’s “laser-focused” work on issues like public housing and affordability and standing up to President Donald Trump, concerns where most Democrats are aligned.
Buoyed by Mamdani’s victory
Zohran Mamdani greets voters with Michael Blake on June 24. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Blake, who also ran for mayor in the primary, cross-endorsed Mamdani days before the ranked-choice contest, while Torres withheld an endorsement, citing concerns of voters, including Jewish voters in the Riverdale part of the district, about Mamdani’s past statements and stance on Israel.
“Despite the constant negative barrage of information against Mamdani, he won the district,” Blake said.
Commenting on Mamdani’s victory, AIPAC PAC said in a fundraising email that his win “has galvanized the anti-Israel forces in America” and that the Jewish community “is being politically tested unlike ever before.”
By making AIPAC central to his challenge against Torres, Blake is betting that criticism about the lobby’s influence now resonates with a diverse, younger electorate.
Blake argued that AIPAC and Netanyahu no longer represent where most people stand and accused the incumbent of neglecting his own constituents. Speaking with reporters at the annual SOMOS conference of New York politicians in Puerto Rico on Friday, Blake claimed that Torres “has spoken about the governmental decisions in Israel 300% more than he has talked about poverty in the Bronx.”
An AIPAC spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Inconsistent about Israel
Blake traveled to Israel twice, once in 2014 with the JCRC and in 2017 with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. Both visits, he said, were eye-opening experiences. He told Jewish Insider during his congressional bid in 2020 that he saw parallels between his experience as an African American in the Bronx and the plight of the Jewish people in Israel.
Blake attended more than a dozen AIPAC events in the past decade, according to his now-deleted social media posts.
Since the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, he has accused the Israeli military of spreading a “horrible and disrespectful lie” regarding the killing of aid workers in Gaza last April, and criticized a bipartisan House bill aimed at federally monitoring the rise in antisemitism on college campuses.
During his campaign for mayor, Blake also flip-flopped on whether Israel was committing genocide. In an interview with the Forward in May, Blake said that his genocide accusation in Oct. 2023 was the “wrong language to use.” He said his campaign had clarified that “the intent was never to state that the State of Israel was doing that.” In another phone interview after the Mamdani endorsement, Blake said he doesn’t agree with everything Mamdani has said on Israel. “I’ve always stated that Israel has a right to defend itself,” he said. In September, Blake reversed his position and posted on X, “Genocide is happening in Gaza.”
Last week, Blake insisted he never changed his position. “The question that gets asked to me, ‘Why did we state differently in the mayoral campaign?’” he said. “The only reason I said that is that people couldn’t hear you in these conversations. But we can’t ignore the pain.”
Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein, an Orthodox Democrat from Brooklyn, said in a post on X that Blake presented himself to him during the mayoral campaign as “the most pro-Israel candidate.” Blake dismissed that characterization as “factually inaccurate.”
Blake said he supports an arms embargo on Israel, but would still support funding for the Iron Dome defense system. “I think we have to be attentive to the moment that we’re in right now,” he said. “That does not at all mean that you don’t believe in the security of Israel. But it just means we have to have a shift in some of the funding decisions.”
Asked if he’d seek the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, Blake said he would, although the DSA had asked candidates seeking their support to pledge not to travel to Israel. In 2021, he called the local DSA chapter’s questionnaire about the issue “outrageous and antisemitic.”
“I am not determined on where I’m not going to travel,” Blake said. His spokesperson intervened and added, “There are plenty of DSA members who do not line up with the platform of DSA.”
Blake also demurred when asked whether, like the new mayor-elect, he supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. In 2016, Blake co-sponsored a resolution that rejects BDS. “There have to be actions that are being taken” against funding to Israel, he said. “And as people are considering what has to happen around funding, around BDS or anti-BDS, that is for them to make that own determination.”
At Least 20% of Mamdani Transition Appointees Have Radical Anti-Zionist Ties, ADL Report Finds
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at the Unisphere in the Queens borough of New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Scores of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition and administrative appointees have histories of antisemitic rhetoric, support for terrorist groups, or affiliations with organizations hostile to Israel and the Jewish community, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
In a detailed document released this week, the ADL said it reviewed more than 400 individuals appointed on Nov. 24 to serve on 17 transition committees responsible for staffing the incoming administration and shaping its policy agenda. The ADL said at least 20 percent of these appointees have either a “documented history of making anti-Israel statements” or ties to radical anti-Zionist organizations that “openly promote terror and harass Jewish people.” Among these groups are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime (WOL), all of which routinely glorify the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas terrorist group, harass Jewish students on campus, and stage protests outside synagogues.
According to the ADL, Mamdani’s appointees include individuals who have promoted classic antisemitic tropes, vilified supporters of Jewish self-determination, sought to undermine the legitimacy of Israel, expressed sympathy for Hamas, and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre carried out by the Iran-backed terrorist group. Several appointees were also flagged for alleged connections to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has compared Jews to termites, described Judaism as a “dirty religion,” called the Jewish people “Satan,” publicly questioned the Holocaust, shared anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and blamed Jews for pedophilia and sex trafficking. Others, according to ADL, dismissed reports of Hamas atrocities as “propaganda” or publicly justified the Oct. 7 atrocities as a form of justified “resistance.”
The ADL said, for example, that Gianpaolo Baiocchi, who was recently appointed to the Committee on Community Organizing, participated in an anti-Israel encampment at New York University (NYU). He defended the encampments, claiming that “there was no expression of anti-semitism [sic], bigotry, or any hate speech.” However, previous reports of these encampments reveal that demonstrators often used slogans such as “Destroy Zionist business interests everywhere,” “Death to Israeli real estate,” “Enough with de-escalation trainings; where are the escalation trainings?” and “Death to America.”
Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, who was tapped to the Committee on Youth & Education, posted a picture of herself posing in front of a banner displaying an inverted red triangle — a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies used by the Palestinian terrorist group in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked — and the words “long live the resistance” written in large font.
Alina Shen, who was selected to serve on the Committee on Housing, was an organizer for the anti-Israel organization CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities. During her tenure, CAAAV labeled Israel a “settler colonial” entity and affirmed that “resistance” against the country is justified.
“We support the Palestinian revolt against the zionist [sic], colonial power of israel [sic]…CAAAV stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine, the freedom fighters who are fighting for their future,” the organization wrote during the 2021 Israel-Hamas war.
Additionally, several transition appointees have expressed vocal support for Farrakhan. Jacques Léandre, tapped to join the Committee on Legal Affairs, attended a 2022 Saviours’ Day conference in which Farrakhan lambasted “the Jews and their power.” He also lauded Farrakhan for displaying “courage, integrity, and compassion.”
Tamika Mallory, the former Women’s March co-chair who was forced out of the organization amid allegations of antisemitism, was also appointed to Mamdani’s transition team, to serve on the Committee on Community Safety. She has faced ongoing criticism for her praise of Farrakhan.
Mysonne Linen, appointed to the Committee on the Criminal Legal System, also maintains a personal relationship with Farrakhan, according to the ADL.
“Many of Mayor-elect Mamdani’s Transition Committee appointments are inconsistent with his campaign commitments to prioritize the safety of New York’s Jewish community,” the ADL wrote in its report. “The composition of these Transition Committees will directly influence the administration’s policies and approach to Jewish community concerns, and the current appointments raise serious questions as to whether those concerns will not be adequately represented or addressed.”
At the same time, the ADL acknowledged several steps taken by Mamdani that it described as positive. Following a deadly antisemitic shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia earlier this month, Mamdani condemned the attack as “a vile act of antisemitic terror” and pledged to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe. He also visited the resting place of Chabad-Lubavitch leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Queens and met with leaders of the Satmar community and the New York Board of Rabbis.
Still, Jewish leaders remain concerned. After meeting with Mamdani, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of New York’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue warned that the mayor-elect’s anti-Zionist rhetoric could endanger Jewish safety in the city and strain relations with the Jewish community.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist and anti-Zionist, is an avid supporter of boycotting all Israeli-tied entities who has been widely accused of promoting antisemitic rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide”; refused to recognize the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state; and refused to explicitly condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been associated with calls for violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Leading members of the Jewish community in New York have expressed alarm about Mamdani’s victory, fearing what may come in a city already experiencing a surge in antisemitic hate crimes.
A Sienna Research Institute poll released in early November revealed that a whopping 72 percent of Jewish New Yorkers believe that Mamdani will be “bad” for the city. A mere 18 percent hold a favorable view of Mamdani, according to the results, while 67 percent view him unfavorably.
Belgian Musicians, Italian Broadcast Union Pressure Their Countries to Boycott Eurovision Over Israel’s Participation
A photographer takes a picture of a TV screen in Wiener Stadthalle, the venue of next year’s Eurovision in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Two collective groups in Belgium and Italy are pressuring their respective countries to withdraw participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest because of Israel’s involvement in the competition, which is set to take place in Vienna, Austria, in May.
A group of 170 Belgian artists and cultural figures signed a petition that called on the country’s national broadcaster RTBF to “honor its public service mission” and pull out of the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest “as long as a state trampling underfoot the very foundations of our common humanity is welcome.” They accused Israel of conducting a “war of extermination waged against the Palestinian people” in the Gaza Strip and of using cultural events to “art-wash” its military actions.
“In our view, this constitutes a serious breach of the ethical and moral obligations of public broadcasters,” read the petition, as reported by French-language Belgian daily La Libre. “Participating in Eurovision allows Israel to maintain the illusion that it is a modern and exemplary Western democracy, and thus to more easily conceal its criminal actions.”
The signatories also claimed that “for years, the Israeli government has used major artistic and cultural events for propaganda purposes in order to divert attention from its regime of occupation, colonization, and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” They further denounced the Belgian broadcaster VRT, which nominates Belgium’s representative who will compete in the Eurovision, and claimed the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, of displaying double standards for allowing Israel to compete while excluding Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The national broadcasters of Spain, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have already announced they will not participate in the 2026 Eurovision or broadcast the final on their national television channels, after it was confirmed in early December that Israel will be allowed to compete in next year’s contest.
The union group USB-RAI Coordination, at Italy’s state broadcaster RAI, launched a petition that urged RAI to join the countries “making the courageous decision” to boycott Eurovision 2026 because of Israel’s involvement. The union branch was founded two years ago and has currently around 50 members at the state broadcaster, according to Euronews. Their petition already has more than 7,000 signatures.
“By withdrawing Italy from Eurovision and deciding not to broadcast the event, RAI would not only be taking an ethically and empathetically justifiable stance, but would also be setting a moral example on the international stage,” the USB said in a statement. “Such a gesture would demonstrate how much Italy values human dignity, equality, and justice for all peoples. We would make our voice heard globally, showing that we do not turn a blind eye to injustice.”
Italy is one of the “Big Five” countries (with France, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom) that have supported the Eurovision Song Contest since the first competition in 1956. In a statement on Dec. 5, RAI confirmed its participation in the contest and said Italy has “always been among the countries that believed in and invested in the Eurovision Song Contest, contributing significantly, including financially, to its development and international success.”
“In recent years our commitment has grown steadily, testifying to the value we attach to an event that is the longest-running international music show, capable of uniting diverse cultures in a shared celebration,” the broadcaster added. “RAI’s involvement in the competition confirms the determination to strengthen Italy’s role in the promotion of music, culture, and entertainment at international level. RAI supports the participation of the Israeli public broadcaster Kan in the next edition [of the Eurovision].”
On Dec. 11, last year’s Eurovision winner Nemo announced on social media they will return their trophy to the EBU in protest of Israel’s participation in the Eurovision. A day later, Charlie McGettigan, who won the 1994 Eurovision with fellow Irish singer Paul Harrington with the song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids,” said he was returning his trophy to the EBU for the same reason.
The Austrian public broadcaster ORF, host of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, confirmed last week that it will not prohibit the Palestinian flag in the audience nor censor any booing directed at Israel’s performance.
“We will allow all official flags that exist in the world, if they comply with the law and are in a certain form – size, security risks, etc,” said the show’s executive producer, Michael Kroen. “We will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are.”
In an effort to pressure Portugal to boycott the 2026 Eurovision, several Portuguese artists announced in a joint statement that they would not go to Vienna to take part in the event because of Israel’s participation.
Iran Accuses Israel of False Flag Attacks on Jews Abroad as Regime’s Executions Reach Record Levels
People walk near a mural of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran continues to accuse Israel of orchestrating false-flag attacks against Jews and Israelis abroad to stoke fears of antisemitism in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, even as the regime escalates its own domestic crackdown, with public executions reaching record levels.
Speaking to commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday, Iranian military chief Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi referred to the deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which killed 15 people and wounded at least 40 others, as “not the first time that Jews have been targeted in an attempt to portray Israel as a victim,” accusing the Jewish state of committing similar crimes in the past.
“The Zionist regime has assassinated members of the Jewish community and their affiliates in other countries to prevent reverse migration, escape internal turmoil, and instill antisemitism,” Mousavi said.
However, as the Islamist regime in Iran continues to issue baseless accusations, Australian and Israeli authorities are actually investigating whether Tehran had a role in orchestrating the mass shooting targeting Sydney’s Jewish community, citing the regime’s long history of plotting terrorist attacks abroad.
According to Iranian media, Mousavi also accused the United States and Israel of wrongdoing, saying “the events of the past two years have exposed their criminal nature to the world.”
“Enemies of the country are lawbreakers, warmongers, and deceivers, and they do not adhere to any international law or humanitarian norms,” he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre at Bondi Beach, the Iranian Foreign Ministry publicly condemned the “violent attack” in Sydney, though tje statement was vague and made no mention of antisemitism, the local Jewish community, or any specific target.
However, Iranian state and semi-official media pushed a starkly different narrative, spreading conspiracy theories that framed the attack as a plot orchestrated by Israel. Other outlets expressed support for the attack, even praising it, claiming that the rabbi who was killed during the massacre, Eli Schlanger, was a “staunch advocate of genocide in Gaza.”
The Iranian news agency Mehr openly called “the Zionist regime” the main suspect, portraying the attack as a “false flag” operation allegedly designed to serve Israeli interests.
Earlier this year, Britain, the United States, France, and 11 other allies issued a joint statement condemning a rise in Iranian assassination and kidnapping plots in the West, as a new report warned Tehran has been intensifying efforts to target Jewish communities abroad.
With a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots targeting individuals in multiple countries, Western allies urged Iranian authorities to halt these illegal actions, noting how the regime continues to promote antisemitism abroad and recruits criminal networks to carry out attacks against Jews.
Iran is facing mounting international pressure not only over its terror operations abroad but also for its escalating brutal internal crackdown amid growing domestic tensions and crises.
According to Iran Human Rights Monitor (IHR), a Norway-based NGO that tracks the death penalty in the country, at least 1,791 people have been executed this year, marking a staggering rise from the 993 executions recorded in 2024.
Most of those executed were accused of collaborating with Mossad — Israel’s national intelligence agency — and aiding covert operations in Tehran, such as assassinations and sabotage targeting the country’s nuclear program.
Last week, a group of survivors, together with the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), filed a criminal complaint in Argentina accusing Iranian authorities of crimes against humanity committed during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
In a first-ever legal action of its kind, survivors of the regime’s atrocities filed a criminal complaint against 40 named Iranian officials, alleging gender persecution, murder, torture, and other brutal acts, including targeted blinding, in response to the regime’s brutal 2022 crackdown.
With this lawsuit, plaintiffs are asking the Argentine court to investigate senior figures in Iran’s intelligence services, military, police, the IRGC, and civilian government for their roles in a widespread and systematic assault on civilians.
Among those filing the complaint is Mahsa Piraei, one of Minoo Majidi’s three children, seeking justice for her 62-year-old mother who was shot dead in September 2022.
According to autopsy reports, more than 167 metal pellets were fired into her back at point-blank range.
“In our own country, we could not find justice for my mother’s killing, as the judiciary is neither fair nor independent,” Piraei said. “But today, I am happy that this crime has not crushed our hope for justice, and that our efforts are finally bearing fruit.”
“With the help of human rights lawyers, we are taking our case to courts outside of Iran,” she continued. “I believe that our perseverance as families seeking justice, and our commitment to upholding human dignity, is a global cause that knows no borders.”
The 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests erupted nationwide after Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in a Tehran police station following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab rules, igniting a nationwide uprising calling for human rights and individual freedoms.
