Some things always come out in the wash, whether on purpose or by mistake.
This weekend, the wife of New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani gave up the tapes on her family’s hatred for Israel, so I hope the Jewish contingent of voters in the Big Apple is paying attention.
Rama Duwaji, Mamdani’s wife, posted that she was heartbroken over the death of Saleh al-Jafarawi, who once openly celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre against Israel that started the war between the Jewish state and Hamas.
If you have been following this story all along, al-Jafarawi became known as Mr. FAFO because of the manner in which he celebrated the attack on Oct. 7, then wept when Israel decided to defend itself.
He had developed a significant following during this war, boasting a social media following of about 250,000 people, with Mamdani’s wife apparently among them.
A video was posted to one such account, showing al-Jafarawi dead in a press vest, and Mandani’s wife shared the Instagram story of the “beloved Jafarawi” with several broken heart emojis, clearly upset at the radical’s death.
For one to follow this man and be upset about this death, the natural conclusion is that you hate Israel and support Hamas. I really don’t think that is too far of a leap here. This is the wife of a man who is running to be the mayor of New York City, which has about 1.3 million Jews living in it.
The news did not get any better for Mamdani after that, considering that the Washington Post just went on to roast his free New York City busing plan.
The paper posted an op-ed this weekend, which, in part, stated, “Vagrants and drug addicts would camp out all day on New York’s buses, especially in the winter. Parents would grow afraid to let their children ride alone.”
After Mamdani shrugged off the $800 million his plan would reportedly cost the city, the board sarcastically wrote, “Oh, is that all?”
The paper further noted problems in other cities that have tried similar plans, such as Olympia, Washington, which raised taxes so that non-riders and riders alike were footing the bill, also noting, “Quality inevitably declines when a service is offered for ‘free.'”
Mamdani has made his dislike of the police fairly clear, even though he is trying to backtrack on some of his past comments, but it does not appear as though the men and ladies in blue are buying in.
Raymond Kelly, who served as police commissioner under former New York Mayors Michael Bloomberg and David Dinkins, believes that cops will start to leave the department en masse if Mandani is elected, stating, “He is a problem. He is antisemitic. He is someone who has a lot of crazy ideas.”
He added, “They started leaving in big numbers at the beginning of Mayor [Eric] Adams’ term as mayor and it’s continued. And of course, with a socialist mayor, I think there is a real challenge to keep the numbers of the police department where they should be.”
I continue to be stuck in the middle. Half of me wants Mandani to win to show people how disastrous he and his plans would truly be, and the other half wants to desperately stop him to show that the socialist movement in this country can be defeated. Sadly, with Republican Curtis Sliwa stubbornly remaining in the contest, I think we will be hoping for the former, since this race, as currently composed, is set to be a runaway for Mamdani, and time is running out to change that.
