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<\/a><\/p>\nNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends the 2026 Pride March in New York City on June 28, 2026. (TheStewartofNY\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cDemocratic Socialists of America now says they no longer favor a two-state solution. \u201cIs that the way you see it as well? Karl asked in the interview, which came days after Mamdani\u2019s endorsed Democratic socialist candidates for Congress swept their New York Democratic primaries. <\/p>\n
Among them, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier campaigned on platforms that included opposition to U.S. military aid to Israel and support for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n
Mamdani replied to Karl: \u201cThe way I see it is equal rights for all people. And I think that that\u2019s the truth for Israel. It\u2019s the truth for any country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
When pressed by Karl that Israel is in fact a Jewish state and \u201cthat\u2019s in the charter, that\u2019s the way it is now,\u201d Mamdani said he has consistently stated he supports \u201cthe state of Israel as a state with equal rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he added, \u201cI believe that any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can\u2019t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.\u201d <\/p>\n
The backlash to Mamdani\u2019s comments was quick. In a statement Sunday, Ambassador Ofir Akunis, Consul General of Israel in New York, said, \u201cMamdani, we do not need your recognition of the Jewish state. If you knew a little history, instead of spending all day inciting and spreading hatred, you would know that Israel\u2019s Declaration of Independence guaranteed full equality for all its citizens. That has been the reality since the day our state was established.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, posted on X, \u201cMamdani is either willfully ignorant or maliciously mendacious,\u201d adding that \u201cIsrael has no official state religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also stated that there are multiple countries for which Islam is the state religion, with additional Muslim-majority countries declaring Islam as the state religion in their constitutions.<\/p>\n
Karl also asked Mamdani about his broader views on Israel, which became a prominent issue during the New York Democratic primaries, particularly among candidates who support Israel and continued U.S. military aid.<\/p>\n
Mamdani said voters made it clear that \u201cthey were tired of tens of billions of dollars being spent in our taxpayer dollars to violate international law to kill thousands of civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that currently \u201cPalestine is described as if there is a ceasefire,\u201d but more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed during it. He said New Yorkers want to \u201cfollow international law, to believe in the humanity for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karl also pressed the mayor on the Poetica coffee shop incident in Brooklyn last week, where staff refused to take New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman\u2019s money for a coffee purchase, calling him a \u201cgenocide enabler\u201d because he supports Israel.<\/p>\n
Mamdani said while he has \u201cpolitical disagreements\u201d with Goldman (who lost his seat to Mamdani-backed Brad Lander), \u201cI do believe that that\u2019s a response that goes beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when asked about rising antisemitism in New York City, the mayor said that while Jews are a minority of the city\u2019s population, they constitute a majority of victims of the hate crimes committed in the city. \u201dThat\u2019s something that\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Akunis said, however, that \u201cThe surge in antisemitism across the United States, and particularly in New York, is the result of ignorance and a lack of knowledge, combined with a fundamental hatred of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cI once again warn that Mamdani\u2019s inflammatory rhetoric will end in very serious and violent acts against Jewish and Israeli communities throughout the city.\u201d<\/p>\n