Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz didn’t hold back Saturday on Newsmax, calling New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “enemy of America” and accusing him of “pure, blatant antisemitism.”
“Not only is he a critic of Israel,” Dershowitz said, “but he belongs to a party whose platform says no one can be a member if they believe Israel has a right to exist. And he himself refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.”
Dershowitz went on to say that Mamdani’s rhetoric and political positions expose him as “a bigot, an antisemite, a Jew hater.” He added sharply, “He can say all he wants about standing with the Jewish community — he’s an enemy of decency, of the Jewish people, of Israel, and of America.”
Mamdani, a far-left state lawmaker with deep ties to the Democratic Socialists of America, has drawn national attention for his outspoken pro-Palestinian agenda. While claiming to support Israel’s “right to exist,” he has accused the Jewish state of “genocide” in Gaza, pledged to “arrest” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters New York, and threatened to sever city partnerships with Israeli institutions. Quite the “unifier,” isn’t he?
Dershowitz, who has defended Israel and Jewish causes for decades, vowed to “stand up to” Mamdani — even in court if necessary. “We’ll beat him down in every legal, permissible way possible,” he said.
The professor warned that Mamdani’s election sends a dangerous message: “You can be an antisemite, you can be anti-Zionist, anti-American, and still win in a city like New York.” Dershowitz compared the trend to the rise of antisemitism in Europe before World War II, saying, “It sounds a little bit like what was going on in Austria and Germany in 1932.”
He noted with disbelief that Mamdani even won support from some Jewish voters. “Getting 32% of the Jewish vote shows how dangerous this is,” Dershowitz said. “President Trump got it exactly right when he said any Jew who votes for Mamdani is an absolute fool — a self-hating fool.”
Dershowitz concluded his remarks with characteristic bluntness: “Jews can be as idiotic as anybody else, and the Jews who voted for Mamdani showed their idiocy and their self-hatred.”
In the end, Dershowitz’s message was crystal clear — when antisemitism hides behind the mask of “social justice,” it’s still hatred. And in today’s America, real patriots like Dershowitz and President Trump are the ones willing to call it out for what it is.
