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Brad Lander, an ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic primary in a progressive New York House district on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, in a race that hinged largely on the candidates’ different stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With 53 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Lander, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate who has criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, was almost 30 points ahead of the incumbent, Representative Dan Goldman, a pro-Israel former federal prosecutor who helped lead the first impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Mr. Lander benefited from his deep roots in the 10th District, which covers Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. His victory makes him the likely winner of the general election in November.

Mr. Lander, 56, was one of three progressive primary candidates endorsed by Mr. Mamdani, with whom he has had a political alliance since last year’s Democratic mayoral primary.

The two men began as rivals, but cross-endorsed each other as the primary date closed in, saying they wanted to work together to keep former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo from winning the nomination. Their alliance has elevated them both — Mr. Mamdani to City Hall, and Mr. Lander to the cusp of a congressional victory.

Mr. Lander reflected on the decision to team up with Mr. Mamdani during a televised debate last week, saying it had modeled a new kind of politics for New York.

“It unleashed a nice sense of solidarity,” he said on the debate stage. “People said to me, ‘Wait, you mean politics doesn’t have to be a sour, selfish ego trip — it can be a team sport for the values you share?’”

Among several closely watched primaries across the city and state, the contest in the 10th District was notable for the degree to which it was dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both Mr. Lander and Mr. Goldman are Jewish and describe themselves as liberal Zionists, but they approach the issue in very different ways.

Mr. Lander has spent decades in the world of progressive Jewish activism, working with organizations like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and cofounding the New York Jewish Agenda, a left-leaning group.

He has also been a longtime player in Democratic politics in New York City, and entered the primary with a committed base and a groundswell of good will in the district.

He spent many years running a community development organization in Park Slope, then served on the City Council for more than a decade representing several of the congressional district’s neighborhoods. After he left the Council, he served as city comptroller, during which time he chose not to repurchase State of Israel bonds that had matured.

Mr. Lander has been an outspoken critic of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Mr. Lander has backed claims by human rights groups and a United Nations commission that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, frequently using that word on the campaign trail, and has said he supports legislation to block U.S. military aid to the country until it meets human rights standards.

Mr. Goldman’s views hew more closely to the longtime status quo in American politics regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship. He is a critic of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but has said he supports continuing to provide the military aid that underpins the decades-long alliance between the two countries.

And he has said he does not believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza or that its treatment of the Palestinians can fairly be described as apartheid — another word Mr. Lander frequently uses — calling them ideologically charged terms.

Mr. Goldman accepted the endorsement of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hard-line pro-Israel lobbying group increasingly shunned by Democrats, but was also endorsed by J Street, a more liberal pro-Israel group.


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/nyregion/ny10-primary-lander.html

  • Chana [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    10 days ago

    Nobody said that

    Of course they did, it’s what it means to lesser evil a liberal Zionist. Zionism is inherently genocidal.

    he’s useful as a shield that defends the movement from anti-Semitism smears

    1. Now *that" is a topic nobody was talking about.
    2. That barely works either. JVP was not particularly effective, for example. This is the logic given for working with or promoting JVP and every single person I organized with who had that logic became opportunist or was coopted into liberal projects and NGOs.

    you know that shit that tanked Corbyn’s ass

    Corbyn lost for many reasons. Incompetency in responding to false smears of antisemitism was just emblematic of his meant strategic failures in the face of relentless media attacks. Having one Jewish guy saying, “I like Corbyn” would not have mattered. There werec meant Jewish people who did that. I know this becauss Corbyn had people like this, like Alex Sobel and JVL.

    and allows for real anti-Zionists to be elected more easily in the future

    Unprincipled liberal wishcasting.

    It’s not theoretically, doctrinally or politically illegal for the left to have useful idiots

    The only case anyone can point to of the left trying to get Lander to do anything was when there was a campaign to divest from Elbit in his role as comptroller. He infamously pushed back and did not, and previously bragged about the investment.

    “The left” is the useful idiot for liberals like him. He actually owes you nothing.

    • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      10 days ago

      So to summarize this gish gallop gallery of doomer takes: Even if “liberal zionists” oppose genocide and sending money to Israel, that somehow doesn’t matter and the fact American Jews voted for him over the ultra-Zionist is also irrelevant

      The anti-Semitism smears somehow never hurt Corbyn at all and insulating against accusations and smears by centrists and the right-wing shouldn’t be a priority for the American left

      Anti-Zionists being elected is “liberal wishcasting”, presumably because you think it’s impossible or some shit, despite the fact anti-Zionists are getting elected?

      And somehow the left are useful idiots for liberals like Landers despite the fact we just defeated an actual genocidal ultra-zionist and Landers was forced over the last year to change his positions and rhetoric on Israel

      You realize you’re just an ultra wrecker right?

      • Chana [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        10 days ago

        So to summarize this gish gallop gallery of doomer takes: Even if “liberal zionists” oppose genocide and sending money to Israel

        Why the scare quotes. That is a fairly common position for liberal Zionists to hold. Most of JVP is like this. Anyone who has organized on this topic it’s familiar with what liberal Zionism looks like and questions of strategy when considering working with them.

        PS, Gish gallop? What is this, a Sam Harris stan forum from 2008?

        that somehow doesn’t matter and the fact American Jews voted for him over the ultra-Zionist is also irrelevant

        The Gish Gallop is “flooding the field”, it’s putting out so many points that nobody could ever respond in the time they have. It’s an intellectually dishont approach to an in-person debate. I mention this because even though I am supposedly doing this, you are instead taking the time to invent positions on my behalf and respond to them instead.

        The 2000s internet atheist reference of choice for this is “straw man”. It is also a form of deflection, as you are specifically not responding to what I said. In our previous interactions this combination of invention and deflection was, unfortunately, the norm. But it is not comradely nor acceptable and I ask that you stop doing it.

        The anti-Semitism smears somehow never hurt Corbyn at all

        That is the exact opposite of my position. Please stop misrepresenting me.

        and insulating against accusations and smears by centrists and the right-wing shouldn’t be a priority for the American left

        This is too vague to mean much. Of course protecting yourself from smears stated in vague terms is a benefit to yourself. It means the bad thing doesn’t happen to you, or happens less. But that isn’t what I’m arguing over. The deficit is in assigning so much significance to “this Jewish guy supports me”, when that literally happened with Corbyn and it did. Not. Work. You are citing a future possibility as an important definite, I am pointing to the actual history you appealed to.

        Anti-Zionists being elected is “liberal wishcasting”, presumably because you think it’s impossible or some shit, despite the fact anti-Zionists are getting elected?

        Lander is a Zionist. What are you talking about?

        And somehow the left are useful idiots for liberals like Landers despite the fact we just defeated an actual genocidal ultra-zionist and Landers was forced over the last year to change his positions and rhetoric on Israel

        This is just going in circles. My proposition is that you look at liberal cooption as what it is rather than simply “the left” forcing him to do something. He hasn’t actually done anything yet aside from use rhetoric to try and win an election and even then he is still Zionist. This is not a new phenomenon, not particularly to Zionism.

        His name is Lander, by the way.

        You realize you’re just an ultra wrecker right?

        I wonder what you even think that means in this context.

        • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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          10 days ago

          If being a liberal Zionist now means being anti-genocide, anti-apartheid, and anti-funding and then running on those policies in the heart of Jewish America, NY-10, and the winning on those policies, then WE THE LEFT ARE WINNING

          Sorry the ‘Nuke Tel Aviv’ faction of the hypothetical socialist workers party in your head lost the seat to a liberal like Landers, but for those of us in reality who care about that a genocidal zionist monster like Dan Goldman ate shit, then this outcome is pretty optimal given current conditions

          Now go back to arguing pseudo-Marxist semantics about why ultra-zionists winning is actually good for the Western left

      • Pergoss [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        10 days ago

        Thank you for being a rare voice of reason here. Even if we don’t agree with Lander on a truly critical matter, it’s important that he supported Mamdani and defended him from smears. It’s the opposite of what Elizabeth Warren did. It’s good that he’s being rewarded from this behavior.

        • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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          10 days ago

          Thanks, it’s not easy but it has to be done, doomerism and anti-electoralism are dead ends, and people on this forum who wallow in that nonsense are simply self-marginalizing themselves from a growing anti-zionist and socialist movement out there

          Socialists have to live in reality, not dreams of 1917