Phyllis Chesler: "This Is a Fight We Cannot Afford to Lose"
"One such woman wears "Free Luigi" buttons. Another is thrilled that the song "Bread and Roses" was sung. A third strongly shares Mamdani's verbal commitment or rather promise to make the "rich" pay more for the "poor."
"This may have been among the worst New Year's of my life.
"The only thing missing was Leni Riefenstahl’s camera to capture the symbolic pageantry of this second inauguration, a record of the grandiose promises made and cheered.
"NYC's new mayor is an out-and-out Islamist even more so than a democratic socialist. This is what the Red-Green alliance looks and sounds like. On Mamdani's very first day in office, he jettisoned the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism/anti-Zionism and lifted preexisting restrictions on boycotting Israel.
"Excuse me? How will doing so improve housing and childcare in NYC? Then again, Mamdani is a smooth, ambitious, and charismatic figure--and he knows exactly to whom he is pandering.
"The loudest and longest ovation Mamdani received was when he referred to the Palestinian communities in Bay Ridge Brooklyn as if they were forgotten, under represented, or the victims of "Islamophobia" (a false concept but no matter). He failed to describe them as having been among the loudest and most visible of Jew and Israel haters in the city. What he said, exactly, was this: "Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge will no longer have to contend with a politics that speaks of universalism and then makes them the exception."
"Unless I missed it, Mamdani said nothing about the rise in attacks on Jews in our once fair city; he did mention pastrami on rye and having enjoyed lox and bagels in his formative years--as if such food is all that Judaism is about. Harmless enough. Nothing else to see here.
"But if, or rather when, the mayor fails to deliver on all his pie-in-the-sky promises, he has two ready-made scapegoats to blame and to feed to the rage of the masses: The millionaires, the billionaires--and the Jews.
"Our new mayor said nothing about the massive looting, the street- and train-based violence, or the fetid encampments that have sprung up like poisonous mushrooms. All he mentioned was something rather Orwellian about dealing with mental illness. Mamdani will "create a new Department of Community Safety that will tackle the mental health crisis and let the police focus on the job they were signed up to do." And how, Sir, do you plan such a "tackle"? Given that there are no medications or therapies that can turn around schizophrenia and other serious forms of psychiatric illness?" . . . More
More voices of young women; the same voices that cheer for the murderers of Jewish families, assaulting Jewish students attending college classes, adore Luigi Mangione for killing a father and husband.
Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D., is an Emerita Professor of Psychology at City University of New York. She is a best-selling author, a legendary feminist leader, and a retired academic and psychotherapist.
UPDATE: Standing for Israel and the Jews: A Brave New Feminist Group; Mainly Christian and British:
"So in October 2023, I reached out on social media to all the Jewish women I knew, to offer them my love and support. I looked for tiny signs from other feminists that they supported Jews, and tried to gather them together. I spoke up in feminist circles. I went to the first march (actually more of a shuffle) against antisemitism. I have never felt so welcome – or so horribly humbled and embarrassed by the gratitude Jewish women expressed for what, to me, is a basic act of humanity and feminism.
"I will stand shoulder to shoulder with Jews forever. I do not want to live in a world where Jews are not safe. Hence, I am a Zionist. I stand with Israel."
