Set aside the trees, the details; set aside Israel, Mamdani says

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/LEVRADIN

MR.Zohran Mamdani wants to know why we can’t just set aside our disagreement on Israel and focus on affordability. Mamdani is right, of course. His reasonable preference is what has always been done in times of sharp disagreement. Stick to what’s important.

Nelson Mandela set aside apartheid in order to focus on the natural beauty of South Africa.

Parents and kids in Kerrville, Texas, set aside the lethal flood last summer to tell us about the rest of their July 4.

Elie Wiesel set aside Auschwitz in order to focus on the great life he had before and after.

Historians set aside 9/11 to give us the overall arc of Osama bin Laden’s career.

Japanese survivors of Hiroshima set aside the atom bomb to celebrate how nice things turned out for Japan after World War lI.

Why miss the forest for the trees? That’s what Mamdani wants to know. Set aside the trees, the details; set aside Israel, he says.

That’s why Mamdani’s team asked New York state assemblyman Sam Berger last July: Why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we “set aside our disagreement on Israel” and find common ground? Berger didn’t agree, but he should have. Mamdani simply asked Berger to cut out his soul, cut out his relatives, cut out his history, cut out his people, cut out his Torah. What’s so hard about that?

Mamdani is right. Good people get lost in the details, just like good people make mistakes. These, too, should be set aside. As heads of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a designated terrorist organization, the “Holy Land Five” were convicted of aiding Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. O, did Mamdani set aside their mistakes! “My love to the Holy Land [Five],” he said.

Mamdani likes set-asides. He’s beautifully consistent. By setting aside Israel, Mamdani, as a socialist, sets aside Israel’s monthly financial stipend to every Israeli Arab mother for each of her children under the age of 18. Mamdani sets aside the Israeli government’s subsidy of bread and control of the price of milk. Mamdani sets aside Israel’s subsidies for housing to make it affordable for young people. Any good socialist would set these aside.

Mamdani sets aside “any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else.” Right he is. Israel is an apartheid state on the basis of religion: Israel’s Jewish, Muslim, Druze, Baha’i, Protestant Christian, Armenian Christian, Latin Christian, Maronite Christian, Melkite Greek Catholic and Syriac Catholic citizens all receive government support. Any good progressive would set these aside, too.

Jewish and Hebrew tradition sets aside nasty and hurtful words, preferring euphemisms. An evil person’s name is “blotted out.” A blind person is “full of light.” Mamdani is right on board with Jewish tradition. He set aside the evil name, “Hamas,” when he reacted to the atrocities committed in Israel on October 7, 2023 .

Mamdani wisely said the next day, on October 8, 2023, when Hamas terrorists had not yet been fully stopped and when Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza had not yet begun, “Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba, will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come.”

Talk about being considerate. Amid the horror, Mamdani had the decency to set aside “Hamas.” Why dirty an already tragic situation with nasty, unnecessary name-calling?

Mamdani also set aside hostage-taking and beheadings, too, surely to elevate the standards of political discourse.

Another attractive trait of Mamdani — no doubt, part of the reason he won — is that he sets aside double standards. That is why he sets aside the definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The definition includes holding Israel to double standards. Of course, Mamdani sets that aside.

Wait a minute. If Mamdani sets aside double standards, but it is anti-Semitic to hold Israel to double standards, then Mamdani is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

I’m waiting for him to set aside that.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1089)