New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed his stance on the state of Israel, US military aid, and local hate crimes during a Sunday broadcast interview with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl on “This Week.”

Israel Stance

When questioned by Karl on whether he supports Israel as a Jewish state, Mamdani tied his viewpoint to a broader philosophy regarding statehood and religion. “I support the state of Israel as a state with equal rights,” Mamdani said. “I think any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can’t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, and a lot of that comes back to a fundamental belief that we should all be considered equal, no matter what our faith is.”

Karl asked if there remains room in the Democratic Party for officials who support military aid for Israel, noting it has been a major point of contention. Mamdani responded that elected officials should stop dictating what the party should be and instead follow the guidance of the voters. He pointed to recent local election turnouts as evidence of shifting public sentiment.

Local Hate Crimes

The interview also touched upon the rise of antisemitism within New York City. Mamdani called the trend unacceptable and provided statistics on local targeting. “We’ve seen anti-Semitism rise in this city, we’ve seen the fact that Jewish New Yorkers comprise a minority of our city’s population, and yet continue to constitute a majority of the hate crimes that have been purveyed in this city,” Mamdani stated, adding that the issue must be “fought and rooted out of every one of the five boroughs.”

Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.