GOP Councilwoman Sounds Alarm: New York City Jews ‘Petrified’ Socialist Mamdani Will Become Mayor

A New York City Republican councilwoman who serves as the body’s minority whip said Jewish residents are “petrified” that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani will win the election in November.

Inna Vernikov, who is Jewish and flipped District 48 in Brooklyn from Democrat to Republican for the first time in 2021, spoke to Fox News Digital.

 “This is a guy who wants to globalize the intifada,” she asserted. “We’ve never seen anything close to this in New York City. We have the largest Jewish population in America, and I’ll tell you: Jews are telling me they’re going to run away from New York City. And Jews have contributed a lot to the city and to this country, and the idea that they are now afraid to live here? It’s unacceptable and unprecedented really, this has never happened here.”

“New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Sunday again declined to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’” Politico reported on June 29.

“Is there going to be an Israel Day parade?” Vernikov asked. “This guy despises Israel. He’s also quite antisemitic. To say that he’s okay with globalizing the intifada? The intifada is a call for violence. We’ve seen what happened during two intifadas; people who were murdered; innocent people lost their lives. It’s dangerous; he’s going to not just allow, he’s going to encourage these violent riots that we’ve seen across the country. People are petrified, and they’re going to leave.”

“I’m curious, I have a question,” Vernikov said. “If this Democratic nominee would be like a KKK member or would call for annihilation of the black community, would they still, you know, come behind him as hard as they are now? I would think that the answer would be no, but when it comes to the Jews, that’s okay.”

“So it’s really hypocritical, unacceptable, and disgusting, and they’ve been endorsing him one by one,” she noted. “While Republicans are fighting antisemitism on behalf of Jewish Americans every day, the Democrats are supporting an antisemite.”

Mamdani has been endorsed by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and has received congratulations from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He founded Bowdoin College’s chapter of the virulently anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine. In 2021, he led a rally to chant in favor of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to isolate the state of Israel. His father, Mahmood, a professor at Columbia University, has championed a “third intifada.”

The First Palestinian Intifada lasted from 1987 to 1990, and the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.

According to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, during the Second Intifada, 887 of the 1,137 Israelis killed in attacks were civilians.

Just between May 2001 and May 2002, prior to the bombing at Hebrew University, there were these massacres: five Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall in May 2001; 21 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at the Dolphinarium Discotheque in June 2001; 15 Israelis murdered by a suicide bomber at Sbarro’s Pizza in August 2001, including six children and a 31-year-old woman who was the only child of her parents and was five months pregnant; 11 Israelis murdered in a bus bombing on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001; 15 more Israelis murdered the very next day in a Haifa suicide bombing; 11 more Israelis murdered in a bus attack 10 days later in Immanuel; six Israelis murdered in an attack at a bat-mitzvah in January 2002; 11 more Jews killed in an attack on a yeshiva in March 2002, including a five-month-old child; 11 Jews murdered in a bombing at Café Moment in March 2002; 30 Israelis killed as they celebrated Passover in Netanya on March 27, 2002; 16 Israelis murdered in a suicide bombing four days later at the Matza restaurant, and 16 Israelis murdered in Rishon LeZion in May 2002.