Friedman: New York mayoral candidate needs a different slogan

By Thomas L. Friedman / The New York Times

Dear New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani:

I have been watching you tortuously try to explain to pro-Israel New Yorkers that your readiness to defend the phrase “globalize the intifada” was not antisemitic or meant to favor the elimination of the Jewish state.

You have said that it’s not a phrase you use but have not condemned its use by others, insisting that it means different things to different people. Going even further, in a recent meeting with New York business leaders, you reportedly said you would “discourage” use of the phrase.

It seems to me that you have gotten yourself tied up in knots on this issue, pulled between your supporters and your critics. May I offer two pieces of advice that have guided me over four decades of navigating this conflict?

First, if you are discussing a mantra — like “globalize the intifada” — that takes 15 minutes to explain why it doesn’t mean what it obviously means, I’d suggest that you distance yourself further from that mantra.

May I offer an alternative? “Two states for two people.” It works really well with drums: “Two states, for two people.”

While that solution may be a long shot, it has the virtue of being the only viable, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; one that many Americans still support, and one, if this war in the Gaza Strip ever ends, I believe many Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims and Jews in New York City will as well. There is no other viable alternative. There is no one-state solution; there is no three-state solution. The only alternative to “two states for two people” is, in my opinion, no states for two people; just a grinding forever war between two people living intertwined with each other.

Second, the world does not need the mayor of New York City to be another commentator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The world is awash with commentators on this issue. We don’t need any more. We need leaders ready to be conveners of those looking for the only just solution.

Tell voters more about how you will use your office to bring together Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and Jews who aspire to build two states for two people.

I am talking about people like former Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, who has been touring the world discussing two states for two people with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

I am talking about urging people to support organizations like the Abraham Initiatives, an amazing group of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis whose mission is to advance “Israel as a democratic state, homeland of the Jewish people and all its citizens, that guarantees and protects the full citizenship and equal rights of its Palestinian citizens; where Jewish and Palestinian Israelis cocreate a cohesive, inclusive society; and that exists peacefully alongside an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.”

I am talking about creating platforms for people to hear former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is now a professor at Princeton, or two-state advocacy groups such as the Israel Policy Forum, J Street, EcoPeace or Commanders for Israel’s Security, the retired Israeli security officials and military officers working for separation into two states.

When I see someone running for mayor defending a useless, meaningless, far-left mantra that helps no one, and who prefers commenting at a distance and not convening energetically, it makes me wonder how he will deal with the really hard issues on the West Bank of the East River — not the West Bank of the Jordan — that most New York voters care most about.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times, c.2025.