Michael Goodwin: Mamdani hosting pro-Palestinian ‘activist’ Khalil proves he’s still a radical leftist when it comes to the Mideast

Because the first 100 days of a new administration are often a harbinger of things to come, New Yorkers better brace themselves for four turbulent years. 

Mayor Mamdani is off to a terrible start, with even the weather turning against him.

There’s nothing he could do about heavy snowfalls and Arctic cold, but he made a huge unforced error that proved tragically fatal. 

At least 16 people died on the streets from hypothermia after he broke with a long City Hall tradition and refused to force the homeless indoors during the coldest days. 

And now comes a streak of reminders about the mayor’s long history of anti-American and anti-Israel positions — and proof he’s still a radical leftist when it comes to the Mideast. 

So much so that even President Trump, who made common cause with Mamdani at two chummy White House visits, is fuming, according to a statement. 

‘Anti-American’ 

After photos appeared on social media showing Mamdani and his wife hosting Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil and his family at Gracie Mansion Monday for Ramadan, a Trump aide told The Post that “No one should be feting the anti-American, pro-terrorist activities of Mahmoud Khalil, who made his name as a ringleader of violent anti-American and anti-Semitic university protests.” 

Khalil was arrested by ICE last year after leading disruptive anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, and still faces possible deportation on charges of committing fraud on his green card application. 

Mamdani outed the gathering himself in a post on Instagram, where he captioned a photo of the dinner by saying “we marked the one year anniversary of his detention and Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud, Noor, and their son Deen to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together.” 

Because Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor in the city where the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, it was inevitable that events in the Mideast, especially those involving Islamic terrorism, would be a frequent hot potato. 

The subjects came up often during the campaign because of his refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, his support for the boycott and divestment movement and his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is a call to attack Jews anywhere and everywhere. 

Mahmoud Khalil attends a dinner at Gracie Mansion held by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Instagram / nycmayor

In another sign of his hostility, he pledged to enforce an International Criminal Court indictment and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in Gotham. 

Mamdani’s words and positions were wildly out of place in a city with the world’s largest Jewish population, and yet he won last November, beating his nearest competitor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, by about 200,000 votes. 

Anyone who hoped his election had softened his views of Jews and Israel got a rude shock this week.

Indeed, variations of the issue have come up repeatedly in recent days, and he has botched every chance to get on the right side of most New Yorkers and show he’s not an antisemite. 

The closest thing he has to a mainstream position is his criticism of the attack on Iran, where he said “Americans do not want another war in pursuit of regime change.” 

That is a standard Democratic position, but on other areas he positions himself on the far left and won’t even consider budging. 

Troubling filibuster 

His refusal to do so appears intentional, and so he has nobody to blame but himself as he makes one tone-deaf choice and move after another. 

The first time came out of nowhere and quickly proved to be a sign of worse things to come. 

The sequence began last Friday when Jewish Insider and the Free Press revealed that his wife, Rama Duwaji, had a history of liking social media posts that celebrated the beastly Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Among the numerous examples was an Instagram post that showed photos of Palestinians crossing into Israel that savage day, which said the invasion was “breaking the walls of apartheid.” 

Another one she liked showed Palestinians sitting on a captured IDF vehicle, with a caption saying, “Resisting apartheid since 1948.” 

Mahmoud Khalil, at a news conference with Jewish Barnard and Columbia students who were detained during a New York Police Department sweep of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. James Keivom

Finally, she approved of a post calling a New York Times story about sexual violence against Israelis by Hamas as a “mass rape” hoax that the paper “fabricated.” 

Asked by reporters if he agreed with his wife, Mamdani gave everything except a straight answer. 

“My wife is the love of my life and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall,” he said. 

He went on to say, that “I believe that it’s my responsibility, because of that role, to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions.” 

He never said whether he agreed with his wife, but later his office put out a statement saying the mayor “has been clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7th was a horrific war crime, and he has condemned that violence unequivocally.” 

Fair enough, but why didn’t he make that clear when he was speaking, instead of filibustering the idea of his wife being a private person? 

Ultimately, his positions are what matter most of course, but public interest in the views of a politician’s spouse has a long tradition, all the more so when the views are out of the mainstream, as are those of Duwaji. 

Still, a much bigger test — one Mamdani also would fail — was already taking shape. 

A small but noisy anti-Muslim protest on Saturday, led by Jake Lang, a white supremacist, outside the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion suddenly turned chaotic when two young Muslim men threw what turned out to be improvised explosive devices near the crowd. 

Thankfully, cops reacted heroically and quickly, and grabbed the two men, both teens from Pennsylvania who later said they were inspired by ISIS and wanted to do something bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing.

Fortunately, neither device exploded. 

Pathetic response 

The next day, Sunday, Mamdani put out a pathetic statement that began with a condemnation of Lang, but only later cited the attempted bombing, in more measured terms. 

“Violence at a protest is never acceptable,” he said, adding that “the attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.” 

Finally, on Monday, as the bomb throwers were being charged in federal court, he joined top cop Jessica Tisch for a press conference.

But once again, he began with the anti-Muslim protest, as if it was most important, and only later condemned what he called an “act of terrorism” and then thanked the police for their fast and heroic response. 

Unless Mamdani quickly starts to think like a mayor first and a Muslim second, New York faces a very troubled and unhappy four years.