Mamdani, Like Mayors Before Him, Can Have a Foreign Policy

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s vocal criticism of the U.S. attack on Venezuela reminds us that New York City mayors have their own foreign policy. The city’s global economy and its ever-changing but always huge immigrant population give millions of its residents a personal stake in things that happen in other parts of the world. Though of course there are times when far-away events can be a distraction from the job of running municipal government, in this town, it typically comes with the territory.

Over the weekend, Mamdani called President Trump to register his disagreement with the dramatic, possibly illegal United States military operation that arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The recent influx of tens of thousands of Venezuelans to New York makes the matter relevant here. So does the Manhattan location of Maduro’s indictment and arraignment. Since most Venezuelans seem pleased that Maduro has been removed from power, the mayor’s posture appears a matter of principle, not politics.

Mamdani ran and was just sworn in on a platform of affordability. A case can be made that he would do well to keep his eye on the ball. Yet when international events awaken the conscience of a large segment of the population the mayor represents and challenge his own beliefs, leadership requires that he voice his opinion. 

It has happened many times before. On Oct. 15, 1969, Mayor John Lindsay (1966-1973) ordered flags on municipal buildings flown at half-staff to protest the Vietnam War and in remembrance of those who died in it. He also objected to the cost in national treasure at a time when New York needed federal support to address domestic problems — a liberal version of America First. He was praised by the war’s opponents and condemned by its supporters.

Lindsay’s focus on problems beyond America’s borders was not an anomaly for the modern mayor. Since New York has long been home to the nation’s largest Jewish population, matters affecting Jews and the sole Jewish state have often featured prominently in mayoral politics.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (1934-1945) straddled principle and politics in the 1930s. He was quick to condemn Adolf Hitler’s antisemitism but slower to denounce fellow fascist Benito Mussolini, who was more popular with Italian voters.

William O’Dwyer (1946-1950) was mayor when the United Nations voted at the organization’s temporary headquarters in Flushing, Queens, to create two states in Palestine — one Jewish and one Arab. As May 15, 1948, approached — a date Israelis now celebrate as Independence Day and Arabs mourn as a catastrophe — war loomed between Jewish Zionists and Arab opponents. During World War II, O’Dwyer had been a brigadier general who served as executive director of the War Refugee Board, charged with saving Jews from annihilation in Nazi-controlled countries.

Not quite half a century later, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — freedom fighter to some, irredeemable terrorist to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and many others — was in town in 1995 during the 50th anniversary of the creation of the United Nations. Giuliani ordered him removed from a city-sponsored concert at Lincoln Center celebrating the event. The U.S. Department of State and others denounced the breach of diplomatic protocol. Many New Yorkers applauded the bold act.

Now, considerable controversy surrounds Mamdani’s decision to revoke many executive orders issued by his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, including one that expanded the definition of antisemitism and another that barred city employees and agencies from boycotting or divesting from Israel. Mamdani, who canceled every order signed by Adams after he was indicted on federal corruption charges, declared it a matter of “good government” to reject unilateral decisions made by a mayor with compromised credibility — not a statement about Israel.

Now, Israel and New York watch and wait to see whether Mamdani will try to take additional steps — including potentially severing some New York investments in and partnerships with Israel or even ordering the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that would test state, federal and international law.

Mamdani’s posture reflects his personal beliefs and a dramatic change in the sentiment of many New Yorkers, including many Jews, towards Israeli actions. Once-reflexive support for the Jewish state has become conditional for many. The grotesque attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 prompted an Israeli military response that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and caused a humanitarian crisis affecting millions. Many New Yorkers find the Israeli actions too harsh to condone.

Israel may well be a special case when it comes to foreign policy, but it is far from a category of one.

In 1988, Mayor Edward Koch (1978-1989) traveled to Northern Ireland. While there among British hosts, he declared its troops should not be considered an occupying army. This was an about-face from his longstanding position on “the Troubles.” He returned home to a streets-of-New-York earful from his Irish American constituents and reverted to his earlier stand. The episode earned him criticism in Britain, Ireland and the United States.

Respect for ancestral homelands is a tradition for New York City mayors that moves with the times. When Irish, Italians and Jews dominated the electoral landscape, candidates for mayor routinely made a point of visiting Ireland, Italy and Israel. David Dinkins, New York’s first Black mayor, welcomed South Africa’s moral leader and later president, Nelson Mandela, to New York in an inspiring celebration of the end of that nation’s racist Apartheid system and later traveled to South Africa himself. Adams visited Ghana out of respect for his ancestral roots. Mamdani, an immigrant like O’Dwyer and Mayor Abraham Beame (1974-1977), visited his native Uganda during his recent campaign and publicly cherishes his South Asian heritage.

Symbolism matters in politics. New York has long been America’s most important Catholic city and its most important Jewish city. Mamdani’s extraordinary political rise and our large Muslim population, perhaps as many as 1 million people by some estimates, makes New York the nation’s most important Muslim city as well. Emotions surrounding ethnic identity and religious conviction have caused conflict for thousands of years and New York is hardly immune.

By simultaneously engaging in foreign policy debates and advancing pluralism within the city, a mayor like Mamdani can demonstrate how engagement need not be fundamentally divisive. During the 20th century, the many nations of Europe living side by side in a territory the size of a continent led to two world wars. When people from all of those same nations, plus Asians, Africans and Latin Americans, found themselves living side by side on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the result was New York City. We are counting on Mayor Mamdani’s statesmanship and he is counting on the rest of us to keep the faith that makes New York the great city it is.

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