By Peter Fernandez
Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor of NYC, was quoted by Jacobin magazine as stating, “It was Bernie’s campaign for the presidency in 2016 that gave me the language of Democratic socialism to describe my politics.” Jacobin magazine is a NY-based quarterly expressing socialist ideals in politics, economics, and worldviews.
Both Sanders’ and Mandani’s political programs are based on redistributing wealth. Sanders’ past proposals include Medicare for All and tuition-free higher education funded by higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. If Mamdani is successful, NYC’s wealthiest residents will fund fare-free, faster metropolitan bus systems and universal childcare. This will bankrupt NYC, but perhaps that is what Mamdani is attempting to do.
What the Democratic Socialists do not advertise is their desire to open the borders and flood the states with leftist voters. Behind the scenes, or spoken in conspiratorial whispers, are their efforts to rid our country of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and any other “outdated and conservative” documents that anchor our nation to common-sense and traditional values.. Bernie’s bleacher bums wish to transform America into their radical image.
Senator Sanders was the main speaker at Mamdani’s 100 Day Address in Maspeth, New York, on April 12, 2026. Months before, Sanders, “the godfather of the modern left,” stated during the nascent mayor’s post-election interview, “These are not radical ideas. They are ideas that the vast majority of Americans consider right. And to the degree that we fight for that-and have candidates who fight for that-I think we’re going to see some real, transformative change in America.”
Mamdani, of course, keeps his anti-Israel opinions mostly out of public scrutiny, as his city is home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. However, he has made it clear that he supports the arrest of Israel’s Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu. Nothing was mentioned about doing the same to the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, whose modus operandi is the destruction of both America and Israel.
You may or may not agree with Sanders and Mamdani, but their ideals and career proposals are being tainted by Rawa Duwaji, Mayor Mamdani’s wife. She is a professional illustrator and animator, and while her husband describes her as a private citizen, her advocacy and statements against Israel can still exert an influence that likely exceeds that of an ordinary private citizen.
On October 7, 2023, Duwaji liked Instagram posts that praised the largest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. Some of those posts described the massacre as “breaking the walls of apartheid.” She also endorsed the accusation that Israel was committing genocide shortly after the terrorist attack in southern Israel, as well as reports claiming the Hamas rapes were “fiction” and “fabricated.”
Duwaji later illustrated a book by Susan Abulhawa, who has referred to Jews as “rootless, soulless ghouls,” “parasites on earth,” and “Jewish supremacist vampires,” “parasites on earth,” and “Jewish supremacist vampires.”
Duwaji designed and posted an animation on her public Instagram page stating, “I urge you not to let chains silence you or borders hold you back,” as the words transformed into a Palestinian flag. The caption beneath it read, “Whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now….get in the way however you can.”
Duwaji also produced and posted an animation accusing Israel of “deliberate starvation” of Gazans. As a teenager, her X posts used slurs against Black and Japanese people. Those posts have since been taken down, and apologies offered.
For the mayor’s wife, antisemitic rhetoric and hate, including her use of the dual-loyalty trope, come to artful animated life, recalling Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s propaganda film director, producer, and actress, who created Triumph of the Will, perhaps the most infamous propaganda documentary of all time.
Mamdani has said that his wife is his best advocate in shaping his policymaking. It seems that the mayor of our country’s largest city is largely ignoring his wife’s racist whims.
Hezbollah, one of Iran’s terrorist proxies, has occupied Lebanon for decades, but amid this and many other Middle Eastern flashpoints, Duwaji’s distorted view of Israel is simply an antisemitic obsession. Being Arab-American, one might think Duwaji would be concerned with restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Duwaji and every other genocide accuser will have a tough time explaining Israel’s genocidal intent, given that the population of Israeli Arabs has grown from 156,000 in 1948 to more than two million today – one-fifth of the population.