Several New York Democratic primary victories by candidates critical of Israel point to a growing challenge to AIPAC-aligned politics, as Gaza, Palestinian rights and outside money become defining fault lines inside the party.
Several candidates critical of Israel won their Democratic Party primary races in New York City on Tuesday, including Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who beat incumbent Representative Dan Goldman.
The election comes as part of a show of strength by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed candidates in several races widely seen as a test of Democratic divisions over Israel policy and the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.
In the night’s most stunning upset, Mamdani-backed organiser Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated incumbent Adriano Espaillat in New York’s 13th congressional district. Meanwhile, in New York’s 7th congressional district, state assembly member Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Lander won by more than 30 points in New York’s 10th congressional district, covering downtown Manhattan and western Brooklyn, including Park Slope, which has a sizeable Jewish population and was at the centre of controversy over the boycott of Israeli products by its iconic food co-op.
Lander and Goldman, both Jewish Democrats, faced off over foreign policy, with Lander making Israel a wedge issue.
The former comptroller, who positioned Israel and the Gaza war as central campaign issues, argued that Democratic voters were rejecting current US policy.
“Democratic voters are speaking loud and clear that they don’t want to pay for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars,” he said in his victory speech. “Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake,” he added. “I believe it made us complicit in genocide.”
Speaking to Haaretz, Lander said he had spent time since the October 7, 2023, attacks organising with Israelis, and said the experience was “very moving.” Speaking with Israeli New Yorkers, he said, made him sympathetic to their anxieties about city politics.
He framed his campaign around what he called “shared safety” for Israelis and Palestinians, saying, “You have to have some humility on what keeps us and our neighbours safe.”
Lander said he differed with Mamdani on issues like his support for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and noted, “Many American Jews feel the same way.”
Disagreement on the matter, Lander added, “shouldn’t mean we should stop compromising on the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis.”
Goldman, the incumbent, has longstanding ties to AIPAC and was also endorsed by the liberal Jewish organisation J Street. While he became more openly critical of aspects of the Israeli government during the race, he pushed back against making Israel a central campaign issue.
Lander managed to galvanise a coalition strongly opposed to Israel’s war in Gaza, while also engaging with Israeli peace groups like Israelis for Peace, an Israeli expat-led group opposing the Netanyahu government and the occupation.
In his victory speech, Lander also argued that “Democrats are painfully divided by our differences about the US relationship to Israel and Palestine, and we have to face up to it squarely,” adding that the party should move away from what he described as “dark money” in politics, including PACs linked to Wall Street, artificial intelligence and pro-Israel advocacy groups.
Lander also spoke about meeting with Israeli activists who do protective presence work in the West Bank and said he would try to hold “a fraction of the courage that they carry.”
Lander said he would be the Jewish member of Congress “most willing to stand up for Palestinian human rights,” while also firmly opposing antisemitism. “Those are not two different jobs. They are the same job,” he said
US President Donald Trump mocked Goldman over his loss, calling him a “weak and pathetic Congressman.” Goldman was lead counsel in Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019. “I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President Trump,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
At a rally on Saturday, Mamdani criticised AIPAC and quoted Italian Marxist writer Antonio Gramsci in describing the current political moment as a “time of monsters,” framing the debate over Israel policy as part of a larger struggle over money and influence in Democratic politics.
On Sunday, a Brooklyn coffee shop refunded an order from Goldman, posting screenshots of him from security footage and saying that his alleged support of genocide and AIPAC was the reason for his ban.
The Mamdani factor
The NY-10 result came amid a series of closely watched Democratic primaries in New York City in which Israel policy and outside political funding also played a visible role.
In NY-13, organiser Avila Chevalier defeated incumbent Espaillat in a surprise upset. Avila Chevalier, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist and former Columbia University solidarity encampment organiser, faced scrutiny over past participation in Palestinian solidarity events a day after the October 7 attacks. Espaillat, who was endorsed by AIPAC, accused her of “celebrating the death of innocent people.”
The rally was also condemned by progressive politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then state assembly member Mamdani.
In NY-7, Valdez, who was endorsed by Mamdani, defeated Reynoso, who was endorsed by outgoing Representative Nydia Velázquez.
Valdez has been active in protests against US military aid to Israel and has backed legislation aimed at restricting funding connected to Israeli settlements. She was arrested at a 2025 protest against weapons sales to Israel and spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace protest calling for divestment from Israel.
She has also been supported by progressive organisations including Justice Democrats and newly formed super PAC American Priorities, which has positioned itself as a counterweight to AIPAC-aligned spending.
American Priorities pledged at least $2 million to support the candidacies of Avila Chevalier, Lander and Valdez
Another candidate propelled by a Mamdani endorsement was organiser Aber Kawas, who won the Democratic primary for the New York State Senate’s 12th district. Kawas is set to become the first Palestinian American in the state legislature.
The district covers the neighbourhoods of Astoria and Long Island City, as well as other parts of northwest Queens.
Kawas was born in New York to Palestinian refugees from Jordan who emigrated to the United States. Her father was detained and deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the early 2000s because of his undocumented status.
Speaking to Haaretz, Kawas said her Palestinian identity was linked to her platform on affordable housing, healthcare, and policies to protect undocumented immigrants.
“If you are more progressive on Palestine, you are showing that you’re able to stand up to power, to say something that’s unpopular,” she said. “You’re showing you’re running on a more moral and principled platform, and that’s what voters want.”
AI over AIPAC
In NY-12, the country’s most heavily Jewish congressional district, state lawmaker Micah Lasher won a crowded Democratic primary to succeed longtime Jewish Representative Jerry Nadler.
Lasher, who is also Jewish and served as an aide to Nadler, defeated a field that included state assemblyman Alex Bores and Jack Schlossberg, grandson of US President John F Kennedy.
Israel played a less central role in NY-12, where debate became a proxy battle between two powerful camps in the artificial intelligence industry, thanks to Bores, a former Palantir employee.
At a candidate forum held at the non-denominational Bnei Jeshurun synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Lasher said he was “exhausted by the obsession” with Israel in the campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Republished from Hareetz
Etan Nechin
Etan Nechin is a writer, journalist, and editor, originally from Israel. his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Haaretz, Vice, Jacobin, Huffington Post, The Independent, Jewish Currents, Medium, Columbia Journal, and more.
Ben Samuels
Ben Samuels is the U.S. correspondent for Haaretz, head of the US Bureau based out of Washington, D.C