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Brad Lander, an ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic primary in a progressive New York House district on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, in a race that hinged largely on the candidates’ different stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

With 53 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Lander, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate who has criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, was almost 30 points ahead of the incumbent, Representative Dan Goldman, a pro-Israel former federal prosecutor who helped lead the first impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Mr. Lander benefited from his deep roots in the 10th District, which covers Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. His victory makes him the likely winner of the general election in November.

Mr. Lander, 56, was one of three progressive primary candidates endorsed by Mr. Mamdani, with whom he has had a political alliance since last year’s Democratic mayoral primary.

The two men began as rivals, but cross-endorsed each other as the primary date closed in, saying they wanted to work together to keep former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo from winning the nomination. Their alliance has elevated them both — Mr. Mamdani to City Hall, and Mr. Lander to the cusp of a congressional victory.

Mr. Lander reflected on the decision to team up with Mr. Mamdani during a televised debate last week, saying it had modeled a new kind of politics for New York.

“It unleashed a nice sense of solidarity,” he said on the debate stage. “People said to me, ‘Wait, you mean politics doesn’t have to be a sour, selfish ego trip — it can be a team sport for the values you share?’”

Among several closely watched primaries across the city and state, the contest in the 10th District was notable for the degree to which it was dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both Mr. Lander and Mr. Goldman are Jewish and describe themselves as liberal Zionists, but they approach the issue in very different ways.

Mr. Lander has spent decades in the world of progressive Jewish activism, working with organizations like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and cofounding the New York Jewish Agenda, a left-leaning group.

He has also been a longtime player in Democratic politics in New York City, and entered the primary with a committed base and a groundswell of good will in the district.

He spent many years running a community development organization in Park Slope, then served on the City Council for more than a decade representing several of the congressional district’s neighborhoods. After he left the Council, he served as city comptroller, during which time he chose not to repurchase State of Israel bonds that had matured.

Mr. Lander has been an outspoken critic of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Mr. Lander has backed claims by human rights groups and a United Nations commission that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, frequently using that word on the campaign trail, and has said he supports legislation to block U.S. military aid to the country until it meets human rights standards.

Mr. Goldman’s views hew more closely to the longtime status quo in American politics regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship. He is a critic of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but has said he supports continuing to provide the military aid that underpins the decades-long alliance between the two countries.

And he has said he does not believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza or that its treatment of the Palestinians can fairly be described as apartheid — another word Mr. Lander frequently uses — calling them ideologically charged terms.

Mr. Goldman accepted the endorsement of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hard-line pro-Israel lobbying group increasingly shunned by Democrats, but was also endorsed by J Street, a more liberal pro-Israel group.


https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/nyregion/ny10-primary-lander.html

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[-] Chana@hexbear.net 47 points 2 weeks ago

Lander is a liberal Zionist

[-] Biddles@hexbear.net 17 points 2 weeks ago

Better than Goldman, who is a megazionist

[-] Chana@hexbear.net 35 points 2 weeks ago

Israel was clearly not a top issue however. This is a "blame Netanyahu not Israel" kind of guy.

[-] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The netanyahus and Ben gvirs only exist to be used as scapegoats, to shift the blame of the genocidal zionist project to simply a few rotten apples. Liberal zionists are just sly foxes instead of wolves, both will try to eat you.

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[-] Kumikommunism@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago

"Small genocide better than big genocide". Nah, fuck off.

[-] Biddles@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

NY-10 is 25% Jewish, it's amazing to get someone elected in that district who has called the Gaza genocide a genocide. Lander is better than 99% of Congress on Israel

[-] Kumikommunism@hexbear.net 33 points 2 weeks ago

Who cares what he says? He supports the country doing the genocide. Biden called the Iraq War a mistake. That doesn't fix anything.

He would oppose anything that materially stopped the genocide.

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

bernie is better than most of congress on israel. still a settler fascist who believes jews have an right to palestinian land, just like lander

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[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

i would have hoped you got a better argument in the 6 months since they bumped the left candidate off the ticket

https://hexbear.net/comment/6744232

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[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 45 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

>Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

>New York Jewish Agenda, a left-leaning group

Israel may have been a "top issue," but it's so curious how there are never disagreements on the """isreal""" 's right to exist. liberal colonist vs conservative colonist. makes sense given lander's own strategy though

[-] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 48 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Liberal or progressive Zionism makes no fucking sense. In order to keep Israel a Jewish country, that means settlements, concentration camps, murder, ethnic cleansing, etc. They want their land back, you don't. You can't both sides that issue, you can't fucking dress it up.

How do you do that progressively? Steal land but be really cool about it?

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 46 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

it's a fucking joke. It's just less fashionable to be an outright fascist so they have to pretend to give a fuck about muslims

9 people at a table with a nazi mfs when you ask them about zionist/anti zionist coalitions

[-] PKMKII@hexbear.net 34 points 2 weeks ago

Many of the Founding Fathers has this idea that they were going to expand westward and take land from the natives in an amicable, voluntary way.

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[-] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 18 points 2 weeks ago

They're just controlled opposition. It's not supposed to make sense.

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 10 points 2 weeks ago

controlled opposition with a sizeable fan base on this accursed site

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[-] Chana@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

At the psychological level, you do it by ignoring the contradiction between personal ethnic supremacy and being cool with gay people and sometimes unions. Not being flippant about the latter, it's literally how they feel they're on the left and who the cynical Hasbara about "only gay bars in the middle east" and so on works on.

Liberals do this a lot, they're very inconsistent. "Progressives" in the US can't even muster being anti-war in (speech only!) half the time, let alone doing anything materially about it, even as their country invents reasons to invade and bomb others.

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[-] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

my best guesses:

liberal zionism makes sense to them in the context of being a status-quo guy opposed to both the expansionist greater israel types and to liberation.

it could stop expanding at any time and freeze the genocide in some stable equilibrium but the liberal zionists don't control the knesset or whatever it's called and the US isn't making them not expand.

progressive zionism would be that plus inter-jewish equality in israel instead of the racial and gender/orientation hierarchy they have now, and likewise rainbow washing the genocide by elevating the secondary contradictions in palestinian society.


it's all still genoicde, just maybe faster or slower and with or without gay marriage.

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[-] Kumikommunism@hexbear.net 36 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Here's this moderate, presentable fascist explaining how he's staunchly against performing even the smallest action within his power to stop Israel from committing genocide.

He doesn't want to checks notes stop funneling money directly to Israel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/JKO-JWNQquc?t=664

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 23 points 2 weeks ago

this is socialism, apparently

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

Fashioning himself a “liberal Zionist,” Lander attacked Goldman relentlessly on the campaign trail over the perception that the incumbent hasn’t been forceful enough in speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has left more than 75,000 Palestinians dead after being launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. Lander has blasted Goldman for not supporting legislation to block more U.S. military aid for Israel and accused him of kow-towing to pro-Israel lobbying groups by not calling the country’s war a “genocide.”

In his victory speech, Lander kept taking shots at Goldman on that front — and even took aim at former President Joe Biden.

“Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake. I believe it made us complicit in genocide,” Lander said, refrring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neyanyahu. “Bombs we paid for killed more than 70,000 Palestinians — most of them women and children. Tanks we paid for left a million people homeless. Humanitarian aid still is not getting in.”

If this is where the 'liberal zionists' are, then this is a win; yes, one day this milquetoast bullshit will be viewed as the soft genocide denial that it is, but if the left can get Jewish American politicians in the heart of Jewish America to utter these words, then we're winning

[-] UmbraVivi@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago

In a just world, anything short of denouncing Israel's right to exist should still get a politician sent to the Hague. It's depressing that this is as good as it gets.

if the left can get Jewish American politicians in the heart of Jewish America to utter these words, then we're winning

This is the main takeaway here. Lander still sucks, but the needle is clearly shifting.

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 10 points 2 weeks ago

jews can have a little fascism, as a treat

[-] Chana@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

If this is where the 'liberal zionists' are

Of course they are. This is the left wing of American liberal Zionism. They put the blame on Netanyahu, speak in terms of strategic errors in how Israel was supported, do not criticize the project itself and defend it instead. This is very on-brand for liberal Zionists.

then this is a win;

"Elect more Zionists!", says @CyborgMarx@hexbear.net.

yes, one day this milquetoast bullshit will be viewed as the soft genocide denial that it is, but if the left can get Jewish American politicians in the heart of Jewish America to utter these words, then we're winning

"He was the nicest Nazi and that's a win for the left", they said.

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[-] halfpipe@hexbear.net 36 points 2 weeks ago

They went 3 for 3, everyone Mamdani backed won their primary. Apparently they also had hundreds of volunteers turning up to call and knock doors, to the point that literally everyone in those districts who voted Democratic in the past five years got contacted.

[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 weeks ago

Brad Lander's liberal Zionism, in particular, is obviously irksome, but the fact that DSA totally swept these primaries is certainly impressive.

We'll see what happens once they're in office, but It'll at least be fun to watch chuds foam at the mouth about it, even more than they already were ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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[-] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 27 points 2 weeks ago

'Prediction' markets in action lmao

this trash belongs in c/electoralism

bourgeois infighting is not politics

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

if you don’t celebrate zionists being elected, you’re an ultra

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[-] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago
[-] PKMKII@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

Don’t let this distract you from the fact that Espaillat’s corrupt ass got primary’d.

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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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