Zohran Mamdani recently declared that, if elected mayor of New York City, he would seek to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he came to New York, relying on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant. Whether he has the legal authority to do so is highly doubtful. The United States does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction over Israeli officials, and legal experts have questioned whether a mayor has the authority to direct such an arrest.

But the legal questions are not what struck me most.

What struck me was the assumption behind the statement.

There is something deeply symbolic about declaring that the leader of the Jewish state should be handcuffed in New York City. It reflects more than disagreement with a particular Israeli policy or government. It reflects the belief that through public humiliation, political isolation, and delegitimization, one can somehow alter the Jewish story itself.

That idea is not new.

It is the same illusion that Titus embraced nearly two thousand years ago.

The comparison to Titus is not that Mamdani possesses Titus’s power or that his actions resemble the destruction of the Mikdash. Titus was responsible for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, unimaginable bloodshed, and one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. The comparison is about something deeper: a recurring misunderstanding of Jewish history – the belief that external forces can determine the meaning and future of the Jewish people.

Throughout history, there have been those who believed that Jewish legitimacy could be weakened through humiliation, that Jewish sovereignty could be erased through political defeat, and that the Jewish story could be rewritten by those who opposed us.

Titus believed exactly that.

Titus understood that the Beit HaMikdash was not merely a building. It was the heart of Jewish existence. It represented God’s presence in the world, the covenant between God and Israel, and the spiritual foundation of the Jewish people.

Therefore, Titus was not satisfied with a military victory over Jerusalem. He wanted to communicate something far greater than “Rome........

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