NEW YORK — President Isaac Herzog criticized New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Sunday, saying the left-wing politician doesn’t hide his “contempt” for Israel, and that his comments about an anti-Israel protest outside a synagogue last month were “outrageous.”

“Recent developments in New York City have raised a red flag,” Herzog said, at a gala event in New York for Yeshiva University, according to a statement from his office.

“Here, we see the rise of a new mayor-elect who makes no effort to conceal his contempt for the Jewish, democratic State of Israel, the only nation state of the Jewish people,” Herzog charged.

The president also referred to a demonstration last month outside a Manhattan synagogue that was hosting an event encouraging immigration to Israel.

At the protest, demonstrators called for “intifada,” celebrated “resistance” groups, and declared, of the people inside: “We need to make them scared.” Asked about the violent rhetoric, Mamdani’s spokesperson said that the mayor-elect would “discourage the language used” at the protest, but that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

Herzog panned that response, telling the audience at YU: “The incoming mayor’s response was to suggest that Jews who consider fulfilling the ultimate Zionist dream of making Aliyah are violating international law and the sanctity of the synagogue. This rhetoric is outrageous.

“Delegitimizing........

© The Times of Israel