Michael Goodwin: Mamdanis silence in the face of vile antisemitism speaks volumes to the darkness in his soul

Ducking a heated debate can be extremely revealing about a politician.Take the case of Mayor Mamdani’s outrageous hide-and-seek reaction after a Brooklyn coffee shop taunted Rep.

Daniel Goldman over his support for Israel and banned him from its Park Slope location.The owner of Poetica Coffee, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, took to Instagram to write “Hey Congressman Dan Goldman, we see that you stopped by our shop today for a coffee.Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice?” next to an image of the congressman at the shop’s register.The owner is a Hamas sympathizer who has justified the atrocities of Oct.

7, 2023, while calling “Israel the Nazi Germany of current time.”“See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between,” his taunt of Goldman continued.“Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.”He added that the shop had issued Goldman a refund, saying the money was “probably coming from AIPAC anyways.”Goldman’s Democratic primary opponent, former city Comptroller Brad Lander, had the decency to condemn the shop’s action, saying, “There are plenty of ways to lobby elected officials and express outrage without turning coffee shops into places people don’t feel welcome.”Mamdani, who endorsed Lander, sat out the fracas, until he finally opened his mouth Tuesday, only to say as close to nothing as is humanly possible.Asked by a reporter whether he approved of the owner’s conduct, the mayor said only, “I have many political disagreements with Congressman Goldman when it comes to his votes and his views on Israel.

What we saw online goes beyond that.”Huh, that’s it?It is impossible to escape the conclusion that Mamdani won’t condemn the owner’s behavior because it aligns with his own bigotry.Despite getting an estimated one-third of Jewish votes last year, the mayor is seemingly on a quest to normalize Jew-hatred.He says h...