Brad Lander explicitly confirms that he identifies as a liberal Zionist during his conversation with Allison Kaplan Sommer from Haaretz, and says that he is still welcome in the Mamdani coalition and Social Democratic left even after that.
"Despite the part of the political map that you're on and that your focus on the group of members of Democratic Socialists of America and the strong support of Mayor Mamdani has grabbed the headlines, you still don't shy away from the word Zionist. You still consider yourself a liberal Zionist. Am I wrong? You're correct. I'll start with a simple question that I think a lot of Jews and Israelis ask. Is there still room for liberal Zionists in today's progressive coalition politics? Do you feel accepted? Do you feel embraced as one with your fellow future congressional members with the mayor? Do you feel like you've had to change or adjust who you are? And if you want to share a little bit of your background of involvement in pro-peace civil society Israeli politics, but do you feel like you've had to play that down or change it in order to fit in with a group that I would say, you know, defines itself essentially as if not non-Zionist, anti-Zionist, and beyond, do not, as the mayor says, accept or embrace the idea of a Jewish state, democratic or not? That's a big question, but honestly for me a pretty easy one because the answer is just yes. I mean, you know, and I think people can see that, at least in me on the one hand, I make clear, I want there to be. I believe in the vision of, I long for a Jewish and democratic Israel. Today it doesn't feel like it's acting in ways that I recognize as either democratic, like I just don't think there's democracy with occupation, or particularly consistent with Jewish values either, but that's what I want. Those are my politics. I'm clear about them. You could check my mentions, you know, like I get called a Zionist baby killer in my mentions about as often as I get called a capo. So like people know who I am and I am very welcome in the in the Mamdani coalition on the social democratic left. Do people come argue with me? Of course, they come argue with me. Like that's, you know, that's how we do politics. And that's who that's who Jews are."
💬 Discussion
Brad Lander explicitly confirms that he identifies as a liberal Zionist during his conversation with Allison Kaplan Sommer from Haaretz, and says that he is still welcome in the Mamdani coalition and Social Democratic left even after that.
