https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2025/01/28/mayors-malady-mystery-00200905
Israel defender Rep. Ritchie Torres is raising money for a super PAC hoping to unseat City Council Member Shahana Hanif for not standing with Israel after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The Bronx Democrat, who’s eyeing a run for governor next year took his advocacy local on Sunday, keynoting Brooklyn Bridgebuilders’ first fundraising event in Park Slope. Organizers say they raised $15,000.
Torres, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, uses his social media platform to relentlessly defend Israel and call out its critics.
Hours earlier and just a half mile away, vandals tagged Israeli restaurant Miriam with red paint saying “genocide cuisine” and more.
Politicians offered the restaurant an outpouring of support. Sen. Chuck Schumerand City Comptroller Brad Lander, a mayoral candidate, dropped by to eat there on Sunday, as did Torres.
Bridgebuilders pointed the finger at Hanif, posting on X that she’d previously declined to condemn “Free Palestine” graffiti.
Hanif had immediately condemned the vandalism at Miriam, saying “This hateful act threatens the safety of our community.”
The events Sunday underscored how the war between Israel and Hamas — and related tensions in New York, home to large Jewish and Arab populations — will be a major factor in the June Democratic primary for Hanif’s Brooklyn seat.
Hanif, who is Muslim and a democratic socialist, has been supportive of the Palestinians throughout the war. She’s facing a challenge from Maya Kornberg, a political scientist who is Jewish. Kornberg declined to comment on the fundraiser.
Hanif won a crowded primary in 2021 and had an easy reelection in 2023 — an off-cycle race following redistricting. Polls consistently show voters’ top concerns are crime and the cost of living.
But one constituent — Joni Kletter, who worked for de Blasio — condemned the council member, saying her ”silence after Oct. 7 was just so shocking and upsetting to people,” that it motivated her to co-found Brooklyn Bridgebuilders.
“It’s not really about Israel as much as it is people feeling safe in this community,” Kletter said about reports of antisemitism. “And that’s very real.”
The independent expenditure committee has raised $65,000 and Kletter said the group is considering spending against other DSA-aligned candidates.
“Trump Democrat Ritchie Torres just voted alongside MAGA Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act, which will enable immigrant detention and deportation without due process,” Hanif said in a statement. “These so-called Bridgebuilders seem like anything but. I will continue to stand up for my district, against hate in all its forms, for housing justice, for universal childcare and for fully funded public schools.”
Torres took issue with being called a Trump Democrat. “While Shahana Hanif was voicing support for the Uncommitted Movement to the benefit of Donald Trump, voting against a resolution that calls for an end to Jew hatred at the expense of her Jewish constituents, and aligning with the DSA (which celebrated barbaric terror and violence of 10/7),” he said in a statement, “I was campaigning for the nominee in swing districts and raising over $20 million for Congressional Democrats.”
Hanif is also facing opposition from Solidarity PAC, a citywide group backing candidates who support Israel.
There’s a mayoral angle too. Hanif is a former staffer of Lander, whose challenger in the mayoral race — Scott Stringer — came to the Bridgebuilders fundraiser in Lander’s neighborhood.
“It’s a great, community-based organization,” said Stringer, who went to eat at Miriam afterward. — Jeff Coltin