Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to place New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on a Likud campaign billboard is not simply an unusual piece of election advertising. It is a calculated attempt to turn principled criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza into a security threat, while avoiding the deeper political failures that have weakened Netanyahu’s standing at home.
A Manufactured Enemy for an Anxious Electorate
Likud’s billboard on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway places Mamdani beside Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem. Its message urges Israelis not to let those figures defeat Netanyahu in the October election. Netanyahu later circulated the image himself, signaling that this was not an isolated party tactic but a central part of his electoral messaging.
The image rests on an intentionally misleading association. Mamdani is an elected American mayor and a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. He is not a military actor, a foreign adversary, or a participant in the regional conflicts involving Iran, Hezbollah, and Israel. Treating political criticism as equivalent to hostility toward Israel is a familiar nationalist strategy. It narrows public debate by suggesting that anyone who challenges the government’s conduct must also be an enemy of the state.
Mamdani’s Criticism is Not a Threat
Mamdani has described Netanyahu as a war criminal and has urged the United States to respond to the International Criminal Court’s warrant for the Israeli prime minister. The ICC issued warrants in 2024 alleging crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, although Netanyahu and Israel reject the court’s authority and accusations.
Whether one agrees with every element of Mamdani’s rhetoric, his central intervention concerns accountability. He is criticizing a government whose military campaign has caused mass Palestinian suffering and whose leadership faces scrutiny from international legal institutions, humanitarian organizations, and allied governments. Reducing that position to antisemitism or foreign subversion is politically expedient, but it evades the substance of the critique.
Mamdani’s inclusion alongside Hezbollah and Iranian leaders also carries a more troubling implication. It encourages the idea that a Muslim American politician expressing solidarity with Palestinians belongs within a hostile regional bloc. That framing does not protect Jewish communities or advance Israeli security. Instead, it risks reinforcing a politics in which Muslim identity, Palestinian advocacy, and criticism of Israeli state policy are treated as inherently suspect.
Netanyahu’s Politics of Deflection
The billboard arrives as Netanyahu confronts a difficult reelection environment. Reporting indicates that his coalition is trailing rivals in opinion polling ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, while Netanyahu remains under the shadow of an ongoing corruption trial. In that context, Mamdani offers a useful political symbol. He is visible, outspoken, and easily presented to Israeli voters as proof that Israel is surrounded by hostile forces.
This is a politics of deflection. Rather than addressing public frustration over the Gaza war, the fate of hostages, domestic polarization, or the consequences of prolonged conflict, Netanyahu’s campaign redirects attention toward an externalized enemy. Mamdani becomes valuable precisely because he is far from Israeli domestic politics. He can be presented as a threat without having to answer Israeli voters’ questions about governance, strategy, or accountability.
The Wider Democratic Cost
The campaign’s deeper danger is its effort to erase the distinction between criticism of a government and animosity toward a people. Israel’s security cannot be strengthened by portraying calls for Palestinian rights or adherence to international law as attacks on Jewish safety. Such rhetoric may mobilize supporters in the short term, but it entrenches fear and weakens the democratic space needed for genuine political reckoning.
A Final Note
Mamdani’s appearance in Netanyahu’s campaign says less about the New York mayor than about Netanyahu’s political needs. By turning a critic into an enemy, Netanyahu seeks to make accountability appear dangerous. Mamdani’s stance, however controversial, deserves to be debated on its merits, not distorted into a campaign weapon.
