Lander ran for New York City mayor last fall and cross-endorsed with Mamdani in an effort to thwart former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. By Jackie Hajdenberg, JTABrad Lander has ousted incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in New York City’s 10th Congressional District in a Democratic primary Tuesday night where the candidates’ views on Israel were a key issue, according an NBC News projection.Lander, a former city comptroller backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had 55,060 votes, or 65.8 percent, and Goldman had 28,445 votes, or 34 percent, with 92 percent of the ballots counted. NBC News projected Lander the winner four minutes after the polls closed at 9 p.m.Lander, 56, perched his campaign on a refusal to take money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.Goldman, an attorney who led the first impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, was hailed for his efforts on that front, but his more supportive views on Israel have proven increasingly unpopular in his lower Manhattan and Brooklyn district in recent years.“Democrats are painfully divided by our differences over the U.S. relationship to Israel and Palestine, and we have to face up to it squarely,” Lander said in his victory speech.“Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi strategy’ was a catastrophic failure.”He invoked the famous words of Rabbi Hillel in Pirkei Avot: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself only, what am I? And if not now, when?”“I will be one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up loud for Palestinian human rights,” Lander added.“I will stand firmly against bigotry aimed at Jews as well. That’s not two different jobs — that’s the same job. That’s the same job Rabbi Hillel gave us 2000 years ago.”Lander continued, “We cannot keep paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars. Democratic voters across the country are saying this loud and clear. What we need instead is a politics of shared safety: one that sees Palestinian kids in Gaza and the West Bank as created Betzelem Elohim — in the image of God just as much as Rosa and Marek,” he said, referring to his two children.Mamdani introduced Lander at the victory party and called him a friend and a coworker. “Brad brings a kindness to this world,” the mayor said.The primary result was not a surprise: polling by Emerson College last month indicated a lead of more than 30 points for Lander.In his speech, Lander thanked Goldman for a “hard-fought campaign” and “and for his service to this community and to our country.”“I want to specifically praise him for how he responded to some of the toxic rhetoric that he and his staff faced over the past couple of days with grace and with gratitude, that is something we need,” Lander added, referring to a an incident this week at a Brooklyn cafe in which Goldman was refunded his payment a cup of coffee due to his views on Israel, and an online harassment from right-wing commentator Cam Higby targeting his chief of staff.“And I want to say to those who cast their votes for Dan, though we have some differences, I do feel strongly that we actually have so much more in common.”Lander’s win in Tuesday’s primary in the heavily Democratic district, which runs from roughly below 14th Street in Manhattan to Brownstone Brooklyn and parts of Borough Park and Bay Ridge, is tantamount to winning the general election in November.Both candidates identify as Zionists — Goldman said he is “unabashedly pro-Israel” — but Lander qualified his views as that of a “liberal Zionist.”He is also a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America. But he left the group following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, disappointed by the DSA’s participation in a pro-Palestinian rally on Oct. 8.He says he had been a member since his freshman year of college.“On October 8th, they advertised a rally that I thought was heinous, that spoke about Hamas in ways that I just thought were vile and I could not continue to be a member,” Lander said during a June 1 debate with Spectrum NY1.Lander ran for New York City mayor last fall and cross-endorsed with Mamdani in an effort to thwart former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.Mamdani then encouraged Lander to run for Congress and endorsed him in February in a video calling out AIPAC.He was also endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New York City Councilmember Shahana Hanif, former Manhattan Borough President and activist Ruth Messinger, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, IfNotNow, the Sunrise Movement, United Auto Workers and other progressive groups.Lander has used the word “genocide” to refer to Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza.He has also long criticized AIPAC and what he says are the group’s contributions to Goldman’s campaign. But Goldman’s team said AIPAC was uninvolved in his campaign.“Israel is not the most important issue in this district,” Goldman said during the June 1 debate.Goldman had outspent Lander more than 7-to-1 on the airwaves, according to data from political advertising tracker AdImpact.A multimillionaire and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, Goldman had also pledged to personally match each dollar donated to his campaign.Lander was also backed by a new super PAC called American Priorities, which has put forward $2 million into the primaries to fight AIPAC.American Priorities is also backing New York State Assembly member and congressional candidate Claire Valdez, a Democrat in New York’s 7th Congressional District, and Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier in the 13th District. Both women are members of the DSA.Lander appeared with Mamdani, Valdez and Chevalier in a post-Knicks game ad, where he passes a basketball to Chevalier, who also was at the Oct. 8 rally that he and Mamdani condemned. Mamdani, Valdez and Chevalier have been outspoken Israel critics.In a 2025 interview with Zeteo, Lander said he would vote to recognize a Palestinian state and oppose the sale of weapons to Israel.As comptroller, Lander maintained the city’s pension investments in Israeli military technology company Elbit Systems, which earned criticism from left-wing activists, but he defended the decision.Goldman did not endorse Mamdani because he felt he “never fully got there,” he told The New York Editorial Board in late February.Goldman has been endorsed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, and various public housing advocates and local unions.The post Lander defeats Goldman, vows to stand up ‘loud’ for Palestinians in Congress appeared first on World Israel News.