Democratic Socialist anti zionist wins NYC mayor Dem primary

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Many authorities seem to define Socialism as Communism achieved by peaceful means but most self-described Socialists don't agree with that. Technically, they are Social Democrats as I understand it. Bernie Sanders is probably a Social Democrat.

I think Social Democracy became widespread in Europe after WWII because countries there were devastated by the war, but survivors had a strong work ethic and a burning need to rebuild. I don't think the US has the proper political culture for SD to succeed.

Bear in mind Social Democracy has also been in decline in Europe for quite some time.

Forty-eight hours after democratic-socialist Zohran Mamdani vaulted past former governor Andrew Cuomo to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, inboxes at several Manhattan law firms were filling with the same question: How fast can we get our money out, and where should it go?

As result, a handful of veteran Jewish real-estate investors from the New York area told The Jerusalem Post this week, they are drafting an “equity-swap” proposal that would let New York homeowners offset expected losses from Mamdani’s surprise Democratic mayoral-primary victory by buying apartments in Israel.

The businessmen, each owning substantial commercial and residential skyscrapers in Manhattan, as well as other areas in New York City, said they spent the weekend refining a one-page outline for Israel’s Finance Ministry. Under the plan, a US seller who can prove a post-primary drop in appraised value would receive a dollar-denominated Israeli escrow voucher for the amount of vanished equity, provided the owner purchases an Israeli residence of equal value within 12 months.

“My Midwood duplex was worth about $1 million last year,” one investor said. “Since Mamdani promised a rent freeze and millionaire surtax, offers are landing closer to $750,000. If Israel makes up the missing $250k on a Tel Aviv flat, I’ll move the family tomorrow.”

A second investor added: “You can’t dump buildings fast without taking a haircut. Give us a one-year window and an Israeli voucher equal to the wiped-out equity, and a lot of Five Towns people will bite.”

The men who spoke with the Post asked to remain unnamed to avoid spooking lenders while they refinance loans. An Israeli government official confirmed that “diaspora-linked housing instruments” have been discussed informally but stressed that no decision has been taken.

Why the panic – and who else is alarmed?
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic-socialist assemblyman, vaulted past Cuomo and other candidates in the 25 June ranked-choice primary, making him the general-election front-runner in a heavily Democratic city.

Wall Street investors responded with barely concealed alarm: “It’s officially hot commie summer,” hedge-fund billionaire Dan Loeb wrote on X minutes after the results posted.

Investor Bill Ackman told Fox Business he would “bankroll any centrist willing to beat Mamdani… an opportunity to save our city and be a superhero.” Grocery-chain owner John Catsimatidis warned he would sell or close his Manhattan supermarkets if a socialist reached City Hall.

Share prices of New York-focused real-estate investment trusts and local banks fell 4-6 percent the next morning on rent-freeze fears, while luxury-broker Ryan Serhant told the New York Post his phone rang “within minutes” with clients seeking escape plans.

‘Overnight the equity is gone’
During a call with the Post, two businessmen sketched the math they say is gripping outer-borough owners: “You own a house you thought was worth a million; overnight it’s worth seven-hundred grand, your equity is wiped out and taxes are going to double,” the first investor said. “You still pay the same mortgage, but you can’t get out.”
“Florida is crazy expensive now,” the second added. “Palm Beach? Impossible. Israel suddenly looks cheap – if the government helps bridge the gap.”

The pair estimated that even a pilot capped at 5,000 vouchers, roughly US $1 billion in equity credits, could funnel fresh dollars into Israel’s economy without overheating prices. “Move five thousand families and you inject a billion dollars into Israel,” the first investor said. “It’s free money – and it’s strategic.”

Other countries have deployed time-limited incentives to channel at-risk capital. Comparable schemes already exist elsewhere: Singapore’s Global Investor Program fast-tracks permanent residence for foreigners investing at least S$10 million in a local business or S$25 million in an approved fund. El Salvador’s “Freedom Visa” grants citizenship within six weeks for a US$1 million investment in Bitcoin or USDT, a program already 60 percent subscribed.

Israel Bonds, the state’s classic diaspora fundraising tool, have attracted more than US$5 billion since the October 7 war, showing continued appetite for Israeli sovereign paper, but no previous issue has been collateralised with overseas property.

Early market tremors
Brokers say asking prices for small multifamily buildings in northern Brooklyn have dropped 7-10 percent since the primary as buyers model steeper taxes and stalled rent growth. Reuters reported similar jitters among lenders worried about owners’ ability to service debt under a freeze.

Commercial real-estate lobbyists, stung by Cuomo’s defeat, are now urging Adams, running as an independent, to consolidate the moderate vote. “The industry is looking to the mayor for salvation,” the trade journal Commercial Observer wrote.

The businessmen who spoke with the Post saud they are lining up Zoom briefings with Jewish federations in Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County to gauge demand. They insist the plan is not limited to Jews. “Plenty of Italian, Greek and Asian landlords are calling brokers too,” one investor noted. “But Israel has the cultural pull, and right now, an apartment in Jerusalem looks like an insurance policy.”

With polls showing Mamdani maintaining a double-digit lead, one investor said urgency is rising. “The second Trump is out of office, something crazy happens, pack your bags,” he warned. “People aren’t waiting for November. They’re pricing their exits now. If Israel offers a clear path, a significant slice of that capital will go there instead of Miami.”

I wish I could emigrate to Sweden, or any social democratic country, but I will never meet any country's requirements.

Why Five Towns? That's not in NYC, that's in Nassau County. Why would property values be going down in Five Towns?

I would have thought that property values on Long Island would go up like they did during COVID.

My guess is irrationality caused by panic.

A couple of other things in this news story that don't make sense to me:


Hmmm, I thought Israel was always wanting more and more Jews to immigrate to Israel, but what would Israel get out of extending the same offer to non-Jews? How would that help Israel's desire to maintain a Jewish majority? Or are they just desperate to prop up property values over there, given the war with Iran? Or perhaps desperate to do anything to reduce indigenous Palestinians to a teeny tiny minority?


They're worried about "crazy" things happening as a result of Trump leaving office? How about all the crazy things happening as a result of Trump being in office?

Hmmm, thinking about this, I just now noticed:

They completely omit one likely cause of property values going down in the entire metro area: Lots of immigrants, including well-to-do immigrants, deciding that the U.S.A. is just too dangerous a place to be an immigrant these days, due to Trump's policies. And the well-to-do immigrants are the ones who can afford to leave, leaving behind only the poor and working-class immigrants who have nowhere else to go (other than a concentration camp in El Salvador).

Oh, but right wing "businessmen" can't admit that that's a problem, I guess.

Puzzled why you assume he'll win in the general election, unless it's by winning a 35/33/33 plurality which would seriously impugn his credibility as the Peoples' Choice.

OTOH I do expect some people to interpret his election as a signal for violence against zionists in general and Jews in particular.

In that way it will resemble groups such as the Proud Boys interpreting Trump’s remarks as signals.

With Trump we have 10 years of experience to conclude he is deliberately signaling his “patriots”. Mamdani is new to the scene it is too soon to judge. If Mamdani does deliberately signal it won’t be as blatantly obvious, he is a wholly different personality.

Unfortunately the man is going to require a degree of security unheard of for previous mayors.