Mamdani’s NYPD is Still Working with Israel

After the reign of Mayor Eric “I would marry Israel” Adams, the firm stance that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took against Israel’s violence in Gaza was refreshing to some of his voters. But whatever Mamdani’s personal views on Israel, not much has changed when it comes to the institutional relationship between New York City and the Jewish state, particularly when it comes to the New York City Police Department’s work with Israeli law enforcement. In fact, the NYPD liaison stationed in Israel, whom the New York Post reported had left the job a week before Mamdani was elected, is now back on the job, a spokesperson for the police department told City & State.

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After 9/11, the NYPD looked to Israel to learn best practices for counterterrorism and intelligence gathering, sending officers to a law enforcement exchange program in 2002, initiated by the retired police chief Louis Anemone. The NYPD continued to observe and learn the methods and techniques of the Israeli police and border guard operations in the West Bank. The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, which organizes these officer exchange programs, “maintains that its trips focus on management and policy issues, and that officials do not learn about physical tactics,” as reported by The Forward. (The Israeli government has not responded to requests for comment on their relationship with the NYPD.)

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