The Mamdani administration has turned into a jobs program for Muslims with a strong anti-Israel animus. The latest appointment that is about to be announced is that of the mayor’s chief counsel, a plum post that will apparently go to Ramzi Kassem. More about Ramzi Kassem, who is ideologically a carbon copy of Zohran Mamdani, can be found here: “Mamdani reportedly taps anti-Israel lawyer who defended 9/11 for Chief Counsel,” by Mathilda Heller, Jerusalem Post, December 16, 2025:
A lawyer who defended Mahmoud Khalil and an al Qaeda terrorist is said to be incoming NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick for the role of Chief Counsel, according to multiple reports, including The New York Post.
Chief Counsel is the most important advisory role in the mayoral administration. It may go to Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York (CUNY), who is already a member of Mamdani’s legal transition team.
Syrian-born Kassem has served as the lawyer for multiple problematic individuals, including a close ally of Osama Bin Laden, Ahmed al-Darbi, convicted of bombing a French oil tanker. He also represented Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian encampment leader, in his deportation case. While at Columbia, Kassem himself was an anti-Israel activist and lobbied the school to rename an “Israeli wrap” offered in the dining hall, arguing it was offensive to Muslims. He also spent a lot of time at Columbia writing “scathing criticisms” of Israel, a Washington Free Beacon review found. This included accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
See what I mean? Ramzi and Zohrai are a perfect fit, a true-blue heartwarming bromance based on a shared fondness for the Qur’an and a shared hatred of Infidels, especially those of the Hebrew persuasion.
These articles date back to 1998. In one article in the Columbia Spectator in 1998, he wrote that Israel is “a clear-cut case of ethnic cleansing.” In another, titled “Zionism Impedes Middle Eastern Peace,” Kassem claimed European Jews came to the Middle East “with the intention of conquering the land.”
In another op-ed, he said, “Some Palestinians resort to terrorism for many of the same reasons that people from various backgrounds have in the past: namely, despair and much endured suffering.”
What people in the past have engaged in terrorism in anything like the way that Palestinians have been doing for decades? Not the IRA, not the Irgun, not the Tamil Tigers. For the Palestinians, terrorism is not an adjunct to combat on the battlefield; it is practically the only way they know of fighting.
While at Columbia, he also co-founded Turath, an association of Muslim students, described by a fellow student as having brought “under the guidance of Mr. Kassem… speakers to this campus that support violence against American and Israeli civilians… defended the genocidal program of Hamas.”
In a Spectator piece in 2000, Kassem claimed that Israel has no right to defend Jews from terror attacks in Nablus: “The fact that Israel has no internationally recognized right to be there in the first place is conveniently omitted, and never mind that the citizens in question happen to be illegal settlers armed to the teeth by the Israeli military and heavily subsidized by their government.”
Israel has a perfect right to defend Jews from terror attacks in Nablus. Nablus is in Samaria, that is part of the territory where Jews have lived for 3,500 years and their history was made, territory that the League of Nations included in the Mandate for Palestine, which in time was to become the Jewish state of Israel. The Arab Legion seized Nablus and the rest of Judea and Samaria in the 1948 war, and Jordan ruled it between 1949 and 1967. After Israel won the Six-Day War, it was able to exercise its pre-existing claim, under the Mandate for Palestine, to possession of Judea and Samaria.
He is the founder of CLEAR, a CUNY program offering free legal representation and support to Muslims in the New York City area and beyond, who are “targeted by the government.”
The government does not “target” Muslims. It “targets” people whom it suspects of planning, or taking part in, or praising, acts of terrorism. Almost all of these people turn out to be Muslims.
Additionally, Kassem has downplayed the 9/11 attacks, writing in a September 2001 article that the attackers were not evil, but felt “resentment towards the United States rooted in political realities shaped by our country’s policies.”
The attackers who murdered close to 3,000 people on 9/11 “were not evil”? They “felt resentment” at America’s foreign policy and apparently had no way to express this resentment except by murdering thousands of Americans? They don’t like America, so why not kill as many of its citizens as they can? Ramzi Kassem finds nothing wrong with this. And Zohran Mamdani finds nothing wrong with Ramzi Kassem.
“The perpetrators were probably not driven to their actions by some intrinsic evil or inherent hatred of the good United States. These acts of violence were gratuitous only in the sense that they wantonly and indiscriminately targeted innocent civilians,” Kassem claimed….
Kassem, in a mix of sleight-of-word and moral gobbledygook, defends the 9/11 attacks that were “gratuitous” (what does he intend this word to mean?) “only in the sense that they wantonly and indiscriminately targeted innocent civilians.” Oh, is that all? Only in that sense. How silly of me to think that there might be something bad about 9/11.
“Kassem’s appointment to corp. counsel wouldn’t sit well with the Jewish community,” Ken Frydman, a Democratic political operative, told the NY Post.
No, it won’t sit well at all. And not only with the “Jewish community.” Everyone of sense, everyone who remembers 9/11, will be outraged by this appointment of Ramzi Kassem, separated at birth from Zohran Mamdani.
Another few weeks, and Mayor Mamdani will take the oath of office. He’ll move in with his loyal staff, so many of whom are Muslims, with a handful of far-left, anti-Israel non-Muslims included in the mix by way of demonstrating “diversity.” And Ramzi Kassem, as chief counsel, will like Abou Ben Adhem lead all the rest. Once more I implore you: Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
somehistory says
One of this many ‘picks’ has already resigned. She said she has “Jewish children” but she has said a bunch of anti-Jew stuff and it has come back to haunt her.
She was ‘picked’ to be his ‘chief of staff.’ Can’t recall her name, nor the source of the story I read. But, evidently, she’s out.
The goon’s admin is going to be a who’s who of mafia-style members.
ploome says
Catherine Almonte Da Costa is her name.
Da Costa had been set to join Mayor-elect Mamdani’s team ..
American Native Born says
I lived in NY twice (2 years in the 80s and commuted weekly from LA during 2018). I loved being in the City and in spite of the sometimes-awful weather, the experience for a Californian was just wonderful. I have a feeling that I may speak for a lot of people when I say, I will not set foot in NYC or spend a dime there until they elect a human being again to be their mayor. The city and business community there need to know there is a price to be paid (literally) for electing a mud-slime as the mayor of what was once one the world’s truly great cities. I am older now with more road behind me than in front of me. But we are watching this influx of third world scum ruin parts of America. So too in Europe, where we just got back from London, Paris and Berlin. I have NEVER been so discouraged. America is the last best hope again (thank you Mr. Lincoln) for this world. Left to the caprice of these third world a-holes, we will see Western Civilization, our Biblical Judeo-Christian foundations go the way of the Roman Empire; eaten away from within. We do not need ANY more immigration to America (legal or illegal). Thanks FJB, FKH, FBHO and most of all—-go to hell ZM…preferably soon.
John Jake says
“We do not need ANY more immigration to America (legal or illegal). ”
Exactly! This country has had unfettered constant immigration since the Johnson administration. 60 years, non-stop! Never in the history of this country have we had such a thing. There were always surges of immigration. There would then be a 5 to 10 year halt on ALL immigration. And that filthy thief who stole the presidency for 4 years before Trump put it on high-octane steroids.
Halt ALL immigration for the next 25 years.
James Lincoln says
Just wondering what Mamdani’s job postings require for “knowledge, skills, and abilities”…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Meantime in Mamdaniland
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/12/19/mamdani-appointee-resigns-after-antisemitic-anti-police-posts-resurface-money-hungry-jews-nypd-piggies
So someone who just hates Jews has resigned, but someone who condones 9/11 is still there? But he’d have to be, or Mamdani would have nobody like himself around himself
Walter Sieruk says
This news about who Zohan Mamdani chose as his Chief Counsel should surprise no well informed person, not at all , not even a little bit.
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
Meet Ramzi Kassem, Mamdani’s Choice as Chief Counsel
………………………………………
More enabling of Jihad terror.
Billy Bones says
From the response of Kassem to the 9/11 attack it looks like any recognition of that day by the Mamdani administration will take on a whole new meaning. New Yorker’s you did this to yourselves.
gravenimage says
Kassem has said that saying “always remember 9/11” is “warping” it”. Sick stuff. More from this tug here:
“Ramzi Kassem on 9/11 Warping”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfBkQ94q8Hw
He claims that being horrified by 9/11 shows that Americans are unfairly “privileged”–presumably because we did not already suffer from constant Jihad terror attacks.
Billy says
Jihad terror attacks = Muslim terror attacks. Muslims are Terrorists for Allah to kill or be killed for Allah’s Cause to make Islam supreme: Allah in Qur’an 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause to make Islam Supreme], so they kill and are killed…”.
Alkflaeda says
Marxist intersectionality – the assumption that all who are underprivileged will identify with those allegedly of their number, like the faux Palestinians. who “resist”.
tgusa says
He is a devout muslim to the core and NYC people seem to have no problem with that.
tgusa says
In reality. This guy is a more radical muslim than those that came before him. Devout islamic followers always ire their own/. Devout muslims are not receding they are growing. Western countries are enabling all it.
tgusa says
Everyone must recognize there are two sides of islam. The smiley face friend and the stone cold killer. There is no 9n between.
Tony says
Allah says only one face is required to gain Allah’s Heavenly Paradise, the killer face. Allah in Qur’an 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause to make Islam Supreme], so they kill and are killed…”. Also, Allah teaches that Death By Jihad leads to Muslim Paradise and Allah’s reward. Allah in Qur’an 3:169 says, “And do not consider those who were killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Yet they are alive with their lord, receiving their provision.”
Tony says
One side to Islam, the terrorist killer side. Allah in Qur’an 9:111 says, “Surely Allah has purchased from the believers[Muslims] their souls and their money so that they may have the garden[Heavenly Paradise]. They engage in war for the sake of Allah[ie. Allah’s Cause to make Islam Supreme], so they kill and are killed…”. Also, Allah teaches that Death By Jihad leads to Muslim Paradise and Allah’s reward. Allah in Qur’an 3:169 says, “And do not consider those who were killed for the sake of Allah as dead. Yet they are alive with their lord, receiving their provision.”
Joe1 says
Devout Muslim = Jihad Terrorist
somehistory says
In the news cycle today is a report on the convicted armed robber whose name the muzzie mayor-to-be pronounced incorrectly and who then pronounced his new ‘boss’s’ name incorrectly.
The ex-con, who says he was wrongly convicted, was explaining what his *volunteer* job will be. And near the end of the article, he said if his new boss doesn’t measure up, he’ll be out in the street protesting.
Since it isn’t the plot of a movie, New Yorkers are in for a rough ride.
OLD GUY says
New Yorkers are in for a ride down a slippery slimy slope.
Troybeam says
New Yorkers will reap what they sow as they have given away a section of America’s sovereignty to Islam. Same for Dearborn Mi and the state of Minnesota, also other states where Islam is growing because of mass births and population growth.
Islam and China, 2 direct threats to our nation and prior administration have aided and abetted their growth inside of America, President Trump and other state leaders are trying to remove or limit such growth inside of our nation.
In reality they need to declare both direct threats to the sovereignty of the United States and remove all of Islam and China’s people, destroy all mosques and shut down Islamic businesses. As for China, take back all land that China has purchased by military bases and return all Chinese people living on that land. remove all Chinese students, doctors, scientists and engineers. So much of America’s knowledge has been stolen and or been used against us.
As for the American’s who sold land to China, here’s the catch 22: selling real estate/ sellers are not allowed to know who they sold to until after the bid is accepted…this rule has to change so that American land, housing etc can be protected. Selling to the highest bidder is not always the best plan of action because most of the time the highest bidder is not American.
Horatio says
At what point will the cowards in the DOJ take action against these anti-American criminals? Never.