After making sure mountains of garbage piled up and plenty of homeless people froze to death on the streets of New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani turned his attention back to his one true love: targeting Israelis. Just six weeks after taking office, Mamdani’s influence has already led to the eviction of Easy Aerial, a Brooklyn-based drone manufacturer with ties to Israel, from the publicly owned Brooklyn Navy Yard.
This move, celebrated by progressive allies like City Council Member Lincoln Restler, exemplifies how anti-Israel activism is morphing into targeted economic warfare against businesses perceived as supportive of the Jewish state. Critics, including State Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, argue that this isn’t just bad policy—it’s rooted in antisemitism, driving away jobs and innovation while prioritizing ideological purity over the city’s welfare. As Yeger bluntly put it: “Chasing good jobs out of New York because Mr. Mamdani and his friends hate Jews is probably not a very good economic development program.”
Zohran Mamdani’s rise to the mayoralty marks a radical shift in New York City’s approach to Israel. Mamdani may be well known for being a socialist, but the foundation of his political ideology lies in anti-Israel activism. Born to Ugandan-Indian parents and raised in a family influenced by his father’s academic critiques of colonialism, Mamdani co-founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Bowdoin College, an organization often linked to calls for “globalizing the intifada” and promoting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. He views Israel as a settler-colonial state practicing apartheid, and he refuses to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish homeland, framing his stance in terms of universal equality: “I would not recognize any state’s right to exist with a system of hierarchy on the basis of race or religion.”
Upon inauguration, Mamdani wasted no time, revoking two executive orders from former Mayor Eric Adams that adopted a broad definition of antisemitism and barred city employees from BDS activities. Mamdani is not dumb enough to ignore the rampant antisemitism by his acolytes—like when swastikas pop up in the city or violent rhetoric at protests occurs outside synagogues—but he is nefarious enough to remove as many protections for Jews as possible.
When Mamdani appointed Phylisa Wisdom as the “antisemitism czar,” those in the know just added it to the list of choices he makes to attack the Jewish community. Wisdom was “floored” when then-mayoral candidate Andrew Yang supported Israel in May 2021, when Hamas fired rockets at civilian centers. She claimed that New Yorkers needed a mayor who stood up for Palestinians as Hamas was targeting Israelis. As far as her “Jewish” credentials go, she joked about forgetting Yom Kippur on social media.
This backdrop sets the stage for actions like the Easy Aerial eviction, which appears to be the first salvo in a broader campaign against Israeli-linked enterprises. Easy Aerial, founded in 2014 by Israeli co-founder Ido Gur and current head Ivan Stamatovski, represents the kind of innovative business New York City has long courted. Headquartered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the company specializes in autonomous “drone-in-a-box” systems for defense, security, and commercial uses. Its flagship product, the Falcon V3.0, is a versatile drone capable of rapid deployment for surveillance and monitoring. While it supplies equipment to U.S. agencies like the Air Force for tasks such as border security along the U.S.-Mexico line and event protection at the Super Bowl, Easy Aerial’s ties to Israel—selling drones to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for Gaza border monitoring—have made it a target.
Economically, Easy Aerial has been a boon to NYC. By 2026, the company employed 55 people, many in high-skilled manufacturing and tech roles at the Navy Yard, a 300-acre industrial park managed by the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. (BNYDC). It raised $6.15 million in Series A funding in 2020, led by private investors, and accumulated $11 million total by 2026, fueling local innovation and job creation. Investors included AFWERX, Cavaret Ventures, and the Founder Institute, underscoring its appeal in the booming drone sector. The company’s presence contributed to the Navy Yard’s role as an economic engine, generating revenue through leases and supporting ancillary businesses in supply chains and services. Under former Mayor Adams, a pro-Israel leader, Easy Aerial even pitched collaborations with Israeli firms like Blue White Robotics for NYC crime-fighting drones, potentially injecting millions more into the local economy. Evicting such a firm not only loses these jobs but signals to other tech companies with international ties that NYC is hostile to certain partnerships, potentially costing the city billions in lost investment and tax revenue over time.
The decision to boot Easy Aerial came after sustained protests by groups like “Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard,” which demanded the eviction of tenants aiding Israel. Officially, BNYDC cited “business reasons related to operational and campus compliance matters,” but the timing—mere weeks into Mamdani’s term—suggests political motivations. Mamdani appoints the BNYDC board, and his pro-Palestine stance has shifted City Hall’s philosophy away from Adams’ Israel-friendly policies. This isn’t isolated; Mamdani’s platform includes banning Israeli products in city stores and dismantling the NYC-Israel Economic Council. Such measures could extend to other Israeli-owned or linked businesses, from tech startups to food importers, stifling a vibrant economic exchange that benefits NYC’s diverse communities.
Enter Lincoln Restler, the Democratic Council Member for Brooklyn’s District 33, who gleefully announced the eviction on X (formerly Twitter): “Easy Aerial is leaving the Brooklyn Navy Yard. @BklynNavyYard leadership made the right decision last month to not renew their lease. This public asset should not be leasing space to companies producing drones that are being transformed into weapons of war.” In follow-up posts, Restler confirmed the board’s inaction at a meeting, expressing gratitude to BNY leadership.
Raised in the Reform Jewish tradition at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, Restler positions himself as a progressive bridging Jewish values with left-wing causes. Yet his celebration of Easy Aerial’s ouster reveals a deeper issue within Reform Judaism: a leftist ideology where hatred of Israel is normalized and supersedes everything else, including harming your own constituents.
Reform Judaism, the largest denomination in American Jewry, has long since surrendered to progressive politics over any semblance of Judaism. Like many institutions that the left infiltrated, co-opted, and wears around like a skinsuit from Men in Black, Reform Judaism emphasizes social justice, tikkun olam (repairing the world), and progressive values. This means that they buy into the oppressor-oppressed matrix of power dynamics and the lies about colonialism of Israel by Europeans on behalf of Western ideology.
This makes actual Judaism very awkward for progressive Jews like Lincoln Restler. As any kindergartener knows, Jews pray three times a day toward Jerusalem and have been doing so for thousands of years. The rebuilding of Jerusalem is a central tenet of Jewish thought. Many commandments cannot be done outside of Israel. The leftist Jewish contradiction to their ideology and actual Judaism peaked when “Rabbis for Ceasefire” read a portion of the Torah during an anti-Israel protest. The woman reciting the portion whispered the Hebrew part where G-d promises the land of Israel, and skipped it in English when translating for Jew-hating Representative Rashida Tlaib, their honored guest.
Restler has long prioritized protecting Hamas over Israel. Restler has called for ceasefires in Gaza, condemned Netanyahu’s government, and now cheers the expulsion of a company aiding Israel’s defense. This isn’t mere policy disagreement; it’s openly lying to the public on the use of these tools. By framing Easy Aerial’s drones as “weapons of war,” Restler ignores their defensive role in border monitoring, echoing anti-Israel tropes that demonize Jewish self-defense. Such views align with a Reform movement where leftist politics often eclipse core Jewish identity, leading to alliances with BDS supporters and downplaying antisemitism when it comes from the left.
This pattern normalizes economic attacks on Israel under the guise of ethics, which stokes antisemitism. In a city with rising anti-Jewish hate crimes—up 182% in January 2026—Mamdani and Restler’s actions send another chilling message. The eviction of Easy Aerial isn’t just a business loss—it’s a warning sign for what’s to come. Mamdani will harm NYC for his anti-Israel ideology, and clapping seals like Restler will cheer it every step of the way.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
