When Zohran Mamdani, a New York State Assemblyman from Queens, stood at the Jamaica Muslim Center and led chants of “cease fire now” and “free free Palestine,” he wasn’t merely voicing an opinion. He was taking up a narrative that demonizes Israel, emboldens antisemitism, and threatens the moral and cultural fabric of New York itself.
On a recent episode of the Viktor Frankl Podcast, I spoke with British journalist and author Melanie Phillips about what Mamdani represents — and what his rise says about New York, the Jewish people, and the future of Western civilization.
Watch the video now at torahpsychology.org
Phillips, currently a columnist for The Times of London, is well known for her clear-eyed reporting on cultural decline and antisemitism. Her landmark 2006 book, Londonistan, warned of Britain’s moral and political unraveling in the face of Islamism and progressive relativism. More recently, in The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West and Why Only They Can Save It, she argues that only by reclaiming the Judeo-Christian values that built Western civilization can we hope to save it.
In our conversation, she offered powerful insights — and chilling warnings — that American Jews cannot afford to ignore.
From Londonistan to “New Yorkeristan”
When I asked Phillips about the eerie parallels between Britain’s experience of Islamism and left-wing radicalism and what we’re now seeing in New York, she noted that many who dismissed her warnings two decades ago have since been forced to confront reality.
“They are sadder and wiser now,” she said of those who once called her alarmist. “I wasn’t predicting anything — I never predict. I was merely analyzing the situation as it was unfolding. And it seemed quite obvious that unless corrected, it would escalate.”
Phillips described Britain’s policy of open-door tolerance toward Islamist extremists as a moral and strategic failure. “London was a kind of epicenter for this,” she explained, “because Britain has always been uniquely welcoming to dissidents—sometimes even to terrorists — believing that today’s terrorist is tomorrow’s prime minister.” That naïveté, she argued, has come back to haunt them.
So when she sees Mamdani gaining power and admiration in New York, she is “concerned, but not surprised.” The seeds of this ideology, she said, were planted in America long ago — and Americans, like Britons before them, assumed they were immune.
Watch the video now at torahpsychology.org
The Glastonbury Moment
Phillips also reflected on another disturbing event: the scene at Britain’s Glastonbury music festival, where thousands of young concertgoers chanted “death to the IDF” and waved Palestinian flags. The crowd, she said, reminded many of “the Nuremberg rallies.”
“The flag of Palestine has that kind of symbolic resonance, the same as the swastika did — that it means death to Jews,” she explained. “Many people carrying that flag don’t realize that’s what it means. They think it supports the oppressed in Gaza. But what it means is the extinction of Israel and the annihilation of Jews.”
Even more chilling than the rapper’s lyrics, she said, was the crowd’s enthusiastic participation. “What they were actually chanting for was the murder of every young Israeli,” she said, given that the IDF is a conscript army and a symbol of the Jewish state itself.
Watch the video now at torahpsychology.org
How the Left and Islamists March Together
Phillips also explored the ideological alliance between Islamist movements and the radical left — a coalition that brought Mamdani to prominence.
“It is surreal,” she admitted, “to see white left-wing radicals marching shoulder-to-shoulder with Islamists who, in different circumstances, would take their heads off.” But their common goal, she explained, is clear: the destruction of Western civilization.
While Islamists envision a world under Sharia law, and progressives imagine a utopian, borderless brotherhood of man, both share the same short-term aim — to overthrow the current order.
And both, she added, share a genocidal animus toward Israel and Jews.
Rebuilding Civilization
In her most recent book, The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West and Why Only They Can Save It, Phillips lays out a vision for what must replace the moral vacuum left by progressive ideology. She argues that what we call “Western civilization” is really rooted in the values of the Bible — values created by the Jewish people.
“What I actually mean by Western civilization is civilization itself,” she told me. “Respect for human life, political freedom, democracy, compassion, personal responsibility — these aren’t universal. They come from the Bible, from Judaism. And when the West abandons them, it collapses.”
This abandonment, she explained, is at the heart of the cultural malaise afflicting Britain and now America.
The Great Cry for Meaning
One of the most poignant moments in our discussion came when Phillips reflected on the psychological consequences of this collapse, particularly for young people.
“What we’re living through,” she said, “is the great cry for meaning.”
She described a generation raised to believe in nothing greater than the self, now grasping for purpose in radical ideologies, climate hysteria, and even witchcraft.
“They’ve got rid of God,” she said, “but instead of an age of reason, they’ve gone from believing in something to believing in anything.”
This resonates deeply with Viktor Frankl’s insight that meaning — not power, pleasure, or wealth — is the primary human motivation.
Watch the video now at torahpsychology.org
A Call to Action
For Phillips, Mamdani’s chants in Queens and the crowds at Glastonbury are not isolated incidents, but symptoms of a much deeper problem — and a wake-up call.
Her advice to American Jews was clear: stop being silent, stop being timid, and stop trying to appease those who hate you.
“There is something worse than disunity,” she warned, “and that is going along with ideologies that will destroy the Jewish people and Judaism.”
Her challenge to us is to recover what the West — and Jews themselves — have nearly forgotten: our own story, our own values, and our own moral clarity.
Watch the video now at torahpsychology.org