Israel was on the menu — in more ways than one — in former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s televised clash with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) Monday night as Lander seeks to oust the incumbent congressman in this month’s Democratic primary.

The Jewish state was the centerpiece over which the two congressional contenders clashed for much of the hour-long debate on Spectrum News NY1, as Lander ripped Goldman’s support for former President Joe Biden’s policy toward the conflict in Gaza, touted his own pledge to deny further military aid to Israel and voiced sympathy for the successful push to ban Israeli products from the Park Slope Food Coop, though the self-described progressive Zionist maintained he still opposed the effort. So intensely did the two chew over the issue that Goldman at one point burst out, “Israel is not the most important issue in this district!”

But when asked for the best place in the Brooklyn-Manhattan district to break bread, Lander returned to the Holy Land once more: or rather, to its cuisine.

“I love Masalawala on Fifth Avenue, I love Miriam — I’ll go with those two,” the candidate answered.

The first is a popular Bengali spot in Park Slope, but Miriam is an Israeli restaurant a short walk away that has become a target of anti-Israel protesters’ rage. In early 2025, vandals struck the eatery with a splattering of red paint and and the words “Genocide Cuisine” and Israel Steals Culture.” 

At the time, Lander was among the local officials who decried the attack, offering support to the Petah Tikva-born owner, and declaring the incident “a clear example of when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism.” At the time, Lander was a contender for Gracie Mansion and had not yet embraced the politics of now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Lander had to defend his political evolution onstage, when Goldman pivoted back to the subject of Israel himself later in the evening and pressed the former comptroller on his announcement as a mayoral candidate that he had left the Democratic Socialists of America after 30 years as a member following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Lander stood by his decision to exit the group after it held an anti-Israel demonstration one day after the bloody assault.

“On October 8 they advertised a rally that I thought was heinous, that spoke about Hamas in ways that I just thought were vile, and I could not continue to be a member,” he said, even as he defended his cross-endorsement late in the race with Mamdani, the DSA’s standard-bearer. “The choice was between him and Andrew Cuomo.”

Mamdani has since returned the favor and backed Lander’s bid to oust Goldman.

Among the district’s leading Jewish constituents is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who both men declined to endorse for another term in 2028: Lander declared it “time for new leadership in the Democratic Party,” while Goldman questioned whether the lawmaker would run again.