Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in one of the marquee Democratic primary contests of the midterms, is declining to clarify his position on U.S. funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, even as he expressed his support for the aid last year during an unsuccessful mayoral campaign.

His reticence comes as some leading progressive lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), have said they will oppose further funding for Iron Dome and other defensive systems used to intercept incoming attacks against Israel. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Lander’s top ally in the June House race to unseat Goldman, a pro-Israel stalwart, confirmed last week that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez’s commitment to oppose defensive aid to Israel.

Asked to clarify his position on Iron Dome funding, Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Lander, told Jewish Insider on Wednesday he would not be commenting and did not return follow-up emails. Lander did not respond to a text message from JI seeking comment on Thursday.

Lander, an outspoken Jewish Democrat who has long identified as a progressive Zionist critical of Israeli policies, confirmed to the New York Post last spring while mounting his mayoral campaign that he believed the United States should continue to provide funding for Iron Dome and other related defensive systems to help repel missiles launched by Iran and its regional proxy groups including Hamas and Hezbollah.

He and his campaign would not disclose whether he still holds that position. 

Despite a lack of clarity on defensive aid, Lander has otherwise made clear that he favors conditions on broader military assistance to Israel, vowing in February to support the Block the Bombs Act — legislation that seeks to impose sweeping new restrictions on offensive weapons transfers to Israel.

Lander’s apparent reluctance to specifically weigh in on Iron Dome, support for which has long drawn widespread bipartisan support, underscores how he is now cautiously navigating a sensitive issue that is emerging as a sort of electoral litmus test within the far-left activist base he is courting while building his congressional campaign. On Thursday, Lander won backing from a new MoveOn.org campaign called “Stop the War Hawks,” described as a counter to spending from AI, defense contractors and AIPAC, which has endorsed Goldman.

In his bid to represent a heavily Jewish House district covering Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, Lander has sought to cast himself as an anti-AIPAC foe, accusing Goldman, a fellow Jewish Democrat, of being beholden to pro-Israel interests.

But in contrast to Mamdani and his allies in the Democratic Socialists of America, Lander, a former DSA member, has been less willing to fully endorse a maximalist approach to opposing Israel — even as he has forcefully escalated his rhetoric in the wake of its war in Gaza, which he has called a genocide.

Still, he has rejected the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel and insists he believes in Israel as a Jewish state, illustrating some possible points of tension with the activist left as the competitive June 23 primary approaches.

For his part, Goldman voiced his strong support for Iron Dome funding in a statement to JI this week — raising further questions over where Lander will fall on the issue.

“Our number one goal must always be to keep innocent people safe. The Iron Dome provides critical protection to millions of civilians and saves hundreds of innocent lives every day. I will always support defensive systems that keep civilians out of harm’s way,” Goldman said.

The two-term congressman, who significantly outraised Lander in the most recent quarter, argued in a recent interview that “Israel’s security is a much more complicated question than so-called offensive or defensive weapons.”

“I do not believe that Israel should be left to defend itself based on the Iron Dome itself,” he explained, “without the opportunity to have a deterrent effect of being able to either preemptively or reactively respond to attacks.”

Jewish Insider’s Washington reporter Matthew Shea contributed to this report.