For the better part of a year, Zohran Mamdani has not paid a political price for his sickening anti-Israel and anti-Jewish positions and comments. 

Thursday’s mayoral debate promises to be the end of the honeymoon. 

Not that his opponents, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, needed more ammunition, given the Queens assemblyman’s reckless tax plans and anti-police, pro-criminal agenda. 

But Cuomo and Sliwa will come to the crucial face-off bearing fresh evidence that the socialist front-runner is unfit to be dogcatcher, let alone mayor of New York. 

The smoking gun is Mamdani’s outrageous reaction to the end of the war in Gaza and the return of 20 living Israeli hostages. 

His Monday statement never mentioned the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, an effort that can only be described as a putrid whitewash of the slaughter, rape and infanticide that marked the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. 

He also didn’t mention President Trump’s heroic efforts to bring peace, lest it trigger a mass outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome among his radical camp followers. 

Instead, he started with a murky ode to both sides, saying, “Today’s scenes of Israelis and Palestinians are profoundly moving: Israeli hostages being freed and families reunited after years of fear, uncertainty, and torture.” 

But he couldn’t restrain his ingrained antisemitism, and switched to a fact-free attack on the Jewish state, with a side order of anti-Americanism. 

“We have watched as our tax dollars have funded a genocide,” he said.

“The moral and human cost will be a lasting stain and requires accountability and real examination of our collective conscience and our government’s policies.” 

Don’t you love it when a 33-year-old nepo baby living mostly off his parents’ millions tells the rest of us to examine our consciences? 

Notably, after smearing Israel and the US, he couldn’t find a single word to denounce the butchers of Hamas, even as they violated the agreement by returning the remains of only four dead hostages, out of the 28 known to have died or been murdered in captivity. 

Instead, he parroted anti-Israel talking points, saying, “We must work towards a future built upon justice, one without occupation and apartheid, and for a world where every person can live with safety and dignity.” 

The last part reveals the gaping hole where he should have a heart.

It’s standard fare for his ilk not to cite Jewish victims, but he also failed to mention the disgusting photos coming out of Gaza Tuesday showing Hamas psychos executing Palestinians who they charged with resistance. 

Reports say at least 30 unarmed civilians were forced to kneel and then publicly shot in the back of their heads. 

Imagine if Israelis . . . 

Mamdani’s refusal to condemn such bloodlust by his fellow Muslims is on par with his previous refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is a call to kill Jews anywhere and everywhere. 

He says he doesn’t use the phrase, but apparently is not bothered when others do.

He also says he would order the NYPD to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister came to New York. 

In a sharp contrast, Cuomo called the Gaza settlement “more than a diplomatic success,” saying it is “a moral moment, a reminder of our shared humanity and the sacred value of every life.” 

He also referenced the Hamas invasion, saying, “We must never forget the terrorist act that brought us here, and we must stand together to say, with one voice: never forget and never again.” 

His lapse was in failing to mention Trump, which likely stems from a fear of turning off Trump-hating Dems whose votes he needs. 

The next mayor, whoever it is, is going to need the courage to tell the truth, even when it is politically inconvenient. 

There’s a practical reason on top of sheer accuracy and fairness.

Trump has often said he is eager to help his hometown, and any mayor would be stupid to drive away a president who can help or hurt New York in a myriad of ways. 

Gov. Hochul is already doing that in her amateurish attempt to play to the radicals in the peanut gallery.

Her endorsement of Mamdani was reckless, given what his policies would do to the city. 

As Mayor Adams told me in a recent interview, people underestimate how much damage Mamdani could do.

Citing some of the candidate’s more notorious promises, Adams said, “He could tell the Police Department not to enforce prostitution and shoplifting crimes and not to go after lower level drug dealers.” 

He added, “When homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens start seeing teenagers selling their bodies on the streets and using drugs and see homeless encampments popping up in their neighborhoods,” they shouldn’t be shocked because that’s how Mamdani’s agenda would play out. 

Sliwa, the GOP nominee, also hailed the return of the hostages, saying, “We pray that these hostages coming home can recover, and live peacefully again.” 

He was the only one to mention the man who forged the peace, saying, “We are proud of President Trump and all involved for making this peace deal happen.” 

Good for him. 

The debate has the potential to shake up the race, which has been fairly stagnant for three months, with recent polls showing Cuomo, running as an independent after losing the Democrats’ primary, trailing Mamdani by as many as 15 points, with Sliwa a distant third. 

Although it’s disappointing that Adams hasn’t followed through on his comment that he was leaning toward endorsing Cuomo, his withdrawal has lifted Cuomo’s support because of the overlap in their moderate, middle- and working-class supporters, many of them black. 

Still, the former governor faces a gap of 10 points or so even in the most optimistic scenarios. 

Given the enthusiasm among most of Mandani’s leftist backers, Cuomo’s best hope is to cut deeply into Sliwa’s share of the vote, which has been running at about 15%, and pick up most of the undecideds. 

Despite his own considerable baggage, Cuomo’s mainstream policy positions should give him an advantage among sensible New Yorkers.

He wants to hire 5,000 police officers while Mamdani wants to handcuff the cops and shrink the force. 

Cuomo also wants to use mayoral control of schools to add more high-performing charter schools, while Mamdani would hand mayoral control to the Legislature and thus the unions. 

A second debate with the same three candidates is scheduled for next week, and a week of early voting begins Oct. 25, with Election Day on Nov. 4. 

Turnout of course will be a key factor. Recent general elections have seen about 1.1 million votes, but there were almost as many in the Dem primary. 

Under the ranked-choice system, Mamdani got a total of 573,000, to Cuomo’s 443,000.

In the general with these three candidates, 650,000 votes could be enough to win.