So sayeth Andrew Cuomo: “It’s very simple: anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

On Tuesday, the former New York governor and current New York City mayoral candidate gave a speech at a Manhattan orthodox synagogue arguing that antisemitism is a rising threat in New York City and promising that fighting it would be a centerpiece of his mayoralty. I too am gravely concerned about antisemitism, in this country and around the world. But according to reporting, the speech began with this false premise before metastasizing into a series of slanders against the most prominent mayoral candidates running to his left.

Cuomo’s opening gambit is neither simple nor true. Anti-Zionism is a tradition as old as Zionism.