NEW YORK — Under Comptroller Brad Lander’s management, New York City’s public pension funds have seen windfalls from investments in an Israeli arms manufacturer — a boon that could become an awkward pressure point for Lander as he mounts a 2026 primary challenge against Congressman Dan Goldman.

Lander, a sharp critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, made clear in an interview with the New York Daily News after his campaign launch Wednesday that he plans to use the issue as a cudgel against Goldman, who has come under fire from left-wing Democrats for his support of Israel amid the conflict.

“We both believe that Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 were a war crime, but I, along with most of the district, also believe that Netanyahu’s leveling of schools and hospitals is a war crime, and (Goldman’s) inability to reckon with that has rendered him unable to serve the district,” Lander told the Daily News.

“Members of Congress set U.S. foreign policy so they have a real role to play here. It’s American taxpayer dollars that are paying for the 2,000-pound bombs that Netayahu is dropping on civilians in Gaza.”

But that line of attack is a fraught path for Lander for several reasons — including the fact that the city’s public pension funds have under his watch as comptroller increased investment in Elbit Systems, the largest supplier of weapons to the Israel Defense Forces, records reviewed by the Daily News show. As recently this past March, in fact, Lander touted that investment to an Orthodox Jewish radio host.

A self-described “liberal Zionist,” Lander was at one point in his career more supportive of Israel. A decade ago, he and other local politicians visited the country even as he faced protests for doing so from groups angered by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Now, Lander is honing his anti-war attack line against Goldman as he has already secured an endorsement for his campaign from incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose November election was boosted by a wide win in Goldman’s Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn-based 10th Congressional District.

A longtime critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, Mamdani has said he believes Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Lander is among a number of allies who could capitalize politically on embracing a similar stance, but the Elbit investments could complicate that.

The pension funds’ holdings in Elbit exceed $1.5 million, the new records show. That’s part of roughly $300 million Lander’s office has previously said the funds hold in total in various Israeli companies.

The records show the city’s second largest fund, the Teachers’ Retirement System, which covers pension payments for public educators, control the biggest chunk of the city’s Elbit stock, holding over $1 million in company shares as of this past June 30, the most recent date for which detailed data is available.

That marks a 268% increase over the just shy of $280,000 the TRS fund held in Elbit a year earlier on June 30, 2024, disclosures show. About half of the increase between 2024 and 2025 can be attributed to the value of Elbit’s stock surging, but the remaining chunk of the TRS’ Elbit growth in that period came from purchases of new shares, per the records.

The comptroller is the custodian of the city’s five pension funds and, with advice from their boards, executes investments.

As of June 30, 2021, the last disclosure before Lander became comptroller in January 2022, the city’s pension funds held less than $250,000 in Elbit stock total.

The IDF has been accused of using Elbit weapons in strikes that have killed Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack. Several European governments have divested from the arms producer in protest of its supplying of the IDF.

Asked about the Elbit holdings in his interview with the Daily News, Lander suggested the comptroller has very different responsibilities than a member of Congress and that pension fund investments must by law only be viewed through a “fiduciary lens” of securing maximum returns for city government retirees.

“You don’t bring your politics to the job of investing the pensioners’ money, and I have not,” he said.

He also argued he hasn’t personally reviewed every single pension investment move: “The comptroller doesn’t pick every individual company, the comptroller hires investment managers and dozens of them to invest money consistent with a broad set of investment policy guidelines.”

Still, the Elbit holdings highlight an issue Lander has struggled to find a clear lane on.

During his unsuccesful mayoral campaign, Lander told a progressive group in early 2025 the pension funds weren’t invested in “any” Israeli government bonds after being asked how he could as comptroller put pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza.

The funds at the time actually held more than $1 million in Israel bonds. Still, following Lander’s claim, the group, New York Progressive Action Network, endorsed Lander’s mayoral run.

Speaking around the same time to Zev Brenner, an Orthodox Jewish radio host, Lander struck a different note as he affirmed he remains opposed to the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement that calls for pulling money out of Israel over its government’s treatment of Palestinians. In that appearance, he specifically touted the Elbit investments.

“The New York City pension funds are proudly invested in many Israeli-owned companies, tech companies like Nice Ltd, Elbit Systems, Mobileye, Teva Pharmaceutical … and no, of course, we’re not going to divest from them,” he said.

In 2015, while serving as a City Council member, Lander went to Israel with other lawmakers for an all expenses-paid trip. At the time, Jewish Voice for Peace, a local group that backed Mamdani for mayor this year, had called on Lander and the other Council members to cancel the visit, writing in a petition: “Do not neglect your official responsibilities to our diverse city by touring an apartheid state.”

At other times, Lander has said he’s not doing enough to push back on Israel.

“I know I have not done enough to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians,” Lander said this September while appearing alongside Mamdani at a Jews for Racial and Economic Justice event.

A Goldman representative declined to comment on the Israeli pension fund investments under Lander.

A spokeswoman for Mamdani, who endorsed Lander’s congressional run in conjunction with his campaign launch, didn’t return a request for comment.

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