Mrs. Clinton, who is comfortably ahead in polls of New York voters, seemed to relish taking swings at Mr. Sanders.  “Make no mistake about it — this is not just an attack on me, it’s an attack on President Obama,” Mrs. Clinton said about the criticism of her use of a “super PAC” and her acceptance of big-money contributions. As many audience members booed, Mrs. Clinton grinned a little before saying, “This is a phony attack that is designed to raise questions when there is no evidence or support to undergird the insinuations.”  Mr. Sanders needs a landslide victory in New York to improve his slim chances at the Democratic nomination, and throughout the debate he appeared on the hunt for any new advantage. He highlighted a recent report about the failure of banks to plan for their own demise as evidence that his regulatory plans, and not Mrs. Clinton’s, were tough enough to rein in bank executives. He pointed to some polls indicating that he would be a stronger opponent than Mrs. Clinton in a general election against Donald J. Trump if he wins the Republican nomination.  Mrs. Clinton showed a determination to deal a devastating blow to Mr. Sanders in the New York primary, and she sought to lay the groundwork on Thursday night with the issue of Israel, which evolved into one of the more memorable exchanges of the evening.  In New York, where candidates traditionally compete with one another to align themselves with Israel’s interests, it was startling to see a major Democratic candidate, Mr. Sanders, unapologetically challenge the actions of the Israeli government and call for evenhanded treatment of Palestinians.  “If we are ever going to bring peace to that region,” Mr. Sanders said, “we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.” He added, “That does not make me anti-Israel.”  Mrs. Clinton jumped on her rival. “I negotiated the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in November of 2012,” she said. “They do not seek this kind of attacks. They do not invite rockets parading down on their towns and villages.”  Mr. Sanders said Mrs. Clinton was “evading” a major issue: whether she believes that Israel responds disproportionately to attacks, such as during the 2014 assault on Gaza. And he was sharply critical of Mrs. Clinton’s stance on Palestinians, twice bringing up her recent speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group. “I heard almost no discussion at all about the needs of the Palestinian people,” he said of the speech.  Mr. Sanders came in for some of his toughest treatment from the debate moderators, led by Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash of CNN, who questioned him aggressively about his grasp of banking regulations and his struggle to provide policy details during an interview with The Daily News’s editorial board.  Ms. Bash also challenged Mr. Sanders to give an example of how Mrs. Clinton was unduly influenced by big banks, to which he cited the financial excesses and greed that led to the recession.  “The obvious response to that is that you’ve got a bunch of fraudulent operations and they’ve got to be broken up,” Mr. Sanders said. “Now, Secretary Clinton was busy giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $225,000 a speech. So the proper response, in my view, is we should break them up.”  Mrs. Clinton drew strong applause when she bluntly said her opponent had dodged the question, adding, “He cannot come up with any example because there is no example.”  The debate was in many ways the sum of the previous eight. Mr. Sanders has grown steadily more assertive and combative since the Democrats’ first debate in October, when he passed up opportunities to attack Mrs. Clinton over her Iraq war vote and her speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.  He now raises those issues almost daily in an attempt to win over voters by drawing sharp contrasts between his and Mrs. Clinton’s policy records. He has also been trying to appeal to a broader audience, including African-Americans and Hispanics, beyond the liberals and young people who were his focus in the early debates.  Mrs. Clinton has remained a polished and nimble performer throughout the debate season, which nearly ended in March as the two campaigns bickered about holding a debate in New York before the primary. The campaigns have also discussed holding one in May — perhaps in California, before its June 7 primary — though no final agreement has been reached.  As aggressive as Mr. Sanders acted in the debate, he has very limited ability to overtake Mrs. Clinton in their critical competition to amass the 2,383 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. Despite his winning seven of the last eight primaries and caucuses, he continues to trail Mrs. Clinton by 220 pledged delegates. And his chances of catching up are about to get harder: The New York primary will open a period in which the map of nomination contests shifts back in Mrs. Clinton’s favor, with several large states holding primaries instead of caucuses.  The most uncomfortable moment for Mrs. Clinton came when the debate turned to the 1994 crime bill, which put 100,000 more police officers on the streets, built new prisons and banned certain types of assault weapons. The bill, which Mr. Sanders voted for and Mrs. Clinton supported as first lady, has been widely criticized as contributing to the mass incarceration of African-Americans and to tensions between police officers and black communities.  Mr. Sanders minced no words about Mrs. Clinton’s use of the term “superpredators” to describe urban gang members in a 1996 speech. And he explained why he had criticized former President Bill Clinton this week for standing up for Mrs. Clinton on the issue.  “It was a racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term,” he said, setting off rousing cheers from the crowd.  Mrs. Clinton has said she regrets using the term, and on Thursday night, she had no problem putting the blame for the crime bill on her husband. “He was the president who actually signed it,” she said.  Mrs. Clinton continually tried to make her opponent appear less versed on policy nuances, frequently diving into in-depth policy issues. Asked about her paid speeches to Wall Street banks, she pivoted, saying she was “the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives as Senator Sanders did.”  Pressed again to release the transcripts of her paid speeches, Mrs. Clinton called on Mr. Sanders to release his tax returns.  Mr. Sanders, in response, said he would release his 2014 tax returns on Friday.  The audience frequently seemed on the side of Mr. Sanders, with many people chanting along with him as he said his average campaign contribution was $27. But Mrs. Clinton also earned cheers, which she acknowledged with a knowing smile as she cast herself as the hometown candidate.  “I love being in Brooklyn — this is great,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Bernie Sanders repeatedly savaged Hillary Clinton’s ties to wealthy donors and Wall Street banks, while Mrs. Clinton countered with steely confidence.