Netanyahu responds to NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest him: 'Silly in many ways'
WASHINGTON, DC: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not exactly quaking in his boots over New York City Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani's threats to arrest him if he ever sets foot in the Big Apple.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens, threatened to arrest Netanyahu during a sit-down with former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan last December.
Asked whether he would welcome Netanyahu if he visited NYC, Mamdani said, "No. As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also."
That came in light of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Netanyahu, linked to alleged war crimes in the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. Though the US isn’t a member of the ICC — a fact Hasan quickly pointed out — Mamdani doubled down.
"It's time we step up and make clear what we are willing to do to showcase the leadership that is sorely missing in the federal administration," he said.
Benjamin Netanyahu couldn't be bothered, but Donald Trump torches Zohran Mamdani
Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t seem rattled in the least when the topic came up during his Monday, July 7, visit to the White House, where he was meeting with President Donald Trump. The two were reportedly discussing everything from Iran to Israel’s war with Hamas, but the Mamdani threat came up in the hallway chatter
When asked if he was worried about a potential arrest in NYC, Netanyahu brushed it off with a smirk. "I'm not concerned about that," he said. Trump quipped, "I'll get him out."
Netanyahu added, "I'm going to come there with President Trump and we'll see." As for Mamdani’s threat, he called it "silly in many ways, because it's just not serious."
Trump, of course, wasn’t content to let Netanyahu’s comments stand alone and made sure to torch Mamdani on the way out.
"We don’t know who the mayor is going to be yet, but this is a communist," the MAGA leader said of the mayoral candidate. "He's not a socialist. He's a communist, and he's said some really bad things about Jewish people."
That was a not-so-subtle reference to Mamdani’s criticism of Israel and his refusal to condemn slogans like “globalize the intifada.” The commander-in-chief kept going, suggesting that Mamdani's current popularity might not last forever.
“He’s going through a little bit of a honeymoon right now, [and] he might [win],” Trump admitted, before adding, “But, you know, it all comes through the White House. He needs the money through the White House. He needs a lot. He's going to behave. He'll behave. He better behave. Otherwise, he’s going to have big problems."
Benjamin Netanyahu on Gaza and the two-state solution
When asked about the prospect of a two-state solution, Benjamin Netanyahu offered his take. "What is serious," he said, is figuring out whether a two-state deal can work without posing an "existential threat to the Israeli people."
"Look, there's enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends," he said. "After October 7th, people said the Palestinians had a state, Hamas state in Gaza, and look what they did with it. They didn't build it up. They built down two bunkers into terror tunnels, after which they massacred our people, raped our women, beheaded our men, invaded our cities and our towns and our kibbutzim and did horrendous, horrendous massacres, the kind of which we didn't see since World War two and the Nazis, the Holocaust."
"So people aren't likely to say, let's just give them another state. It'll be a platform to destroy Israel," he added. "We'll work up a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those who don't want to destroy us, and we'll work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands."
Critics may argue that’s not real statehood, but Netanyahu is unmoved. "Now, people will say it's not a complete state. It's not a state, it's not that, we don't care," he said. "You know, we vowed, ‘never again.’ Never again is now, it's not going to happen again."
