Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday shrugged off the threat from New York City Democratic Party mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani to arrest Netanyahu if Israel’s leader sets foot in New York City.
As noted by Fox News, while campaigning in December, Mamdani said, “[A]s 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,” Mamdani said, citing the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
When that was brought up to Netanyahu during a White House visit, he waved it aside, saying, he was “not concerned about that,” according to the Times of Israel.
“I’m going to come there with the President [Donald] Trump, and we’ll see,” Netanyahu said, according to Fox.
“I’ll get him out,” President Trump said after Netanyahu responded, according to the Times of Israel.
Netanyahu, Trump Laugh Off Mamdani Saying He’d Arrest Netanyahu in NYC
Q: Mamdani “has said he would arrest you if you came to New York City if he was Mayor…”
Netanyahu: “I’m not concerned about that.”
Trump: “I’ll get him out!”https://t.co/JTztxTKtGf pic.twitter.com/gm1wSNfhAF
— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) July 8, 2025
“There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends. This is appalling, and it’s silly in many ways because it’s just not serious,” Netanyahu said.
Should Netanyahu be arrested?
Mamdani faces a general election in November and would not take office until January, if he wins.
Trump said Mamdani is “a communist. He’s not a socialist. He’s a communist, and he’s said some really bad things about Jewish people,” according to Fox News.
“He’s going through a little bit of a honeymoon right now, [and] he might [win], but it all comes through the White House. He needs the money through the White House. … He’s going to behave. … He better behave, otherwise he’s going to have big problems,” Trump said, according to the Times of Israel.
In dismissing Mamdani, Netanyahu said he would reply to the serious question of a two-state solution for the Middle East, according to the New York Post.
“After Oct. 7, people said the Palestinians had a state — Hamas state in Gaza — and look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up,” he said, referring to the date of the 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel.
“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,” he said.
“So people aren’t likely to say, let’s just give them another state. It’ll be a platform to destroy Israel,” he said, according to Fox News.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams says Netanyahu is welcome in the city after Zohran Mamdani’s remarks. pic.twitter.com/5BeJxIYUSk
— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) July 8, 2025
“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.”
“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.”
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