... First, the Zionist war criminal must avoid been arrested and jailed in his own Jewish colony in Palestine - not for genocide and war crimes, but for corruption and illegal bribes. He is begging his president to pardon him, but it doesn't look like a presidential pardon is forthcoming, lest Israel exposes its true nature as a "religious banana republic", the self-declared oxymore of a "Democracy Only for Jews" in which 50% of the population is indigenous Muslim Palestinian and 50% consists of foreign European and American Jewish settlers.
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Netanyahu: I’m not scared of Mamdani – I’ll go to New York
Susie Coen
Thu, December 4, 2025
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has insisted he would honour an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister - Michael M Santiago/Getty Images
Benjamin Netanyahu said he will visit New York despite mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s repeated pledge to arrest him should he step foot in the city.
The Democratic socialist has insisted he would honour an arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.
But during an interview with the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit about whether he would hesitate visiting the Empire state, Mr Netanyahu said: “I’ll come to New York.”
Asked whether he would “test” Mr Mamdani’s threats to arrest him and how it would work, Mr Netanyahu grinned and said “well, why don’t you wait and see?”
In July, months before Mr Mamdani’s electoral victory, the Israeli leader said he wasn’t “concerned” by the threats and would visit New York with Donald Trump.
Mr Mamdani has said he would send NYPD officers to arrest Mr Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin at the airport should they come to the city.
“Being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” Mr Mamdani said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.”
Zohran Mamdani said he would uphold the ICC’s arrest warrant - ANGELINA KATSANIS/AFP via Getty Images
But legal experts have questioned whether Mr Mamdani would be able to execute an arrest of Mr Netanyahu in practice.
The US does not recognise the ICC and Mr Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February, saying it had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”.
Were Mr Mamdani to order Mr Netanyahu’s arrest, it would most likely spark a conflict with the federal government which Mr Mamdani may wish to avert following his amicable Oval Office meeting with Mr Trump in November.
Appearing in New York on Wednesday via video link from Israel, Mr Netanyahu said he would meet Mr Mamdani: “If he changes his mind and says that we have the right to exist.”
“That’ll be a good opening for a conversation,” he added.
Cora True-Frost, professor at Syracuse University’s College of Law said while Mr Mamdani’s pledge to arrest Mr Netanyahu was “politically very significant” it would be difficult to fulfil.
“Foreign affairs and policy are the exclusive power of the federal government, and this administration would almost certainly claim head of state immunity for Netanyahu,” Ms True-Frost said.
“That the US is not a party to the ICC does not in itself preclude Americans from cooperating with the ICC, though this administration is hostile towards it and has sanctioned ICC staff.
“Were Netanyahu travelling to New York City to visit the United Nations, the Convention on Privileges and Immunities and the UN Headquarters Agreement which protect visiting diplomats from arrest would further constrain Mamdani’s ability to make good on this threat.”
Mr Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor of New York, has said he supports Israel’s right to exist, but has stopped short of saying it has the right to be a Jewish state.
He has said no country should have a “hierarchy of citizenship” based on religion.
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