Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office is accusing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of attacking the Jewish state to distract from his record in New York after calling Netanyahu a “war criminal.”
The prime minister’s office fired back Sunday after the Democratic mayor said his administration was exploring whether it could arrest the Israeli leader during an expected visit to the city under the International Criminal Court’s warrant.
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” Netanyahu’s office wrote in an X post Sunday, amid recent reports he is nearing a trip to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.
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“Its bogus arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu was issued by a disgraced former ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, a few days before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public,” Netanyahu’s office said. “It was a clear attempt by Khan to divert public attention and seek protection from scrutiny.”
Mamdani is following the same playbook, the office added.
“Instead of backing Khan’s criminal behaviour, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York,” the post concluded. “Like Karim Khan, Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East.”
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Israel vowed to ignore the ICC warrant while it roots Hamas, “a genocidal terrorist organization ,” out of Gaza.
“Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel has taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimize harm to civilians while confronting Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that uses Palestinians as human shields and deliberately targets innocent Israeli civilians,” the office’s post read.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” earlier Sunday that Mamdani is ostensibly hyperbolizing for “political theater.”
“This is a communist, antisemitic mayor trying to make news for his own audience,” Pompeo said. “There’s nothing more than that. This is no chance he’s going to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu when he comes to New York in September for the U.N. General Assembly.
“It’s just simply not going to happen, and he knows it.”
Even some Democrats have rejected Mamdani’s stance, warning it could embolden terrorists at home and abroad.
“This isn’t a college protest,” former Democrat Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X. “This is the City of New York.”
“Threatening to arrest the democratically elected leader of one of America’s closest allies during U.N. General Assembly week isn’t bold. It’s reckless,” Adams continued. “American diplomats, service members, and officials are stationed in dangerous places around the world. Irresponsible rhetoric like this doesn’t stay in New York. It can put Americans at greater risk abroad. Leadership means understanding that your words have consequences. Reckless political theater can have very real-world costs.”
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has long broken with Democrats on becoming the “anti-Israel party,” telling the “clown” Mamdani to “sit down.”
“It’s such a tough guy to say that kind of thing,” Fetterman told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “He has no way to do that, of course. Obviously, America is not even part of that corrupt court. And so he’s just a clown to even say that. So he won’t try that. Just sit down and focus on other the problems that they have in New York. That’s really not your purview. You and I know that. Sit down.”
