Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office dismissed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's public threat to arrest Netanyahu under an International Criminal Court warrant, a move that drew bipartisan condemnation and accusations of reckless grandstanding.
Mamdani told the New York Times he believes Netanyahu "belongs in The Hague" and called him "a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court." The Democratic mayor said his administration is in "active conversation" with the city's Law Department about whether he has the authority to order the NYPD to detain Netanyahu during an expected visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly in September, the New York Post reported.
Netanyahu's office responded Sunday with a blistering post on X, calling the ICC "a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis" and dismissing the arrest warrant as "bogus." The office accused Mamdani of using the threat as a distraction from his own record as mayor.
The Israeli prime minister's office did not stop at rejecting Mamdani's legal authority. It went after the warrant itself, tying it directly to former ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who was suspended over sexual misconduct findings. Fox News reported the office's full statement:
"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. It was a clear attempt by Khan to divert public attention and seek protection from scrutiny."
Netanyahu's office then drew a direct comparison between Khan and Mamdani, stating on X:
"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."
The office added that "instead of backing Khan's criminal behaviour, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York." Israel has vowed to ignore the ICC warrant while it continues military operations against Hamas in Gaza.
For all the tough talk, Mamdani himself has acknowledged he does not yet know whether he can actually do what he is threatening. Newsmax reported that Mamdani told the New York Times he is consulting the city's legal team because he is unsure whether he has the authority to order the NYPD to detain a foreign head of state.
"Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do," Mamdani said, framing the potential arrest as a legal obligation rather than a personal political stance. The ICC issued its arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024, alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including using starvation as a method of warfare, the Washington Examiner reported.
The United States does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction. That fact alone makes Mamdani's threat legally hollow, critics say. The mayor is a self-described democratic socialist who previously floated the idea of arresting Netanyahu during his mayoral campaign and is now taking steps to explore whether he can follow through from City Hall.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday and left little ambiguity about his view. Pompeo said on the program:
"This is a communist, antisemitic mayor trying to make news for his own audience. 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."
Pompeo added flatly: "It's just simply not going to happen, and he knows it." His characterization of Mamdani as "communist" and "antisemitic" reflects Pompeo's own assessment, not a verified biographical fact. But the former secretary of state's broader point, that a city mayor lacks the legal standing to arrest a visiting head of state under a warrant from a court the U.S. does not belong to, is shared across party lines.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has repeatedly broken with his party on Israel, appeared on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" and did not hold back. Fetterman told the program:
"It's such a tough guy to say that kind of thing. 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."
Fetterman's willingness to publicly rebuke a fellow Democrat on Fox News underscores how far outside the mainstream Mamdani's position sits, even within his own party. Breitbart noted that Fetterman emphasized the U.S. does not recognize the ICC, making Mamdani's threat legally baseless from the start.
Mamdani's predecessor, former Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, weighed in with an X post of his own. Adams wrote that Mamdani's posture was not governance but performance:
"This isn't a college protest. 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 went further, warning that Mamdani's rhetoric carries real-world consequences beyond city limits. "American diplomats, service members, and officials are stationed in dangerous places around the world," Adams wrote. "Irresponsible rhetoric like this doesn't stay in New York. It can put Americans at greater risk abroad." He added: "Reckless political theater can have very real-world costs."
That a Democratic former mayor would publicly accuse a sitting Democratic mayor of endangering American lives abroad is itself a measure of how far Mamdani has strayed from the political center. Adams's warning was blunt: words from City Hall travel, and Mamdani has shown a pattern of defying federal authority that goes beyond this single episode.
Netanyahu is reportedly nearing a trip to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump, and his expected September visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly would put Mamdani's threat to a practical test. No legal expert cited in any of the available reporting has suggested a New York City mayor possesses the authority to arrest a sitting foreign head of state under an ICC warrant the United States does not recognize.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon responded to Mamdani's posturing with his own pointed statement: "If anyone should be arrested, it is @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani." The ambassador's comment, while sharp, reflects the broader Israeli government position that the ICC warrant is illegitimate and that Mamdani is overstepping his office.
Netanyahu's office, for its part, framed the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza as a defense of civilians, stating that "under Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership, Israel has taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimize harm to civilians while confronting Hamas," which the office described as a terrorist organization that "uses Palestinians as human shields and deliberately targets innocent Israeli civilians."
Mamdani has not publicly responded to the criticism from Netanyahu's office, Pompeo, Adams, or Fetterman. His track record of inflammatory statements about Israel and its supporters suggests the mayor is unlikely to back down. But saying something provocative and doing something lawful are two different things, and so far, Mamdani has only managed the first.
A mayor who cannot say whether he has the legal authority to carry out his own threat is not making policy. He is performing. And the people who pay the price for that performance are not sitting in City Hall, they are the diplomats, service members, and ordinary Americans whose safety depends on leaders who know the difference.
