Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed to visit New York in September despite “hate-spewing” Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call for his arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“First of all, I’m going to New York,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, when asked about Mamdani declaring last week that he’s “not welcome” in the Big Apple because of the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2024.
“I’m definitely going there,” the Israeli prime minister continued. “I’m going to speak the truth in front of this, you know, hate-spewing elected official who’s pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others.”
Netanyahu specifically accused Mamdani of turning his supporters “against New York Jews.”
“I mean, what are we in the 1930s? What is this?” he added. “You know, so much hate, so many lies, and you know the big lie is about the ICC … that’s a corrupt, evil organization.”
Mamdani, in a July 21 video statement, admitted that he doesn’t have the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu should he visit New York – but slammed him as an unwelcome “war criminal.”
The pro-Palestinian, socialist mayor further called on the Trump administration to enforce the ICC warrant and arrest Netanyahu, despite the US government not recognizing the international court’s authority.
Netanyahu said his visit to New York City would come in September, during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
The Israeli leader was in Washington Tuesday for late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral.
Netanyahu praised Graham for being “absolutely unapologetic and unabashed in supporting the American-Israel alliance.”
“He believed that Israel’s security and America’s security were intertwined,” Netanyahu said, adding that Graham “couldn’t care about the winds of fashion.”
“He couldn’t care about social media and all these bots that try to play the American people for fools,” the prime minister continued. “He said you have one real ally in the Middle East and in the world, Israel.”
Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House before Graham’s funeral and described his sit-down with the commander-in-chief as “one of the best meetings that we’ve had.”
“I always hate to disappoint our would-be critics who are trying to find, you know, cracks in our alliance,” he said, likening the current state of the US-Israel alliance to a “wall of granite.”
“The president is so clear … we have a common commitment. We don’t want to see this fanatic regime in Tehran have nuclear weapons to threaten every American and to threaten the peace of the world and to threaten the existence of Israel,” Netanyahu continued. “So we have a common goal, and it’s going to be achieved either through diplomatic means or other means and we’re both committed to that.”
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