Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed aside Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest him as “silly” and teased plans to swing through New York City in defiance of the socialist’s warning.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Netanyahu told reporters in the Blue Room of the White House on Monday evening during his meeting with President Trump.
“There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends. This is folly and it’s silly in many ways,” the prime minister continued.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest him “silly.” AL DRAGO/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock
“I’m going to come there with President Trump and we’ll see.”
Trump then quipped, “I’ll get him out” during Netanyahu’s response to the Mamdani question.
Last year, Mamdani told Zeteo that he would not welcome Netanyahu to New York City in light of the International Criminal Court’s warrant for Netanyahu’s and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s arrest. The ICC issued those warrants last year.
“No. As 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 told Zeteo’s editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan last December.
After Netanyahu shrugged off Mamdani’s threat, Trump then publicly assured the Israeli prime minister that he had nothing to worry about under his watch.
“He’s going to be very fine. And we don’t know who the mayor is going to be yet, but this is a communist. He’s not a socialist. He’s a communist, and he’s said some really bad things about Jewish people,” Trump said.
“And he’s said some really bad things about a lot of people. And I think he’s going through a bit of a honeymoon right now but he might make it.
“He’s going to behave,” Trump added, referring to Mamdani. “He’ll behave. He better behave. Otherwise, he’s going to have big problems.”
Trump also re-upped his threat to leverage federal aid to New York City if Mamdani crosses the line.
The Post contacted Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist, had scored an upset victory against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in last month’s Democratic primary. Now he is set to square off against incumbent Mayor Adams in the general election, where he is generally seen as the frontrunner.
The Queens assemblyman has long been a fierce critic of Israel and Netanyahu, particularly concerning the war in the Gaza Strip and the treatment of the Palestinian people.
“As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu,” Mamdani said last year. Paul Martinka for NY Post
Mamdani has publicly rejected the notion that Israel is the Jewish state, noting that he’s “not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else.”
New York City has the largest Jewish population, with 1.4 million, of any city in the world. It also has a rapidly growing Muslim population.
Netanyahu visited Trump at the White House on Monday for the third time in the past six months, weeks after the two teamed up against Iran and amid delicate negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
While addressing the Mamdani drama, Netanyahu also referenced his answer to a prior question about whether he is open to a two-state solution.
“After October 7th, people said the Palestinians had a state, Hamas state in Gaza, and look what they did with it. They didn’t build it up,” the Israeli prime minister said.
“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.”