Benjamin Netanyahu, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani trade barbs as Israeli PM heads to U.N.
The ongoing feud between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani erupted again Tuesday.
Netanyahu doesn't even plan to spend 24 hours in New York when he arrives Thursday to address the United Nations General Assembly. He'll arrive in the morning, make a speech, and fly right back.
He said he'll still have time to take on Mamdani.
"Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani. Shame on you for supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people," Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media.
It was Netanyahu's opening salvo as he prepares to come to New York to speak at the U.N. and personally settle a score that began when Mamdani was campaigning for mayor. At the time, the Mamdani said he would ask the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal if he came to New York.
"Shame on you for inciting riots against New York Jews. I'm coming to the U.N. I'm going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I'm going to tell the truth about you," Netanyahu said on his video.
He was referring to comments made by Mamdani last July, when Mamdani admitted he lacked the authority to arrest Netanyahu and suggested that his disappointed followers would still have an outlet to express their dismay.
"I think one of the bedrocks of our city is protest," Mamdani said in July. "This is a city where if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect. I leave it to New Yorkers themselves to make that decision."
Asked about Netanyahu's remarks Tuesday, Mamdani insisted he wasn't inciting riots against Jews.
"Well, we all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true," Mamdani said.
Mamdani fought fire with fire.
"What we do know to actually be the truth when it comes to the prime minister is that he is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. And, as the prime minister, is the architect of horrific genocide against Palestinians, and that just a few days ago, his military killed an 11-year-old boy in what is deemed to be a safe zone in Gaza," Mamdani said.
Ironically, at the United Nations Tuesday, President Trump sought to discredit the International Criminal Court that indicted Netanyahu. He called it a rogue institution, and called on all U.N. members of the ICC to resign from the organization.