Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows to visit New York despite Mamdani’s repeated calls for his arrest
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that he has no plans to cancel his attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani's repeated calls for his arrest if he were to visit the Big Apple.
"I'm going to New York," Netanyahu said during an interview with "Hannity" following his White House meeting with President Donald Trump Tuesday.
"I'm going to speak the truth in front of this hate-spewing elected official who's pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others. He's turning them against New York Jews."
NETANYAHU FIRES BACK AT NYC MAYOR MAMDANI'S VOW TO ENFORCE 'BOGUS ARREST WARRANT'
Mamdani has long criticized Netanyahu over alleged atrocities committed by Israeli forces in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
He recently called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people." Tens of thousands of Gazans were killed in the war.
While Mamdani acknowledged that city officials lack the legal authority to arrest him under the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant, the mayor urged federal officials to do so.
MAMDANI GOES BACK ON CAMPAIGN PROMISE, SAYS NYC CAN'T ARREST NETANYAHU
Netanyahu, in turn, has accused Mamdani of fomenting hate and denounced his rhetoric, saying he is purposefully attempting to turn the people of New York against its Jewish population.
"What are we in the 1930s? What is this? So much hate, so many lies," Netanyahu told host Sean Hannity.
Meanwhile, Trump has criticized Israel’s continued strikes in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon, saying "too many people are being killed," and New York City's former Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Mamdani’s calls to arrest the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu slammed the ICC as a "corrupt, evil organization" and questioned why it calls him a war criminal and not Hamas.
"They don't charge Hezbollah… Supposedly, they charged Hamas , but a guy who's already dead. So no, it's fake. It's one big fake," he told Fox News.
The Israeli leader warned the ICC, an "unelected bureaucracy," could classify President Trump, or even U.S. servicemembers as war criminals.
"They could say that the president of the United States is a war criminal, that American soldiers – valiantly fighting next to us, shoulder to shoulder, against the tyranny in Tehran – that they're war criminals."
Netanyahu also told "Hannity" about his meeting with President Trump, describing it as "one of the best meetings" he has ever had with the president.
"I always hate to disappoint our would-be critics who are trying to find cracks in our alliance. And what they find, like today, is a wall of granite," he said.
"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," he continued. "So we have a common goal, and it's gonna be achieved, either through diplomatic means or other means."
Netanyahu will appear on the next episode of "Hang Out with Sean Hannity," available this Thursday to watch on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.
