New York mayor Zohran Mamdani stooped to political theater when he recently reiterated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal and should be arrested if he sets foot in the city.

Netanyahu intends to travel to New York to attend the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, which opens on September 8. As Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “Netanyahu will come to New York, address the General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.”

Mamdani’s comments notwithstanding, there is no danger that Netanyahu risks detention. As US President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on July 20, “Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while ​in the United States of America.”

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor and an avowed anti-Zionist, has been bashing Israel since his days as a pro-Palestinian university student. But as mayor, he was clearly aware that he has no authority to arrest Netanyahu, whose conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip from 2023 onward led the International Criminal Court of Justice in 2024 to accuse him, unjustly, of perpetrating a genocide, an accusation he stoutly denies.

During his election campaign last year, Mamdani said he would order the police department to arrest Netanyahu under the warrant issued by that court.

And in an interview with The New Yolk Times a few days ago, he said he was discussing that possibility with his advisors, though he admitted he was unsure whether he........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)