Mamdani and Netanyahu Are in a Vicious Battle of Phrases

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a session of the Israeli Parliament on the Knesset in Jerusalem on July 16, 2026
Picture: Ilia Yefimovich/AFP/Getty Pictures

Tensions between Zohran Mamdani and Benjamin Netanyahu have deepened after the Israeli prime minister fired again on the mayor’s video accusing him of genocide, claiming that Mamdani is “formenting hate.”

In an interview on Fox Information’ Sunday Morning Futures, Netanyahu railed towards the excellent warrant towards him from the Worldwide Prison Court docket, calling the physique’s ruling into query following the latest ouster of its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over sexual misconduct. The prime minister stated that Mamdani is basing his arguments towards him on Khan’s “bogus prices” and accused the mayor’s latest video of being “hate speech” directed at each him and Israel.

“He’s fomenting hate. He’s imagined to be the mayor of all New Yorkers: Jews, Christians, Muslims, everybody. However he’s attempting to show one group towards the opposite, and he’s foisting hate and concern,” Netanyahu stated Sunday. “I communicate to Jewish People in New York they usually’re afraid proper now.”

Netanyahu additionally sought to attract an unproven connection between Mamdani’s remarks and a pair of stabbing assaults towards a Jewish man and an Asian man on the Higher West Facet final week, saying he didn’t consider it was “unintended” that the assaults occurred after the mayor shared his video. Fifty-one-year-old Raul Morales was taken into custody for the assaults, throughout which he reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar.” Morales, who isn’t believed to have recognized the victims, is at the moment going through a number of counts together with tried homicide and hate-crime prices. The NYPD has stated that Morales’s potential motivation for the assaults continues to be beneath investigation.

In a video shared to social media final week, Mamdani denounced Netanyahu as a “battle legal,” accusing him of perpetuating a genocide towards the Palestinian folks and stating that he’s answerable for the deaths of 73,000 folks. Throughout his 2025 mayoral marketing campaign, Mamdani stated, if elected, he would order Netanyahu’s arrest if the prime minister ever visited New York, citing the ICC’s warrant for his arrest issued in 2024. However within the clip, the mayor acknowledged that town authorities lacks the ability to take action.

“It’s clear that we should not have the unbiased authorized authority to implement this warrant,” Mamdani stated. “The federal authorities, nonetheless, does, and I name on them to hitch the ICC and execute this warrant.”

The mayor addressed Netanyahu’s feedback throughout an unrelated press convention Monday, saying he was “not enthusiastic about getting right into a back-and-forth with Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

“What I’ll say is that right here in New York Metropolis, one in every of my high priorities is maintaining Jewish New Yorkers secure, maintaining each single New Yorker secure. And we all know that whereas Jewish New Yorkers comprise a minority of all New Yorkers, they comprise a majority of the victims of all hate crimes and that’s unacceptable,” he stated.

When requested about criticism that his video has helped to inflame tensions within the metropolis, Mamdani emphasised that his remarks on Netanyahu have been solely in regards to the prime minister. “My duty as a New Yorker and as a mayor of this metropolis is a duty to care for every one that calls town their house,” Mamdani stated. “And that’s not based mostly upon whether or not or not they agree with me, how they really feel about me. My job is to guarantee that they’re secure, that they’re thriving and that they proceed to name this metropolis house and that’s at all times going to be my North Star on how we are able to do this.”

Netanyahu is poised to go to america this week for a gathering with President Donald Trump amid the U.S’s ongoing battle with Iran and is predicted to attend the funeral providers for South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who was a powerful ally of the prime minister in Congress. In his sit-down with Fox Information, Netanyahu stated he additionally intends to go to New York Metropolis in September for the United Nations’ Common Meeting regardless of Mamdani saying he’s “not welcome” within the metropolis.

“I’ve appeared nearly yearly, not yearly, however nearly yearly in my prime ministership except there are safety circumstances. However barring that — and I don’t anticipate that to be the case this time — I do intend to return to New York,” he stated.