Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News he will travel to New York City in September for the UN General Assembly, brushing aside Mayor Zohran Mamdani's threat to arrest him and calling the mayor a "hate-spewing elected official."

Netanyahu made the announcement during a sit-down interview with Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday, hours after both men attended Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The Israeli leader had also met with President Donald Trump at the White House ahead of the services. Far from backing down in the face of Mamdani's public threats, Netanyahu used the Fox News appearance to go on offense, against the mayor, against the International Criminal Court, and against what he described as a campaign to turn New Yorkers against their Jewish neighbors.

The confrontation centers on ICC arrest warrants issued against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over alleged war crimes tied to Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Mamdani, who took office promising to act on those warrants, has spent weeks publicly floating the idea of arresting Netanyahu if he sets foot in the city. But the mayor's legal footing has collapsed beneath him, and Netanyahu clearly knows it.

Mamdani admitted his own office lacks authority to enforce the warrant

Days before Netanyahu's Fox News interview, Mamdani conceded in a July 21 video that his administration had found no legal authority to enforce the ICC arrest warrant. Breitbart reported the mayor's own words on the matter:

"It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant."

That admission represented a direct reversal of a campaign pledge. Mamdani had promised voters he would attempt to arrest Netanyahu, a commitment that legal experts and federal officials warned from the start was beyond any city mayor's power.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz dismissed Mamdani's posturing as "pure political theater," citing federal supremacy, protections under the UN Headquarters Agreement, and head-of-government immunity as barriers the mayor could never clear. Fox News reported that Mamdani had directed his Law Department to explore the city's options, but the legal consensus ran firmly against him.

Still, Mamdani continued to press the issue publicly. He called Netanyahu "a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court" and insisted the view was widely shared.

"He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years."

The "war criminal" label is Mamdani's characterization. The ICC issued warrants; no trial has occurred, no conviction has been rendered, and the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the court.

Netanyahu responded by announcing his trip and attacking the ICC's credibility

Netanyahu showed no hesitation when Hannity raised the subject. Mediaite reported the exchange in full, with Netanyahu telling Hannity he planned to attend the General Assembly and confront Mamdani's narrative head-on:

"I'm definitely going there. I'm gonna speak the truth in front of this, you know, this just hate-spewing elected official who's pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others. He's turning them against New York Jews. I mean, what are we, in the 1930s? What is this, you know? So much hate, so many lies."

Netanyahu then turned his fire on the ICC itself, calling it "a corrupt, evil organization" and singling out Prosecutor Karim Khan by name. He alleged Khan issued the arrest warrants as a way to deflect from a sexual assault accusation lodged by a female employee through Khan's own chief of staff.

Netanyahu's account of Khan's motives is his own characterization. But the underlying facts about Khan's removal carry independent weight. Khan was removed from his position for what the ICC described as "serious misconduct and serious breach of duty," including sexual harassment allegations, a detail that undercuts the court's moral authority to issue warrants in the first place.

Netanyahu also disputed the starvation charges at the heart of the warrants, claiming Israel had delivered "a million tons of food" to Gaza. That figure is Netanyahu's claim; it was not independently verified in the interview.

Trump and Rubio made clear the federal government will block any arrest

The White House left no ambiguity about where the federal government stands. President Trump posted on Truth Social that Netanyahu "will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America." The Washington Examiner reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further, outlining a plan to isolate and dismantle the ICC, partly over frustration with the Netanyahu warrant.

The federal pushback exposed a basic structural problem with Mamdani's approach: foreign policy and diplomatic immunity are federal matters, not municipal ones. A city mayor cannot arrest a sitting head of government visiting the United Nations under the protections of the UN Headquarters Agreement. Mamdani's own Law Department confirmed as much.

Having been forced to admit he lacked legal authority, Mamdani shifted his demand, calling on the federal government to join the ICC and enforce the warrant instead. That request has no realistic path forward under the current administration, which has sanctioned ICC officials and urged member states to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Public opinion splits, but the legal question is settled

A new Economist/YouGov poll found that 49 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should enforce the ICC's arrest warrant for Netanyahu, while only 27 percent said it should not. Forty-seven percent said they believe Netanyahu committed war crimes in Gaza; 24 percent disagreed. Newsmax reported the polling data, which shows the warrant debate resonating beyond political circles.

But public opinion does not change the legal landscape. The United States never ratified the Rome Statute. The ICC has no enforcement mechanism on American soil. And the UN Headquarters Agreement, signed in 1947, guarantees visiting heads of state access to the General Assembly regardless of what any local official thinks about their conduct.

Mamdani's pattern of wading into federal matters while his own city faces mounting problems has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. His administration has faced scrutiny over conditions in Manhattan, and his political base has fractured over domestic policy decisions that put him at odds with the progressive coalition that elected him.

Netanyahu, for his part, framed his September trip as an opportunity rather than a risk. He told Hannity he intends to "speak the truth" and "speak for Israel and for the Israeli-American alliance from the podium of the United Nations."

The episode also drew attention to Mamdani's broader record of cultural controversies and political missteps since taking office, a pattern that has made him a frequent target of criticism from constituents who expected competent city governance, not foreign policy grandstanding.

Netanyahu called Khan's removal from the ICC "a very positive development" and alleged it exposed "the profound injustice and corruption" within the court. Whether one accepts that characterization or not, the prosecutor who initiated the warrants against Netanyahu is gone, removed for misconduct, and the mayor who promised to enforce those warrants has admitted he cannot.

When a city mayor spends weeks threatening to arrest a foreign head of state, only to admit his own lawyers told him he has no authority to do it, the question stops being about international law. It becomes about whether the mayor is governing his city or performing for a camera.