Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of turning New Yorkers against each other with anti-Israel rhetoric, and pointed to a synagogue stabbing days later as evidence of the consequences.
Netanyahu made the accusation during a Sunday appearance on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" with host Maria Bartiromo, responding directly to Mamdani's recent public call for federal officials to arrest the Israeli leader under an International Criminal Court warrant. The mayor, a self-described democratic socialist, had called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people" in a public address the prior week.
Netanyahu did not hold back. He said Mamdani's job is to represent all New Yorkers, and that the mayor is failing at it.
"Look what he's doing. He's fomenting hate. He's supposed to be the mayor of all New Yorkers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone, but he's trying to turn one group against the other."
The interview came after a week that saw Mamdani publicly acknowledge that New York City officials lack the legal authority to arrest Netanyahu under the ICC warrant, but then urge federal officials to do so instead. Mamdani has repeatedly insisted Netanyahu is not welcome in New York, a city home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the world.
Netanyahu drew a direct line between Mamdani's remarks and a stabbing that authorities say occurred the following day on Manhattan's Upper West Side. A 51-year-old suspect, Raul Morales, allegedly stabbed a Jewish man in the chest with a screwdriver outside a synagogue while shouting "Allahu Akbar." The incident is under investigation as a hate crime.
Netanyahu framed the timing as more than coincidence:
"They're afraid right now, and I don't think it's accidental that after [Mamdani] made this hate speech against Israel and against me, the next day, a Jew is stabbed coming out of a synagogue."
Reports also allege Morales yelled the same phrase during a separate stabbing of a 57-year-old Asian man, though the timing and details of that incident remain unclear. The current status of the hate crime investigation and Morales's legal proceedings were not addressed in the interview.
Bartiromo pressed Netanyahu on whether Mamdani's hostility would deter him from traveling to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, which begins in September. Netanyahu was dismissive.
"I'm not concerned [about Mamdani]. I've appeared just about every year... in my prime ministership, unless there are security conditions, but barring that, and I don't expect that to be the case this time, yes, I do intend to come to New York."
The statement amounts to a direct challenge. Mamdani has positioned himself as a mayor willing to confront a sitting head of state over an ICC warrant that the United States has not endorsed or agreed to enforce. Netanyahu signaled he views the mayor's stance as political theater, and plans to walk right through it.
Fox News Digital reported that the New York City Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Netanyahu's remarks. That silence leaves Mamdani's original characterization of Netanyahu as a "war criminal", a term that carries legal weight Mamdani himself acknowledged his office cannot act on, as the last word from City Hall.
Netanyahu called the mayor's conduct "shameful."
"I think that it's shameful. This thing is very bad for New York. I think it's very bad for peace."
The exchange exposes a pattern that has become familiar in progressive urban governance: a local official grandstands on international affairs he has no authority over, while the people he actually governs, in this case, Jewish New Yorkers, face real threats on the streets outside their synagogues. Mamdani can't arrest Netanyahu. But he can set a tone. And the tone he set last week was followed, within a day, by a screwdriver in a Jewish man's chest.
Words from elected leaders carry weight. When those words single out a foreign democracy and its people for condemnation, the consequences don't stay inside a press conference.
