Despite New York City’s incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani’s threats to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits the city, in compliance with an International Criminal Court warrant, on Dec. 3 Netanyahu said he still planned to visit New York City.
“Yes, I’ll come to New York,” Netanyahu said in a virtual interview with The New York Times’ Dealbook forum. Questioned if he will speak to Mamdani, Netanyahu said, “If he changes his mind and says that we have the right to exist, that’ll be a good opening for a conversation.”
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic Socialist who will be New York’s first Muslim mayor, has repeatedly said he supports Israel’s right to exist. Mamdani has also openly spoken about the “genocide” that Israel was committing in Gaza and during his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Nov. 21, he repeated his “genocide” views and noted that the U.S. government was funding it…