Mamdani Pits New York City Against The United States Of America

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be in New York next month to speak at the U.N. General Assembly. Meanwhile, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan to arrest the Prime Minister in order to “uphold international law.” In reality, such an arrest would not only violate both international law and U.S. Federal law, but would also endanger the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, and could even force the NYPD into a kinetic battle against U.S. Federal law enforcement.

Not surprisingly, Mamdani subsequently shelved the illegal plan, but the drama is not over: the New York mayor is urging residents to mount mass “protests,” which, under Mamdani’s mayorship, have a way of turning into violent riots. Indeed, the very next day, an assailant took two lives in a double stabbing on New York’s historically Jewish Upper West Side - while shouting "Allahu Akbar” and “justice for Islam.”  Numerous large scale “protests” under Mamdani’s watch have resulted in violent injuries to both Jewish New Yorkers and NYPD officers, while hate crimes have spiked: with more Jewish victims than every other group combined - despite Jews making up only 10% of the city’s population. 

New York’s soaring hate crime figures are not a coincidence: in addition to Mamdani’s frequent anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric, he has eliminated legal protections against antisemitism, and the one-time “defund the police” advocate is now significantly cutting the NYPD’s budget and manpower.

Even as he neglects his city, New York’s mayor is attempting to run American foreign policy from Gracie Mansion.  

The International Criminal Court (the “ICC”), a political body that dishonestly calls itself a “court,” issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in 2024, providing Mamdani with his pretext to arrest an American ally on U.S. soil.

From the beginning, the United States understood that the ICC was not a “court” at all, but a weapon of lawfare.  That’s why America never signed the ICC’s founding charter (the “Rome Statute”) and instead Congress passed a bi-partisan law called the American Servicemembers' Protection Act of 2002 (the “ASPA”). The ASPA not only prohibits any United States government body (such as New York City) from cooperating with the ICC, but also obligates Washington to protect U.S. servicemembers and allies.

A case in point: according to evidence leaked last April from the FBI, Qatar offered to “look after” ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan in exchange for a prosecution against Israeli leaders. According to the leak, the promised protection included a Qatari led smear campaign against Khan’s secretary, who had accused him of sexual harassment. Khan went on to obtain arrest warrants ex-parte, which means in a secret session without giving the accused an opportunity to respond or cross-examine. Khan has since been dismissed from his position over multiple allegations of “sexual misconduct.”

This is the kind of cynical corruption and weaponization that characterizes the ICC, and it’s not just about Israel: shortly before his passing, the late Senator Lindsey Graham prophetically noted, “if they do this to Israel, we're next."  

He was right.

The United States recently obtained information that the ICC is preparing to target U.S. servicemen and women over operations in Venezuela and Afghanistan. The significance cannot be emphasized enough: America is not even a party to the Rome Statute, never agreed to take part in this project, and yet foreign bodies are preparing to forcibly take custody of U.S. servicemen and women. As a result, Washington is now working to entirely dismantle the ICC through economic pressure.

Meanwhile, New York’s mayor is doing the opposite: bringing the ICC’s weaponized lawfare home to U.S. soil, and in doing so, acting as a proxy for America’s enemies who aim to target the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.  

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will speak to the United Nations next month, he will not be arrested, and New York’s mayor will not order the NYPD to do battle against U.S. Federal agents. Yet his illegal adventurism in U.S. foreign policy pits Mamdani squarely against the safety of the United States of America, even as the residents of his city continue to pay a bloody price.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to restoring public trust in information. An expert on the Middle East and international law, Daniel also serves as an adjunct professor at Israel’s Reichman University (the “IDC” in Herzliya). Daniel and RealityCheck can be found at www.realitycheckresearch.org or at contact@realitycheckresearch.org.