Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a threat by New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani to have him arrested during a future visit to the city, calling it “silly” and “folly”, and hinted at plans to visit New York city despite the social candidate’s warning, as reported by New York Post.“I am not concerned about that,” Netanyahu told reporters at the White House on Monday during his working dinner with US president Donald Trump. “There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends. This is folly and it’s silly in many ways,” he added.Last year, Mamdani told Zeteo he would not welcome Netanyahu to New York City, citing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants issued for both Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.“No. As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also,” Mamdani had said last year. Mamdani has also publicly rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.Netanyahu has assured that he will visit New York with Trump and responding to Mamdani’s threat while Trump has said “I’ll get him out”, as reported by Times of Israel.Netanyahu is expected to be in New York before next year as he typically speaks at the UN General Assembly’s high-level annual meeting held every September.“He’s going to be very fine. And we don’t know who the mayor is going to be yet, but this is a communist. He’s not a socialist. He’s a communist, and he’s said some really bad things about Jewish people,” Trump has stated.Referring to Mamdani, Trump has said, “He’s going through a little bit of a honeymoon right now, [and] he might [win], but it all comes through the White House. He needs the money through the White House… He’s going to behave… He better behave, otherwise he’s going to have big problems,” as reported by Times of Israel.Trump also renewed his threat to use federal aid as leverage against New York City if Mamdani challenges his administration.At the White House dinner earlier this year, Trump had proposed a relocation plan for Gaza’s population while Netanyahu nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday. The US president reiterated that he played an essential role in brokering a peace deal in several countries.Zohran Mamdani 38, democratic socialist, has secured the Democratic nomination and mayoralty of New York City and is a critic of Israel and Netanyahu. The general elections are not scheduled until November.He was born to Indian-origin parents Mira Nair, a widely celebrated Indian-American filmmaker and Mahmood Mamdani an Indian-born Ugandan academician.
