Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his United Nations General Assembly address to publicly accuse New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of antisemitism and pro-Hamas sympathies, a direct, named rebuke that caught the first-term mayor on the world stage.
Netanyahu devoted a significant portion of his Thursday speech to Mamdani, ticking through a list of specific allegations: that the mayor has praised individuals convicted of supporting Hamas, that he counts among his friends a commentator who said America deserved the September 11 attacks, and that his wife liked social media posts celebrating the October 7 massacre and denying Tel Aviv's right to exist. The Israeli leader addressed Mamdani directly from the General Assembly podium, the Washington Free Beacon reported from Turtle Bay.
The confrontation marked Netanyahu's first visit to New York City since Mamdani took office at the start of the year. Arab nations and other anti-Israel countries largely boycotted the speech, but the Israeli prime minister made clear he was less concerned with absent diplomats than with the man running the host city.
Netanyahu opened his critique by lumping Mamdani in with those he said were spreading lies about Israel's military and its soldiers. He did not soften the charge:
"To all those spreading these lies about my country, and about our brave soldiers, whether they sit in this hall or in the office of the antisemitic mayor of New York, I say this: Shame on you, shame on you for distorting the facts, shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor, shame on you for spitting in the face of truth."
He then turned personal, telling the assembly that Jewish New Yorkers have contacted him directly to express fear under Mamdani's leadership.
"Since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me. They tell me this isn't the city we remember. It changed so quickly."
That claim carries statistical weight. The New York Post reported that anti-Jewish hate crimes surged 8 percent in New York City in 2026, with 229 antisemitic incidents recorded through August, accounting for the majority of all hate crimes in the city.
The surge in antisemitic hate crimes has already drawn backlash against Mamdani's anti-Israel rhetoric, and Netanyahu's speech placed those numbers squarely on the mayor's doorstep before a global audience.
Netanyahu said the consequences of anti-Jewish rhetoric are not abstract. "In New York, Jews are threatened on the way to synagogue. Jews have been stabbed in the streets. Jews are demonized. They're targeted simply for being Jews," he told the assembly.
Netanyahu moved from the general to the specific, naming individuals he tied to Mamdani. He accused the mayor of praising convicted Hamas supporters and of maintaining a friendship with Hasan Piker, whom Netanyahu said had declared that America deserved the September 11 attacks.
"You praise criminals convicted of supporting Hamas. You count as friends people like Hasan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. Some friends you have."
He then accused Mamdani of inviting Gaza journalist Motaz Azaiza into his home. Netanyahu alleged that Azaiza filmed Hamas fighters beating and torturing Israeli hostages, and later admitted he withheld the footage to protect the perpetrators. The Washington Free Beacon linked to a Jerusalem Post report on Azaiza's alleged admission, though Azaiza's own words were not quoted directly in the speech or the reporting.
Mamdani has faced a string of controversies that have compounded his political difficulties. He and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew bipartisan condemnation after they were caught grinning during a September 11 reading of the names ceremony earlier this month.
Netanyahu also cited exclusive reporting from the Washington Free Beacon's Jon Levine regarding Mamdani's wife. He alleged she liked a social media post praising the October 7 attack and another post stating that Tel Aviv should not exist. The mayor, Netanyahu said, refused to condemn any of it.
"You refused to condemn any of that. You falsely, repeatedly accuse Israel of genocide. Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth."
The backdrop to Netanyahu's broadside is Mamdani's own failed promise. The mayor campaigned on a pledge to arrest Netanyahu when the Israeli leader came to New York, citing the International Criminal Court's indictment of Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. But in July, Mamdani delivered an address from Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence, conceding that his lawyers found no legal basis to follow through. He told New Yorkers that Netanyahu was "not welcome" in the city, but took no enforcement action.
Federal authorities were never expected to enforce the ICC warrant. As Just the News noted, the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and the court's judges and prosecutors are under formal U.S. sanctions.
So Mamdani's pledge amounted to a political gesture with no legal teeth. Netanyahu appeared to relish that fact, framing the mayor's failed arrest threat as part of a broader pattern of empty posturing.
That pattern extends beyond the UN confrontation. Just days earlier, Mamdani left a Gracie Mansion summit with President Trump empty-handed on his signature Sunnyside Yards housing plan, another high-profile setback for a mayor whose first year has produced more controversy than results.
After spending several minutes on Mamdani, Netanyahu broadened his address. He declared that Israel "didn't commit genocide" but rather "prevented genocide," and said Hamas would have killed every Israeli if given the chance.
He then turned to Iran, calling the regime's leaders "tyrants" who fear their own people more than any foreign adversary. In a theatrical moment, he held up one of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet devices from the podium.
"The Iranian regime is especially afraid when their people have this."
Netanyahu suggested the UN Secretary General pass the device to the Iranian diplomatic delegation, "so when they inevitably defect, they too will be able to freely tell their story on social media." He predicted that the Iranian regime would eventually fall, and said the world would celebrate that day.
Breitbart reported that Mamdani responded during the speech by reiterating his criticism of Netanyahu's actions in Gaza and referencing the ICC arrest warrant, though no verbatim response from the mayor appeared in the available reporting.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has been positioning himself as a national figure for the progressive left, calling the 2026 midterms a proving ground for Democratic Socialists of America-style politics. Whether that ambition survives a year defined by rising antisemitic crime, failed arrest pledges, and a dressing-down at the United Nations is another question entirely.
When a mayor spends his first year picking fights he cannot win, eventually someone picks one back, on a much bigger stage.