Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he would visit New York City despite Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s threat to have him arrested on war crimes charges if he does so.
Asked by host Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, taking place in New York, about Mamdani’s threat to fulfill a warrant issued last year by the International Criminal Court — to which the U.S. is not a party — Netanyahu, speaking via video from Jerusalem, scoffed and said, “I’ll come to New York.”
As to whether he would meet with Mamdani, Netanyahu said: “If he changes his mind and says we [Israel] have a right to exist, that’ll be a good opening for a conversation.” Audible laughter at his response could be heard from the audience.
Netanyahu also addressed one of the major political news stories of the week — his request to Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a pardon amid his yearslong corruption trial.
“What [President Donald Trump] calls a witch hunt — and it is — has been going on for 10 years … I’m supposed to spend three days a week, eight hours a day in that trial, and I have got a few other things to do,” the prime minister quipped.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2020 in three cases: for allegedly advancing the interests of Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan while accepting gifts from him; for allegedly negotiating with Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes to outlaw rival newspaper Israel Hayom’s free business model in exchange for favorable coverage; and for allegedly accepting a bribe of positive media coverage on news site Walla in exchange for regulatory changes benefitting then-Bezeq Telecom owner Shaul Elovitch.
Netanyahu noted in his remarks that the judges overseeing the trial suggested that the prosecution drop the bribery charge, said Walla never stopped covering him negatively, and dismissed the rest of the charges — fraud and breach of trust — as “a Bugs Bunny doll, champagne and cigars.”
The prime minister said that Israeli law does not require him to admit guilt when requesting a pardon, “and I don’t. It’s a nonsense trial. … It’s a joke. It’s so silly, so stupid.”
Netanyahu argued a pardon is “right for the country, right for our future. There are a lot of tasks at hand.”
“I think history beckons. We have opportunities for peace, enormous opportunities in AI and quantum [computing] … We have the opportunity to seize the future in a way that can help the entire Middle East and the world,” he added.