US Ambassador Mike Waltz Tells Mamdani: Netanyahu Arrest Threat Is Legally Dead on Arrival

Since Mamdani told The New York Times on Saturday, July 18 that he's in "active discussions" about arresting Benjamin Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister visits New York for the UN General Assembly, the response from Washington and Jerusalem has been swift and blunt.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz posted a four-point rebuttal on X on Saturday, laying out exactly why the mayor's threat won't go anywhere.

"Mayor Mamdani: here's why your threat to arrest PM Netanyahu's in NYC during UNGA is not going to happen," Waltz wrote, according to the New York Post, Israel National News, and VINnews, all of which carried his statement in full.

His reasoning: the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, the UN Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government, head-of-state immunity applies, and federal authority overrides any local mayor's wishes. Waltz summed it up as "pure political theater."

What Mamdani Actually Said

Mamdani's comments, made in the same Times interview that triggered Waltz's response, went further than a passing threat. He called Netanyahu a "war criminal" and said, "I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court."

Netanyahu has been the subject of an ICC arrest warrant tied to the Gaza war, an allegation the Israeli government has rejected as politically motivated and legally baseless. The ICC warrant is a real, documented legal action. Whether it has any force inside the United States, which never ratified the Rome Statute, is an entirely separate question.

Mamdani told the Times he's in conversation with New York City's legal officials about what authority the mayor's office actually has. "Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do, but we won't be writing our own laws to that end," he said. Mamdani isn't saying he'll invent a legal basis. He's saying he wants to find out if one exists. Given that Waltz, legal scholars broadly, and the plain text of the UN Headquarters Agreement all point the same direction, the honest answer is: it almost certainly doesn't.

Israel's Response Was Sharper

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, didn't just dispute the legal theory. He turned it back on Mamdani directly, according to the New York Post, Israel National News, and VINnews.

"Mamdani is failing to govern New York," Danon said. "Instead of focusing on his responsibilities as mayor and confronting the rising wave of antisemitism in his city, he has chosen to incite hostility and generate headlines by attacking the State of Israel."

Danon added that "if anyone should be arrested, it is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani," and predicted Netanyahu will show up at the General Assembly regardless, to "address the United Nations General Assembly with pride and stand before the world to state Israel's truth."

Israel's Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, made a similar point, according to Israel National News: "The mayor of New York City has no authority to order the arrest of the Prime Minister of Israel. Instead of dealing with matters over which he has no authority, he should start running New York City and only New York City."

A Jewish Community Group Weighed In Too

The pushback wasn't limited to Israeli officials. Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, told VINnews that "New Yorkers elected a mayor to make our city safer, stronger and more affordable. Not to conduct foreign policy." Treyger said Mamdani's energy would be better spent on "active conversations about raising pay for New York City's paraprofessionals, early childhood educators, EMS workers and other essential city workers."

Treyger's critique differs from Danon's. Danon is defending Netanyahu and Israel. Treyger is making a governance argument that applies regardless of where you stand on Gaza: the mayor of New York doesn't set foreign policy, and a symbolic arrest threat doesn't pay a single EMS worker's salary.

The Legal Reality

Waltz's four points aren't in serious dispute among legal scholars. The US never joined the Rome Statute, so American courts and law enforcement have no domestic obligation to enforce an ICC warrant. The UN Headquarters Agreement, a treaty the US signed in 1947, obligates Washington to let foreign officials travel to and attend UN sessions in New York without interference. Head-of-state immunity is a well-established doctrine in international law. Under the Supremacy Clause, federal treaty commitments override anything a city government tries to do.

None of that stops Mamdani from making the threat or from generating headlines with it. It also doesn't require the Israeli or American governments to treat it as a real operational risk. The UN General Assembly is scheduled for early September, and unless something changes, Netanyahu is expected to attend as planned.

Whether Mamdani's rhetoric costs him support among the moderate Democrats and Jewish voters who backed his affordability platform, or whether it energizes the progressive base that already sees him as a rare mayor willing to confront Israel directly, will play out well before Netanyahu's plane ever lands.