Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's "definitely" coming to New York in September — and he's using the trip to brand Mayor Zohran Mamdani as "hate-spewing" for daring to invoke the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against him.

The clash exposes a telling double standard in American public discourse: an American elected official cites an international court's warrant, and a foreign head of state compares him to 1930s anti-Semites. Question a foreign leader, get smeared. Demand accountability, get told you're beyond the pale.

Mamdani posted a video on July 21 declaring Netanyahu "not welcome" in New York and calling him a "war criminal," citing the ICC warrant issued in November 2024. Mamdani admitted he lacks the legal authority to make an arrest but called on the Trump administration to enforce the ICC warrant — even though the United States does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.

Netanyahu, speaking to Fox News, was unmoved. "I'm going to speak the truth in front of this, you know, hate-spewing elected official who's pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others," he said. He accused Mamdani of turning his supporters "against New York Jews" and added: "I mean, what are we in the 1930s? What is this?"

The New York Post framed Netanyahu's remarks straight, headlining Mamdani as "hate-spewing" in the prime minister's own words without further interrogation. Breitbart provided context the Post omitted: the ICC issued its warrants simultaneously for Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and senior Hamas leaders — including Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, both since killed in the war. The court charged Netanyahu with "starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts."

More significantly, Breitbart reported that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who initiated the case against Netanyahu, was removed from his position last week for "serious misconduct and serious breach of duty" after being accused of sexual harassment and non-consensual sexual behavior. The Post made no mention of Khan's ouster.

Neither the United States nor Israel belongs to the ICC — a fact the Post mentioned in passing and Breitbart noted up front. That means Mamdani was calling on the U.S. government to enforce the ruling of a court the U.S. government does not recognize. It was a symbolic gesture, not a legal plan.

Netanyahu described the ICC as "a corrupt, evil organization" and praised his White House meeting with President Trump as "one of the best meetings that we've had," likening the U.S.-Israel alliance to "a wall of granite."

So here's where things stand: an American mayor raises questions about a foreign leader's conduct under international law — questions backed by a warrant from a global court, however flawed — and the response is to brand him a hate-monger straight out of the 1930s. The prosecutor who brought those charges was just removed for misconduct. Neither fact gives the other side pause. The real question is who gets to decide which foreign leaders are beyond criticism on American soil — and why an American elected official isn't allowed to ask.