Why Mamdani kept pushing for Netanyahu’s arrest

(RNS) — Let us stipulate that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a very talented politician. So why would he insist that he intended to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested up until the point when he released a two-minute video saying he doesn’t have the legal right to do so?

Especially since,  according to Politico , there were advisors during his mayoral campaign last year who informed him of “longstanding statutory barriers preventing a New York City mayor from ordering the arrest of a foreign dignitary.” Surely authoritative legal opinion on the subject could have been procured prior to last week.

The simple answer is that Mamdani was reluctant to violate a pledge he made during last year’s mayoral campaign. Not that the anti-Israel hard-liners in his base have given him a hard time for admitting he couldn’t do what he said he’d do. But at minimum, reiterating his pledge gave him repeated opportunities to denounce Netanyahu as a war criminal — which he did again to kick off his I-can’t-arrest-him video.

What’s backed up the denunciation has been that arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. The warrant , issued in November of 2024, conveys…