Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar laughed off Zohran Mamdani’s threat to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York City — telling The Post he doesn’t want to get into a “legal debate” with incoming mayor.
Sa’ar said in an exclusive sitdown Monday that rhetoric from the new Big Apple leader, who has repeatedly vowed he’d direct the NYPD to slap handcuffs on the prime minister, wasn’t even a consideration when setting Netanyahu’s travel plans.
“I don’t want to enter into a legal debate with the elected mayor of New York,” Sa’ar said from a Midtown hotel.
“But I will only say or repeat what the prime minister had said himself, he will come to New York,” he added, doubling down on Netanyahu’s statements last week.
Mayor-elect Mamdani, a far-left pol who is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, promised on the campaign trail that, if elected, he would have the NYPD carry out the International Criminal Court arrest warrant out for Netanyahu in connection to the Gaza war.
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The pledge has drawn the ire of Mamdani’s Albany ally, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who last week told reporters the young lawmaker had no authority to carry out the arrest.
“No, I do not, and the New York City mayor has not had the power to do that,” Hochul said.
The arrest order would also cause friction between Mamdani and his pick for police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, a proud Zionist who comes from one of the most prominent Jewish families in the city.
The mayor-elect has been mum on the arrest vow since appointing Tisch as his top cop last month.
Calls to Mamdani’s transition team to see if he intended to carry out the pledge were not returned Monday.
Despite the threat, Sa’ar still left the door open to having a relationship with the Mamdani, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel and an advocate for Palestinians.
“I hope that we will have, in the future, maybe, a constructive dialogue, even though I can be skeptical about it,” Sa’ar said Monday morning.
But Netanyahu hasn’t been as welcoming to Mamdani.
“If [Mamdani] changes his mind and says that we have the right to exist, that’ll be a good opening for a conversation,” Netanyahu said last week when asked if he would ask to speak with the incoming mayor.
Mamdani, who takes office Jan. 1, 2026, has said Israel has a right to exist, but repeatedly stopped short of saying it has a right to exist as a Jewish state.
