Mayor Adams has taken concrete steps to protect New York’s Jewish citizens and all New Yorkers. His successor, Mamdani, vows to “Obey International Law” if and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to New York City.

Adams

On Dec. 3, 2025 Mayor Adams signed Executive Orders (EOs) 60 and 61. EO 60 prohibits NYC’s appointed heads of agencies from boycotting, divesting from or sanctioning Israel; from participating in the BDS movement. EO 61 directs the NYPD to figure out how to protect people, including Jews, inside houses of worship, i.e. synagogues and yeshivas, as well as in public spaces from harassment, For more information on EOs 60 and 61, see the NYC.Gov site, here.

In May, 2025: Adams Created the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism (here) and launched the New York City – Israel Economic Council, here.  A month later, in June, 2025, Adams signed an EO to recognize the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. For more information, see the NYC.Gov  site, here. These obviously didn’t occur in a vacuum.

The actions in May and June were probably in response to the activities of the self-described “Pro-Palestinians” at demonstrations on college campuses, the Brooklyn Bridge, and elsewhere. EOs 60 and 61 are obviously meant to constrain the next mayor and his administration.

Zohran Mamdani, in contrast, as noted above has vowed to “Obey International Law” if and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to New York City. The “International Law” he cited is the ICC’s arrest warrant. However, aside from the bias of the ICC, the United States is not signatory to the treaty that created it, therefore, the “arrest warrant” is null and void within the United States, its territories and possessions. In addition, Federal Law prohibits local elected officials from cooperating with the ICC. Mamdani can not legally arrest Netanyahu. If he tries he will run afoul of US law, specifically 22 U.S. Code § 7423 – Prohibition on cooperation with the International Criminal Court, described at Cornell University Legal Information Institute, here.

Netanyahu, who will be doubtlessly protected by Israeli security forces – who train the NYPD and other American and European police forces (here) – will also be protected by the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Services, DSS.

Mamdani and “Globalize the Intifada.”

The “Pro-Palestinians” often repeat the phrase “Globalize the Intifada.” The first and second Intifadas were waves of terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers, and Israelis. According to Jewish Virtual Library, here,

During the first four years of the [first] uprising, more than 3,600 Molotov cocktail attacks, 100 hand grenade attacks and 600 assaults with guns or explosives were reported by the Israel Defense Forces. The violence was directed at soldiers and civilians alike. During this period, 16 Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers were killed by Palestinians in the territories; more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and 1,700 Israeli soldiers were injured. Approximately 1,100 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

Throughout the intifada, the PLO played a lead role in orchestrating the insurrection. The PLO-dominated Unified Leadership of the Intifada (UNLI), for example, frequently issued leaflets dictating which days violence was to be escalated, and who was to be its target. The PLO’s leadership of the uprising was challenged by the fundamentalist Islamic organization Hamas, a violently anti-Semitic group that rejects any peace negotiations with Israel.Roughly Israelis and Arabs were killed in what is now known as the First Intifada, from 1987 to 1993,

The Second Intifada began in September, 2000, a few months after Arafat declined to accept the Palestinian State offered by Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, US President Bill Clinton in the Camp David Summit of July, 2000. The Camp David Summit is described on Jewish Virtual Library here, and Newsweek, here. The Intifada, here.

The Intifada is, simply and clearly, terror attacks against Jews and Israelis Globalizing the Intifada means terror attacks against Jews and Israelis globally.

Adams’ EOs are all about preventing an intifada in New York City.

Mamdani, when asked about “Globalize the Intifada,” has said “That is not a phrase I use” but he declines to condemn it (Politico, here). Not condemning it doesn’t mean he is necessarily for it; it just means he is not against it.

Mamdani accurately describes himself as an immigrant in a city of immigrants. As of 2023, there were roughly 940,000 Jews living in New York City; which was then a city of 8.5 million people. Threats to these 940,000 people, to 11.06% of New Yorkers who are Jewish, are threats to all New Yorkers. It is unacceptable that the future mayor does not condemn threats to the Jews and everyone else who lives or works in New York City.

Mamdani, at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in 2023, said, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” reported on CNN, here, Mamdani was describing the collaboration between the NYPD and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) which began after the September 11 attacks in 2001, when U.S. law enforcement sought to enhance their surveillance and policing tactics. This partnership has involved various training programs and exchanges of tactics between the NYPD and the IDF. Police departments in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California have sent team members for counter-terrorism training.

One aspect of the Mayor’s job is to ensure protection of the public and public safety. This includes well-trained and well-equipped police, fire, and other emergency response teams. The “Israel Bad” mantra is, in plain English, racist. Given Israeli knowledge and technology, it would be a dereliction of duty to not learn from Israel, not to use Israeli technology, and not to learn from the IDF.

Personally, I think Mamdani should take his oath of office seriously and focus on managing the City of New York, rather than turn his office into a platform for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Qatar, you know, the people who have terrorized Israel since its inception and Gaza since Israeli forces left in 2005.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I have spent a lot of time in NYC: lived there for 30 years, worked there for another 20 or 30 years. I co-founded this blog with Jon Soroko, of blessed memory, late of Brooklyn.)