As Mamdani vows to arrest Netanyahu, Eric Adams prepares to meet Israeli PM in New York

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 46 days to the election.

💬 Adams rolls out the red carpet

• Mayor Eric Adams will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York next week, he announced.

• The mayor who proudly touts his pro-Israel record said he will meet Netanyahu while the Israeli leader visits for the United Nations General Assembly.

• Zohran Mamdani, the mayoral frontrunner who is beating Adams’ reelection bid by a wide margin, has pledged to arrest Netanyahu if he is elected and Netanyahu sets foot in New York. He cites the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

• Netanyahu has brushed off the threat as well as the charges. The United States is not party to the treaty that created the ICC, meaning there is no obligation to carry out its warrants on U.S. soil.

• Adams responded to Mamdani yesterday, saying, “We respect the rule of law here. We don’t react in a reckless manner of stating that we’re going to arrest a dignitary that’s here.”

• A Times/Siena poll found that 40% of Adams voters are Jewish — but they aren’t enough to save his single-digit polling numbers.

🚓 Jewish man charged with threats against Mamdani

• Jeremy Fistel, a Jewish man who lives in Texas, was charged yesterday with terroristic threats and harassment against Zohran Mamdani. He is accused of sending anti-Muslim and xenophobic voicemail messages and emails to Mamdani, along with suggesting his car would explode.

• Tensions are at a high for elected and public figures across the country as political violence has soared. Most recently, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead last week and Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman was killed along with her husband in June.

• Mamdani told The New York Times that threats to his life increased after Kirk’s shooting.

• Adams focused on his opponent’s past comments about the NYPD rather than condemning threats against him. “There’s almost a level of irony to this,” he said. “Here you have a person who has spent his life bashing the NYPD.”

🚫 Non-endorsement tracker

• State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs announced on Thursday that he would not endorse Mamdani, citing the frontrunner’s staunch criticism of Israel and association with the Democratic Socialists of America.

• Jacobs, a moderate from Long Island who is Jewish, broke with Gov. Kathy Hochul and other Democrats who set aside their own differences to back their party’s nominee, who appears likely to win.

• “I strongly disagree with his views on the State of Israel,” Jacobs told The New York Times. “Furthermore, I reject the platform of the so-called Democratic Socialists of America and do not believe that it represents the principles, values or policies of the Democratic Party.”

🚨 Mamdani allies arrested

• Several allies of Mamdani, including Brad Lander, were among the elected officials arrested by federal agents on Thursday after demanding access to holding cells where I.C.E. is detaining undocumented immigrants. The officials said they wanted to inspect the cells after complaints about unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.

• It was the second time this year that Lander has been arrested for protesting Trump immigration policies. His first arrest came just before the mayoral primary in June, when he came in third after cross-endorsing Mamdani.