Danon calls Mamdani a "clown" and says his arrest threat is "a stunt"
Danny DanonIsrael's Ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview with Fox News Digital
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon called Mamdani a "clown" and his arrest threat "a stunt," saying the mayor should focus on New York's problems and leave foreign affairs to Washington.
“Those baseless remarks about harassing the prime minister — it's a joke, and he's a clown. Everyone knows it's a show. It's a stunt. A mayor should be dealing with the homeless people, the garbage in New York, and leave foreign affairs to the people in Washington who are elected to do it.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Is Mamdani's campaign against Netanyahu's UN visit fomenting hate, or is it accountability for war crimes?
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "war criminal" and the "architect" of what he calls a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, citing the International Criminal Court's 2024 arrest warrant against Netanyahu. In July 2026, Mamdani said his administration had reviewed the law and concluded New York City lacks independent legal authority to execute the warrant, and called on the federal government to do so instead. Netanyahu has responded by accusing Mamdani of "fomenting hate" and, more recently, of supporting Hamas and inciting unrest against Jewish New Yorkers, citing a stabbing of a Jewish man in an Upper West Side attack. The dispute has continued through September 2026 as Netanyahu traveled to New York for the UN General Assembly, with Israeli officials accusing Mamdani of inciting chaos and Mamdani declining to join planned protests against Netanyahu while maintaining his position on the arrest warrant.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Fox News Digital interview in which Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon called Mamdani a "clown" over his call for federal authorities to arrest Netanyahu under the ICC warrant and said the threat was "a stunt."
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
The remarks came after Mamdani called Netanyahu a "war criminal" in a July 21 City Hall video and called on the federal government to execute the ICC arrest warrant.
After the quotation
Fetterman and Netanyahu separately made similar dismissive remarks around the same time.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
This is a separate, earlier occasion from Danon's already-recorded statements; he directly mocks and condemns Mamdani's conduct here as well.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Zohran Mamdani
Corrections to this statement
These notices document reporting corrections, classification changes, and topic-label updates.
Reporting correction
Correction to: Statement by Danny Danon
- Previous language
- Quotation: "The person who should be arrested is not our prime minister, it is you, Mr. Mamdani." Summary: Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon called Mamdani a "clown" and his arrest threat "a stunt," saying Mamdani himself, not Netanyahu, was the one who should be arrested. Date: July 19, 2026.
- Corrected language
- Quotation: "Those baseless remarks about harassing the prime minister — it's a joke, and he's a clown. ... Everyone knows it's a show. It's a stunt. ... A mayor should be dealing with the homeless people, the garbage in New York, and leave foreign affairs to the people in Washington who are elected to do it." Summary: In an interview with Fox News Digital, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon called Mamdani a "clown" and his arrest threat "a stunt," saying the mayor should focus on New York's problems and leave foreign affairs to Washington. Date: July 22, 2026.
An earlier version of this entry quoted words Danon spoke on a different occasion, which do not appear in the cited Fox News report, and dated his remarks July 19. We replaced the quotation with his words as the report prints them and corrected the date to July 22, when he gave the interview.
This corrects our account of what happened.
Fox News Digital interview in which Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon called Mamdani a "clown" over his call for federal authorities to arrest Netanyahu under the ICC warrant and said the threat was "a stunt."
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)More from this case
Read the full caseHochul says Netanyahu hurt his own credibility by accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas
“I have enormous disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and this is added to the list The mayor has never said he supports Hamas. He has called them a terrorist organization, exactly at odds with what Netanyahu just said. So he has hurt his own credibility”Read statement
Mamdani calls Netanyahu's United Nations remarks "baseless lies"
“As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.”Read statement
Netanyahu says Mamdani tried to silence him at the United Nations
“Mr. Mamdani, you tried to stop me from coming here. … You tried to silence me. Well, you can't silence me. You can't silence the truth. … Israel didn't commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. And that's exactly what Mr. Mamdani's Hamas buddies would have done to us had we not stopped them.”Read statement
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- Danon calls Mamdani a "clown" and says his arrest threat is "a stunt"
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The Dispute Index. "Danon calls Mamdani a "clown" and says his arrest threat is "a stunt"". First published: 2026-09-22. Last updated: 2026-09-25. https://disputeindex.com/events/1525-in-an-interview-with-fox-news-digital-israel