NEW YORK/TEL AVIV (The Thursday Times) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has diverted his official aircraft from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to New Jersey and cut his visit to the UN General Assembly to a few hours, after Israeli security officials concluded that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani could try to disrupt the trip.
The change affects the “Wing of Zion”, Israel’s official state aircraft. Security officials feared Mamdani could seek to stop the plane from remaining parked at JFK for the length of the prime minister’s stay, and might have it ordered off the tarmac as soon as it landed rather than allowed to wait for his return.
The aircraft is now set to land at a military airfield in New Jersey, roughly two hours by road from UN headquarters. Newark Liberty International Airport had also been considered. Either option keeps the plane on the ground for the whole trip. In previous years, JFK allowed the official aircraft of Israeli and Iranian leaders to stay parked for the full length of their visits.
Both JFK and Newark are run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state agency that does not answer to City Hall. The NYPD does, and it will help secure the visit. The mayor has therefore been encouraging protests against a leader his own police force will be guarding. The US Secret Service has taken an unusually prominent role in the security arrangements.
Six hours on the ground
Earlier plans had Netanyahu arriving on Wednesday with a fuller programme. That schedule has been torn up. He now lands on Thursday morning, is expected to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before noon, addresses the General Assembly at 2pm New York time (11pm in Pakistan) and flies out the same evening. Israeli officials put the total time in New York at about six hours, the shortest stay by an Israeli prime minister on a visit to the United States. No journalists are travelling with him on the plane, and Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, has confirmed he will fly home the same night.
Netanyahu is due back in Israel before Sukkot, which begins on Friday evening.
Demonstrations are planned near the United Nations during the speech, and pro-Israel groups in New York’s Jewish community are organising counter-demonstrations. Israeli officials are also preparing for disruption inside the hall. Last year, numerous delegates walked out as he took the podium.
A war of words before the speech
The two men have traded accusations in the run-up. Netanyahu released a video accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas and of “inciting riots against New York Jews”, and said he would use the UN podium to tell the truth about Israel’s soldiers and about the mayor. Mamdani rejected the accusations at a news conference, pointing to the ICC warrant against Netanyahu and accusing him of orchestrating what he called a genocide against Palestinians.
Mamdani, who took office in January, has been a persistent critic of Netanyahu over the war in Gaza and the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him. He campaigned on a pledge to have Netanyahu arrested if he came to the city, then ordered a legal review after taking office and has since stepped back from that position.
In a video address in July, he said: “Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.” In the same address he acknowledged that New York has no independent legal authority to enforce the ICC warrant and called on the federal government to act.
He has encouraged New Yorkers to protest against the visit but says he will not take part himself. He has also condemned antisemitism and maintains that his criticism is directed at the Israeli government and its conduct in Gaza.
Netanyahu had set the tone earlier this year, telling Fox News the mayor was a “hate-spewing elected official who’s pitting one group of New Yorkers against the other” and asking: “He’s turning them against New York Jews. I mean, what are we, in the 1930s?”
What he will say
The speech is expected to run on two tracks: Iran, with what officials describe as a series of revelations about Tehran, and rising antisemitism, which Netanyahu blames in part on the rhetoric of world leaders and local politicians such as Mamdani. It comes about six months after Israel and the United States went to war with Iran in late February, a conflict that has not concluded, and with Israeli elections on the horizon the address is also being pitched at voters at home. Aides say it will contain “surprises”.
The ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and his then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel rejects the charges. The United States is not a party to the court, rejects its jurisdiction over Israeli nationals and has imposed sanctions on ICC officials. Any arrest on American soil would fall to federal authorities, which have shown no intention of acting on the warrant.
