Governor of Alabama George Wallace holding up his hand to Deputy U.S. Attorney Nicholas Katzenbach as he bars entrance to two African-American students to the University of Alabama. Later, Governor Wallace stepped aside and the two students, accompanied by the federalized Alabama National Guard, were registered.
Bettmann Archive
When he got serious pushback, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani retreated from his empty threat to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. However, Mamdani’s demagogic behavior has precedence and will have ugly consequences. It’s a sad example of our politics today.
Mamdani knew he had no legal basis whatsoever to try to arrest Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu when he visits New York City in September for the annual convening of the United Nations General Assembly. But the Big Apple’s neocommunist mayor couldn’t resist threatening to jail the leader of the Jewish State. He calculated that this political theater would be a publicity-rich way to wow his anti-Semitic supporters and raise his profile among the Democratic party’s extremist militants around the country. Radical activists like Mamdani are setting the Democratic Party agenda.
The move was typical of that political ilk. They thrive on stirring up resentments and hatreds by resorting to false, inflammatory accusations. They abuse the language. Israel guilty of genocide against the Palestinians? It’s the first time in history that the population of the supposed victims of an ongoing genocide are actually increasing in population. The far-left’s toxic politics stokes violence.
Recall Mamdani’s attack video in front of billionaire Ken Griffin’s apartment to push a new tax on second homes. Griffin, who has a big real estate footprint in New York City as well as a multibillion dollar pending project, didn’t take kindly to being vilified and put in personal danger.
The mayor’s threat to arrest Netanyahu quickly generated serious blowback. Observers quickly pointed out that a New York City mayor has no authority to tell the city police and the district attorney to arrest or indict an individual.
The federal government conducts U.S. foreign policy, not local officials.
The arrest warrant for Netanyahu that Mamdani said he was going to enforce, was issued by an entity that has no jurisdiction whatsoever in the U.S. America has never been a member of the rogue and discredited International Criminal Court (ICC). In fact, years ago, the U.S. enacted a law authorizing the use of military force by the president to rescue Americans who got ensnared by the ICC. Our UN ambassador, Mike Walz, rightly labeled the move as “pure political theater.” Senator John Fetterman (D–PA) called Mamdani a “total clown. You’re out of your league.”
Mamdani would have kept up his show but for the fact that his particular threats may have been in violation of U.S. law. But the move fed his lust for attention.
Mamdani’s whipping up violence-inducing emotions—in this case firing up antiSemitism and scapegoating individuals—has disturbing precedence. In 1957 the governor of Arkansas, defying a court order, used force to block black students from attending a previously all-white high school. President Dwight Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce the order. The governor’s open defiance—it got him re-elected—was imitated in Mississippi by its governor in the early 1960s in the face of a court to allow a black student to attend the University of Mississippi. The defiance led to deadly riots and President John Kennedy deploying more than 30,000 troops to restore order. In 1963, the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, got his much-desired national publicity by standing at the door of the auditorium of the University of Alabama to stop two black students from enrolling. He eventually stepped aside. But the show contributed to a lethal atmosphere of violence.
Sadly, Mamdani-like antics have bloody consequences.