New York City Hall Has No Business Running Its Own Foreign Policy

In this PJ Media article, David Manney argues that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has no legal authority to conduct foreign policy or arrest foreign leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, powers that the Constitution and federal law reserve exclusively to the national government.

• Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent months on the campaign trail promising to have the NYPD arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York for the UN General Assembly.
• On Tuesday Mamdani’s own lawyers concluded that the city possesses “no independent legal authority” to enforce the International Criminal Court warrant after reviewing every possible avenue.
• Neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, and Congress has expressly prohibited state and local governments from cooperating with ICC requests or assisting in any surrender.
• The 1947 United Nations Headquarters Agreement further forbids local authorities from obstructing foreign representatives traveling to and from UN headquarters in Manhattan.
• President Trump settled remaining doubt by declaring that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form” while in the United States.
• Despite conceding he cannot act, Mamdani continues to brand Netanyahu a “war criminal,” declare him unwelcome, and demand that the federal government join the ICC and execute the warrant.
• The author emphasizes that City Hall has no separate foreign policy and that New Yorkers elected a mayor to deliver basic municipal services, not to function as a secretary of state.

Read the full story:
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/07/21/new-york-city-hall-has-no-business-running-its-own-foreign-policy-n4955309