Mamdani’s Hostility to Prime Minister Netanyahu Jeopardizes the Mayor’s Relationship With the Police Commissioner

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has remained tightlipped through Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s quest to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month. While it was hardly the first time the pair has staked out opposing views on Israel, this standoff was different, personal: Mr. Netanyahu has known Ms. Tisch’s family, in particular her father, for more than a decade. Hizzoner’s long search for a legal pathway to send Mr. Netanyahu to the Hague — which started as a campaign promise — also demonstrated a desire, beyond his proclivity for criticizing Israel and its government, to lash out. Gone are the days of the agree-to-disagree joint press conference where earlier this year the mayor shirked his traditional role as grand marshal of the annual Israel Day parade and Ms. Tisch stepped into the breach. The mayor’s speech from behind the ceremonial desk this week was an admission of defeat to his base, delivered in the tones of a declaration of war, a move Mr. Mamdani’s team had been planning since he took office, as a former staffer disclosed Friday to Vanity Fair.For a former City Hall official, Nick E. Smith, who knew Ms. Tisch professionally during their time in the Adams and De Blasio administrations, the mayor’s lack of legal authority to arrest a foreign head of state may have been his saving grace.“I believe the commissioner probably has certain red lines,” said Mr. Smith, who served as legislative negotiator in Mayor De Blasio’s office and later as first deputy public advocate during Mayor Adams’ term. “ If the mayor did have authority and did order the arrest, she would resign.”But Mr. Netanyahu is expected to arrive for the United Nations General Assembly, welcomed by the mayor or not, and when he does he will likely stay, as he has previously, at the Loews Regency New York Hotel. The Loews Corporation stretches into industries including packaging, pipelines and insurance, as well as hotels, and has been controlled by the Tisch family for three generations. Ms. Tisch’s father, James, serves as chairman and is one of five individual billionaires within the clan Forbes ranks as the nation’s 38th wealthiest family.Mr. Tisch He has used the capital behind his name as a constant advocate for Jewish communities, Mr. Tisch served as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and more recently as the Jewish Agency’s board of governors. When Mr. Tisch retired from the role in 2014, Mr. Netanyahu spoke at the reception, held at the Knesset, where he proclaimed “Jimmy Tisch” to be “the real article.”“He also knows something about business — not much,” Netanyahu joked of the tycoon. “He knows a great many things and he’s put them forward on behalf of our people and the partnership between us. … And I deeply value that. I value your commitment. I value your investment in this, in this, which is an investment in our future.”Ms. Tisch, whose grandfather was a rabbi in the city, has shown herself to be similarly committed to the diaspora, affixing a mezuzah to her office doorframe at 1 Police Plaza on Holocaust Remembrance Day; visiting the Ramaz School (as well as local public schools); and appearing at the 2026 Israel Day parade under the theme “Proud Americans, proud Zionists.”But such visible expressions of her identity are not enough to undo her boss’ open antipathy, as UJA-Federation of New York’s chief executive, Eric Goldstein, explained at a press conference Friday following a stabbing on the Upper West Side where two victims, including one man wearing a yarmulka, were assaulted by an unstable man who reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” during the attacks. “People in crisis can be particularly susceptible to the hatred and conspiracy theories around them,” Mr. Goldstein said. “When the mayor of New York repeatedly uses his platform to relentlessly single out Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, and calls those who support it ‘monsters,’ he contributes to a climate in which Jewish New Yorkers are increasingly targeted and unsafe.”Mr. Goldstein called on the mayor to “stop fanning the flames of hatred and division.”Beyond targeted attacks, felony assaults have been trending upward in New York City since 2018, when the NYPD counted 1,623. Last year, the department logged 2,603, according to CompStat. Nevertheless, Mr. Mamdani’s final budget proposal called for keeping the police force capped at 35,000. The mayor had briefly proposed adding an additional 580 officers, but withdrew it following backlash from his leftwing base.“ I didn’t see the commissioner come out and object to that loudly,” Mr. Smith said of the officer cap. “But I could see, in the next year, her wanting a larger budget and a larger head count. That could be a red line.”The mayor’s posturing is also causing headaches for Ms. Tisch’s officers, according to police advocates, in particular his support for protests. His speech about Mr. Netanyahu concluded by saying, “While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon.” Later in the week he told reporters “protest is something that we will always respect,” and “New Yorkers can express themselves, whether they are in support or in opposition, no matter on whatever topic.”The New York Police Benevolent Association president, Patrick Hendry, in a statement Friday, denounced the mayor’s “heated rhetoric,” saying it “could be enough to push demonstrations over the edge into chaos.”“The mayor’s activist posturing puts police officers on the street in a terrible position. Protests during the UN General Assembly are nothing new, but when the mayor of the city is actively calling for demonstrations, violent agitators will assume they have permission to cause as much havoc as possible,” Mr. Hendry told The New York Sun.

Mamdani’s Hostility to Prime Minister Netanyahu Jeopardizes the Mayor’s Relationship With the Police Commissioner

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