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Mayor Eric Adams and Zohran Mamdani had starkly different responses to the Israeli prime minister’s visit to the U.N., which drew thousands of protesters.
Sept. 26, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel approached the rostrum to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, representatives of nations from around the world streamed out in protest. New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, settled in to watch him speak.
Throughout Mr. Netanyahu’s fire and brimstone address, delivered to a mostly empty hall, a group of Israel’s supporters sat in a section reserved for guests. Mr. Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, sat beside their son and watched her husband tear into critics of the country’s invasion of Gaza, who he said had caved “when the going got tough.”
Two rows behind them, Mr. Adams watched with a translation headset clipped to his ear, even though Mr. Netanyahu was speaking in English. The mayor met with Mr. Netanyahu briefly afterward and they smiled for photos together.
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Mr. Adams’s attendance at Mr. Netanyahu’s speech kept the Middle East at the white-hot center of a mayor’s race where the candidates hold starkly different views about the war in Gaza. The protesters in the streets mirrored the discontent voiced by Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and the leading candidate in the race.
