Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has put Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, on a campaign billboard in central Tel Aviv, drawing comparisons with leaders of Iran and Hezbollah. The poster shows Mamdani alongside Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and Naim Qassem, described as Hezbollah’s chief. Beneath the images, a message says: “They want Netanyahu to lose … Don’t let them win,” alongside Likud’s logo. Campaign Spur After Knesset DissolutionNetanyahu has stepped up his election campaigning as Israel prepares to vote in October after the Knesset, parliament, was dissolved in July. The elections will be the first since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. The billboard is the latest move in a growing dispute between Netanyahu and Mamdani, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza since launching his mayoral campaign. Dispute Over Gaza Comments And Arrest CallThe verbal fight between the two intensified last month after Mamdani accused Netanyahu of being a “war criminal” and said he “belonged in The Hague”. Mamdani also urged US authorities to ensure the International Criminal Court warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest is carried out if he attends the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. Netanyahu responded by accusing Mamdani of “fomenting hate” and of encouraging divisions between different religious communities in New York. He also said he was concerned that progressive Democrats aligned with Mamdani could put at risk the once-bipartisan level of political support for Israel in the United States. Recent polling in the US cited in the report indicates that Mamdani is more popular among American Jews than Netanyahu. UK Remarks And Ongoing Gaza TalksThe latest attack on Mamdani comes after Netanyahu described the UK as “the Islamic republic of Britain” during a podcast interview earlier this week. In the same conversation, he also referred to Britain as the “first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon”. Netanyahu posted the billboard image on his social media accounts on Sunday and shared a video featuring Mamdani’s remarks about him being a war criminal. The feud is unfolding as US-Israeli talks on a Gaza ceasefire agreement are said to be stalling. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and an envoy, met Netanyahu on Monday for about three hours, but no breakthrough was reported. Israel, the report says, is refusing to withdraw troops from the strip unless Hamas agrees to disarm first. Mamdani has not publicly responded to being included in Netanyahu’s election campaign materials. Join the discussion? 18 August 2026
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