Netanyahu Didn't Say America Deserved 9/11 — He Was Quoting Mamdani's Ally to Attack Him

The full speech shows the line was part of an attack on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, not a statement of Netanyahu's own view. Addressing Mamdani directly, Netanyahu said: "You count as friends people like Hassan Piker, who said America deserved 9/11. 'America deserved 9/11.' Some friends you have" ^[2][3].

In context, Netanyahu was citing a past remark attributed to political commentator Hassan Piker as evidence of Mamdani's poor judgment in associations — immediately after accusing Mamdani of hosting a Palestinian journalist who filmed Hamas hostage abuse and declined to publish it, and of failing to condemn his wife's social-media posts praising the October 7 attacks ^[2].

The viral clip preserves Netanyahu's exact words — he really did say the phrase twice, with emphasis — but removes the attribution to Piker and the surrounding sentence identifying it as something Mamdani's associate said, reversing whose statement it actually was ^[1][2][3].

The clip circulated the same day as Netanyahu's UN address — a high-profile, heavily covered speech in which he also accused Mamdani's 'Hamas buddies' of wanting genocide and prompted delegate walkouts, giving the out-of-context clip an immediate, high-attention news peg to ride ^[1][3]. Stripped to six seconds and captioned as a 'confession,' the clip inverted the speech's actual target: an attack on Mamdani became, in the retelling, an admission by Netanyahu ^[1].

MISLEADING. Netanyahu did say the words "America deserved 9/11" on video — but he was quoting a remark he attributed to Hassan Piker as part of an attack on Mamdani's associations, not stating it as his own belief. The viral clip is accurately excerpted audio put in a false frame ^[1][2][3].