Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for ‘totally inappropriate’ remarks calling for the election of new leadership in Israel.
It comes amid an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which operates out of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which erupted after the terrorists attacked the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.
Schumer said in an extraordinary 45-minute Senate speech on Thursday that Netanyahu has ‘lost his way’ and has become an ‘obstacle to peace’ five months after the attacks started the war in Gaza.
The highest-ranking elected Jewish official and longtime defender of Israel said Netanyahu has put himself in a coalition of “far-right extremists” and is more interested in his own political survival than a solution.
Netanyahu withdraws.
“I think what he said is totally inappropriate,” the Israeli prime minister told CNN’s Meet the Press in a Sunday interview.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigns after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for new leadership in Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas terrorists
Late. Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.), the highest-ranking elected Jewish official, called Netanyahu an ‘obstacle to peace’ in some of the most scathing American criticism of Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on the Jewish state.
“It is inappropriate for one – to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,” he added. ‘This is something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we are not a banana republic.’
‘I think the only government that we should be working to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over 1,000 Israelis, including several dozen Americans, and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That is what we must focus on.’
The October 7 attack led to the largest one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and sparked a war between Hamas terrorists and Israel that has no end in sight.
The White House said Schumer informed them of his comments in advance and that it “respected his right” to make them. But President Joe Biden’s administration expressed “no approval or disapproval” of his stance.
Meanwhile, Republicans slammed Schumer’s stance as ‘grotesque’ and Israel said it was ‘unhelpful’ while it was ‘at war against a genocidal terrorist organisation’.
“As a democracy, Israel has the right to elect its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may,” Schumer said in his Thursday speech.
“But the important thing is that the Israelis get a choice. A fresh debate is needed on Israel’s future after October 7,” he added.
‘In my opinion that is best achieved by holding an election.’
Netanyahu responded to them on Sunday with: ‘As far as Senator Schumer said, the majority of Israelis support our governments; 82 percent of Americans support Israel instead of Hamas.’
‘The majority of Israelis support the policies we are pursuing – go into Rafah, destroy the remaining Hamas terror battalions, make sure we don’t put in Gaza, instead of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority raising their children to terrorism and the annihilation of Israel.’
‘This is a wake-up call to Senator Schumer,’ said the Prime Minister, ‘the majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It is not a fringe government. It represents the policy supported by the majority of the population.’
‘If Senator Schumer is against these policies, he is not against me. He is against the people of Israel,’ he said of the stunning rebuke from the New York Democrat and Senate leader.
Schumer is pictured with Netanyahu in 2017. He said in his speech: ‘As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits Israel’s needs after October 7.’
A displaced Palestinian man carries containers among the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the Hamad area, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly came to Netanyahu’s defense in remarks just after Schumer.
‘It’s grotesque. and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the democratically elected leader of Israel. This is unprecedented.’ McConnell said.
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said: ‘Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is inappropriate, all the more so as Israel is at war with the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene for a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals.’
The war broke out after Hamas killed 1,200 people in a terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 and took 253 hostages back to Gaza.
Schumer also criticized Palestinians who support Hamas and said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas should also step aside.
“For any hope of peace in the future, Abbas must step down and be replaced by a new generation of Palestinian leaders who will work to achieve peace with a Jewish state,” Schumer said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: ‘We had advance notice that he would make these remarks.
‘We fully respect his right to make these comments. This wasn’t an endorsement of disapproval by any means, but he was giving us a heads up. Leader Schumer is feeling strong. We’ll let him speak to his thought process.’
Displaced Palestinians walk through a street littered with rubble in the Hamad area, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Schumer’s harsh criticism follows moves by President Joe Biden and Democrats to increase pressure on Netanyahu to protect Palestinian civilians as he continues his offensive.
The Biden administration has also called for a temporary ceasefire to get aid to Palestinians and to allow the release of hostages captured by Hamas.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fight until Hamas is destroyed.
But Democrats have begun to question his motives, prompting Schumer to deliver some of the most scathing criticism yet.
Schumer added: ‘He (Netanyahu) has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.
‘As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: the Netanyahu coalition no longer suits Israel’s needs after October 7.
‘The world has changed – radically – since then, and the Israeli people are currently being suffocated by a governing vision stuck in the past.’
Schumer said the only solution is “a demilitarized Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in equal measures of peace, security, prosperity and dignity.”
Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a two-state solution because he believes it would allow a Hamas to maintain its presence and threaten Israel’s future.
Schumer’s comments sparked an immediate reaction from Republicans, who called his speech ‘inappropriate and offensive.’
“The last thing Israel needs is the ‘foreign election interference’ that Democrats so often decry here,” said Republican Senator Tom Cotton.
US President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023
“Furthermore, the main election that worries Chuck Schumer is not Israel’s, but ours, because the virulent anti-Semitism that the Democratic Party has allowed to fester in its ranks is massively unpopular with the pro-Israel American public”.
White House spokesman John Kirby said he would let Schumer ‘speak for his comments’ when asked about the speech.
“We will remain focused on making sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself while doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties,” Kirby added.
‘We’re still focused, laser focused, on trying to get a temporary ceasefire in place so we can get the hostages out and get more help, and that’s where our head is right now.’
Schumer and other leading Democrats, including Biden, face intense criticism from within their party over Washington’s unconditional support for Israel, given the impact on Palestinian civilians of Israel’s assault on Gaza.