President Biden praises Chuck Schumer’s ‘good speech’ calling for elections to replace Netanyahu saying it expressed ‘serious concern’: President reveals senator gave the White House a heads up before inflammatory remarks

President Joe Biden on Friday praised Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s controversial Senate speech, in which the New York Democrat called for new elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Thursday, Schumer said Netanyahu had ‘lost his way’ and become an ‘obstacle to peace’ by assembling a coalition of ‘far-right extremists’ to lead the Israeli government in its war against Hamas following the October 7 terror attacks .

That war has led to an escalating death toll of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, prompting a global call for a ceasefire, including on the Democratic left, which has voted “non-committal” in Democratic primaries to send Biden a message.

‘Late. Schumer contacted my staff – my senior staff – about giving that speech. And I’m not going to elaborate on the speech,” Biden told reporters Friday as he met with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office.

“He gave a great speech, and I think he expressed serious concerns, not only shared by him, but by many Americans,” Biden added.

An earlier White House statement said Schumer notified the president he planned to give the speech, and the administration expressed “no approval or disapproval” of it.

Both Israel and Republican allies in Congress slammed Schumer’s words.

Israel called Schumer’s speech ‘helpless’ while the country was ‘at war against a genocidal terrorist organisation’.

The top Republican in the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, called Schumer’s speech “grotesque.”

“It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who are hyperventilating about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the democratically elected leader of Israel,” McConnell said. ‘This is unprecedented.’

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.’

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 fighting 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.

“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”.