Senator Chuck Schumer, D-New York and the majority leader, delivered a sharp speech on Thursday in the Senate, blasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East and calling for new leadership in Israel, five months into war.
Many Democratic lawmakers have condemned the leadership of Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing governing coalition, and President Biden even criticized the Israeli military’s attack on Gaza as “over the top.” But Mr Schumer’s speech was the sharpest criticism yet from a senior US elected official — effectively urging Israelis to replace Mr Netanyahu.
“I believe in his heart, his highest priority is the security of Israel,” said Mr. Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States. “However, I also believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to trump Israel’s interests.”
Mr Schumer added: “He has been very willing to tolerate the number of civilians in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”
The speech was the latest reflection of growing discontent among Democrats, particularly progressives, with Israel’s conduct of the war and its toll on Palestinian civilians, which has created a strategic and political dilemma for Mr. Biden. Republicans have sought to exploit this momentum to electoral advantage, hugging Mr. Netanyahu closer as Democrats disown him.
Responding to Mr. Schumer, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, told the Senate it was “grotesque and hypocritical” for Americans “who are hyperventilating about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the Democratic leader-elect Israel”. He called the move “unprecedented”.
“The Democratic Party has no problem against Bibi,” Mr. McConnell said, referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. “He has an anti-Israel problem.” House Republicans, gathered in West Virginia for a party retreat, hastily called a news conference to attack Mr. Schumer for his comments and position themselves as Israel’s true friends in Congress.
Mr Schumer’s remarks came a day after Senate Republicans invited Mr Netanyahu to speak as their special guest at a party in Washington. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican, had asked Mr. Netanyahu to address Republicans virtually, but he could not appear because of a last-minute scheduling conflict. Ambassador Michael Herzog, Israel’s envoy to the United States, spoke in his place and also addressed the House GOP caucus on Thursday.
In his speech on Capitol Hill, Mr. Schumer, who represents a state with more than 20 percent of the country’s Jewish population, was careful to insist that he was not trying to dictate any election outcome in Israel. He prefaced his scathing criticism of Mr. Netanyahu with a lengthy defense of the country, which he said American Jews “love in our bones.”
Mr Schumer said there had been an “inaccurate perception” of the war that blamed Israel too much for civilian deaths in Gaza without focusing enough on how Hamas was using Palestinian civilians as human shields. And he acknowledged how difficult it was for traumatized Israelis to contemplate the possibility of a two-state solution at this time.
But he was relentless in his criticism of Mr Netanyahu, calling the prime minister one of the top obstacles to achieving peace in the Middle East, along with Hamas, “radical right-wing Israelis” and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. , who also said it should be replaced.
“The Netanyahu coalition no longer suits Israel’s needs after October 7,” Mr Schumer said, referring to the day of the Hamas terror attack on Israel. “The world has changed – radically – since then, and the Israeli people are currently being suffocated by a government vision stuck in the past.”
Mr Schumer said the only solution to the decades-long conflict was a two-state solution: “a demilitarized Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in equal measure of peace, security, prosperity and dignity”. He said Mr Netanyahu, who has rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, was endangering Israel’s future.
“At this critical juncture, I believe that new elections are the only way to allow a healthy and open decision-making process for the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost confidence in its vision and direction. government,” Mr. Schumer said, adding that he believed the majority of the Israeli public “will recognize the need for change.”
“As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its leaders and we must let the chips fall where they may,” he said. “But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice. There must be a new debate on the future of Israel after October 7.”
Mr. Schumer’s speech was the second time since Oct. 7 that he took the Senate floor to address the Israel-Hamas war. The conflict prompted him to think more deeply and speak more openly about his Jewish faith and heritage, as well as the moral and political dilemmas the war brought for Jews in Israel and the United States.
In November, Mr. Schumer gave a deeply personal speech decrying the rise of anti-Semitism in America that has flared since Israel began hitting back at Hamas for its attack. These remarks appeared to be aimed mainly at members of his own party. warned that some liberals and young people are “unknowingly aiding and abetting” anti-Semitism in the name of social justice. Mr Schumer has since spoken to publishers about writing a book about anti-Semitism.
On Thursday, his speech was aimed squarely at Mr. Netanyahu and the far-right members of his governing coalition, who Mr. Schumer said fell short of Jewish values.
Mr. Herzog had a stern response. “Israel is a sovereign democracy,” he wrote on social media. “It is unhelpful, especially when Israel is at war with the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic politics of a democratic ally.”
In his remarks, Mr Schumer said Mr Netanyahu refused “to repudiate Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir and their calls for the Israelis to expel the Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank”.
“He will not commit to a military operation in Rafah that prioritizes the protection of civilian life,” Mr. Schumer said. “He will not responsibly engage in discussions about a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza and a longer-term path to peace.”
Mr. Schumer said that if Mr. Netanyahu and his current coalition remain in power, “then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the current course”.
Underscoring how contentious the issue of Israel is in American politics, Mr. Schumer’s speech drew criticism from both the right and the left.
Layla Elabed, the campaign manager for Listen to Michigan, an anti-war activist group that voted “non-aligned” in the state’s Democratic primary, said that “Senator Schumer is beginning to shift but very slowly and with little substance to the actions that Biden can. act now to stop the outrageous civilian death toll in Gaza.”
Nikolaos Fantos contributed to the report.
