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“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer [last] Thursday called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ‘lost his way’ and is an obstacle to peace in the region amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” AP News
“President Joe Biden expressed support [last] Friday for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after the senator called for new elections in Israel… ‘He made a good speech,’ Biden said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister. ‘I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans.’…
“‘One would expect Sen. Schumer to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it,’ said a statement from Likud, Netanyahu’s political party. ‘This is always true, and even more so in wartime.’… [Opposition leader Benny] Gantz also criticized Schumer’s remarks, although not as harshly as Likud did. He wrote on social media that the senator is ‘a friend of Israel’ who ‘erred in his remarks.’” AP News
The right is critical of Schumer, arguing that he is abandoning a close ally in the midst of a war.
“Here is the highest ranking Jewish elected political leader in American history threatening to use U.S. financial and diplomatic leverage to pressure Israel to dump its democratically elected government and adopt policies favored by radical Democrats in Congress and in the White House. This at the very moment that Israel is fighting a war for survival against the barbaric Hamas terrorists who murdered, mutilated and raped 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7 and who still hold over 100 hostages…
“In this moment of crisis, Israel deserves our wholehearted support. Americans know this — the majority of them support Israel. But Democrats in Washington are seeing their poll numbers dropping, and Schumer’s remarks make clear that they are increasingly willing to sacrifice our ally Israel to win votes in certain battleground states. It is a ‘shanda,’ a disgrace.”
Norm Coleman, The Hill
“The idea of two states living peacefully side by side, at this point in time, is a fantasy… Arabs rejected the idea of a state at least five times when it was offered to them — as long ago as 1937 and as recently as 2008 — because ultimately, they could not accept the permanent existence of a Jewish state. Currently, nearly three-quarters of Palestinians oppose a two-state solution…
“Meanwhile, the hardened stance of Palestinians has eroded Israeli support for a two-state solution in the past decade. After October 7, support for the idea cratered further, and now two-thirds of Israelis oppose the idea… And even if Israeli public opinion miraculously changed, there is no partner on the other side for a two-state solution.”
The Editors, National Review
“It’s not obvious any Israeli politician would rush after Oct. 7 to negotiate with the Palestinians over a state unless or until Hamas is defeated in Gaza—at a minimum. The idea that Israel is the obstacle to Middle East peace, rather than the Iranian regime sponsoring terror proxies across the region, is so naive it’s more suited to a faculty lounge than the Senate floor…
“Rather than placating the anti-Israel left in his party, he and President Biden ought to be trying to lead them. The first half of Mr. Schumer’s speech largely set out the reasons that friendship with Israel remains in America’s national interest, and what’s at stake for Israel in its war… It would have been better for his country, his party, Israel and his own reputation if he had left it at that and stopped talking.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
The left supports Schumer, arguing that Netanyahu’s policies are not sustainable over the long term.
The left supports Schumer, arguing that Netanyahu’s policies are not sustainable over the long term.
“[The Israeli] government is perpetrating a war that, while it was necessitated by the horrific Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, has been prosecuted with no viable plan for, or even realistic definition of what constitutes a victory. Tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children have been killed, and the Gaza Strip has been reduced to rubble. The United States has repeatedly called for the Israeli government to articulate a plan for how it will wage this war while minimizing civilian casualties and following international human rights law…
“The Israeli government can make its own decisions and it does not need to answer to the United States. But if that is the case then, as Schumer made clear, there are consequences for those decisions… The United States sends more than $3 billion in military aid to Israel annually, and since Oct. 7 has sent billions in additional arms and munitions. [That] could come to a halt.”
Hadar Susskind, Newsweek
“[Schumer’s speech] is the product of two decades of liberal Zionist frustration with Netanyahu and his one-state project. Netanyahu not only fueled Palestinian despair by blocking any path to statehood; he deliberately aided Hamas in an attempt to box out the less radical Palestinian alternative. Hamas’s horrific pogrom united liberal Zionists with conservative ones — extremism creates a reaction — but over time, the bloody and unstrategic Israeli military campaign in Gaza has alienated liberal Zionists.”
Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“A recent poll [in Israel] —matching the trend for months—showed that if elections were held now, the Likud would lose nearly half its seats and the more moderate parties opposed to Netanyahu would likely sweep to power… Over half of the Israeli public believed that Netanyahu’s primary reason for continuing the war was to ensure his own political survival. By contrast, just over a third believed that his main reason for staying was to fulfill his promise of ‘absolute victory’ over Hamas.”
Gershom Gorenberg, New Republic
“It’s a fair point that Schumer is meddling in Israeli politics… But it’s ironic for Netanyahu to complain. He has been playing politics in the US ever since the Obama administration, when he worked with Republicans to undermine the Iran nuclear deal. He also openly aligned himself with ex-President Donald Trump and was richly rewarded, including with the US moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Stephen Collinson, CNN
