Pime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for ‘totally inappropriate’ remarks calling for an election of new leadership in Israel.
It comes amid ongoing war between Israel and Hamas operating out of Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which sparked after the terrorists attacked the Jewish State on October 7, 2023.
Schumer said in an extraordinary 45-minute speech from the Senate floor 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 is pushing back.
‘I think what he said is totally inappropriate,’ the Israeli PM told CNN’s Meet the Press in a Sunday morning interview.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing back after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an election of new leadership in Israel amid its war with Hamas terrorists
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the highest-ranking elected Jewish official, called Netanyahu an ‘obstacle to peace’ in some of the most scathing U.S. criticism if Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack on the Jewish State
‘It’s inappropriate for a – to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,’ he added. ‘That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we’re not a banana republic.’
‘I think the only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over 1,000 Israelis, including some dozens of Americans, and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That’s what we should be focused on.’
The October 7 attack led to the largest single-day massacre of Jewish people 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 it ‘respected his right’ to make them. But President Joe Biden’s administration expressed ‘no approval or disapproval’ for his stance.
Meanwhile, Republicans slammed Schumer’s stance as ‘grotesque’ and Israel said it was ‘unhelpful’ while it was ‘at war against a genocidal terror organization.’
‘As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose 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 Israelis are given a choice. There needs to be a fresh debate about the future of Israel after Oct. 7,’ he added.
‘In my opinion, that is best accomplished by holding an election.’
Netanyahu responded to them on Sunday with: ‘As far as what 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 that we’re leading – go into Rafah, destroy the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions, make sure that we don’t put into Gaza, instead of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority that educates their children towards terrorism and the annihilation of Israel.’
‘This is a wake-up call to Senator Schumer,’ the PM said, ‘the majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It’s not a fringe government. It represents the policies supported by the majority of the people.’
‘If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he’s not opposing me. He’s opposing the people of Israel,’ he said of the stunning rebuke from the New York Democrat and leader in the Senate.
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 the needs of Israel after October 7’
A displaced Palestinian man carries containers amid the rubble of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Hamad area, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024
The Senate’s Republican Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, quickly came to Netanyahu’s defense in remarks just after Schumer.
‘It is 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 U.S., Michael Herzog, said: ‘Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organization Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally. It is counterproductive to our common goals.’
The war erupted after Hamas killed 1,200 people in an October 7 terrorist attack on Israel 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 there to be any hope of peace in the future, Abbas must step down and be replaced by a new generation of Palestinian leaders who will work towards attaining peace with a Jewish State,’ Schumer said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: ‘We did have advance notice he was going to deliver those remarks.
‘We fully respect his right to make those remarks. This was not about approval of disapproval in any away but he did give us a heads up. Leader Schumer feels strongly. We’re going to let him to speak to his thought process.’
Displaced Palestinians walk through a street filled with rubble in Hamad area, west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Schumer’s harsh criticism follows moves from President Joe Biden and Democrats to ramp up the pressure on Netanyahu to protect Palestinian civilians as he carries on 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 carry on fighting until Hamas has been destroyed.
But Democrats have started to question his motives, sparking Schumer to deliver some of the most scathing criticism to date.
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 fits the needs of Israel after October 7.
‘The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is 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 two-state solution because he believes it will allow a Hamas to maintain its presence and threaten the future of Israel.
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,’ Republican Senator Tom Cotton said.
U.S. President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023
‘Besides, the main elections that worry Chuck Schumer aren’t Israel’s but our elections, because the rampant anti-Semitism that the Democratic Party has allowed to fester in its ranks is massively unpopular with the pro-Israel American public’.
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said he would let Schumer ‘speak to his comments’ when asked about the speech.
‘We’re gonna stay focused on making sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself while doing everything that they can to avoid civilian casualties, Kirby added.
‘We’re still focused, laser focused, on trying to get a temporary ceasefire in place so that we can get the hostages out and get more aid 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.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk