Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, called last Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down.
The official's unusual statements were surprising but expressed what the majority of Democrats surely think. Yes, Schumer openly asked the leader to step down at a time when his country is at war against an Islamic terrorist organization like Hamas in Gaza and another terrorist organization like Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to the American official, Netanyahu “has lost his way,” which is why, the Democrat said, Israel needs a new prime minister who is focused on achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
For some reason that is difficult to understand, Schumer believes that changing Israeli leadership in the middle of a war would help the region find peace. In this case, we can't help but wonder who would be that 'wonderful' prime minister who can bring peace to the region, taking into account that Hamas has reiterated on several occasions that, if it could, it would carry out other brutal massacres like the one that took place on October 7. And they would do it over and over again.
Schumer did not mention any specific candidate but he did blame the Israeli government. "As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me that the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits Israel's needs after October 7th. The world has changed radically since then, and the Israeli people are currently being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past," he said.
"Netanyahu lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel. He has put himself in a coalition with far-right extremists." He singled out [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir.
The Democrat also said that "people on all sides are turning away from the two-state solution, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who rejects Palestinian sovereignty and statehood. As the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States and a staunch defender of Israel, I rise today to say unequivocally: This is a grave mistake. At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government."
Schumer dared to call once again for a “two-state solution” amid a war started by an Islamic terrorist group that seeks to kill Israelis. The terrorists have the support of a large part of the population of Gaza and the West Bank, where people have been indoctrinated to hate Jews and are oppressed by their own leadership. Do the Palestinians want a state living in peace and harmony with its neighbor?
Schumer has been criticized by Republicans and Democrats
Following Schumer's statements, Democrat Dean Phillips, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, said he shares Schumer's perspective. However, he emphasized that the majority leader was irresponsible.
"It's as irresponsible for a senior congressional leader to call for elections in Israel as it was for Netanyahu and the Republicans to [breach] protocol by arranging his 2015 speech to Congress without White House consent," Phillips said in a statement reported by Axios, taking advantage of the occasion to also target the Israeli leader and his political rivals in the United States.
John Fetterman, a strong defender of Israel within the Democratic Party, also rejected Schumer's statements, claiming that he "would demand that there be no foreign influence on our elections, so I'm not in that."
Schumer was also criticized by Republicans, with Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, being one of the most vocal. "We want to speak very clearly and concisely to say that this is not only highly inappropriate, it's just plain wrong for an American leader to play such a divisive role in Israeli politics while our closest ally in the region is in an existential battle for its very survival,” he said.
Netanyahu won't back down
Despite Schumer's harsh questioning, Benjamin Netanyahu seems unwilling to give in and remains firm in his plan to destroy Hamas. In fact, the Israeli prime minister said that the army will carry out an offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, which the president believes is crucial to destroy the terrorist organization.
Regarding the operation in Rafah, Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stated that the army will coordinate with international actors the transfer of around 1,400,000 people to the so-called 'humanitarian islands,' far from the combat zone.
“Israel is not a banana republic”
In Israel, the ruling Likud party, which is Netanyahu's party, issued a statement urging Schumer to refrain from "undermining" the Israeli coalition, claiming that "Israel is not a banana republic, but an independent and proud democracy. Contrary to Schumer's words, the Israeli public supports a complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international dictates to establish a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza," it said.
Benny Gantz, whose National Union party joined Netanyahu's War Cabinet after the Hamas massacre on October 7, called the U.S. lawmaker's statements "counterproductive and unacceptable." However, he clarified that "Chuck Schumer is a friend of Israel and although he erred in his remarks, (he) plays an important role in assisting the State of Israel, including during these difficult times."
“It's up to the IDF, and not Schumer or Biden, to decide when the military operation within the Gaza Strip ends”
In exclusive statements to Voz Media, international analyst Luciano Mondino said that Schumer's remarks are “an interference in Israel's internal politics which has a second-order aspect with respect to what the Jewish State needs and seeks in the war against Hamas in Gaza, which has two main objectives: Free the 134 hostages and end the military, political and governmental power of the organization terrorist throughout the Strip.” He pointed out that the Democrat was wrong, like many others, by “believing the figures that Hamas provides to escalate the communication war. No figure provided by Hamas can be assumed to be true,” he added.
Mondino said, “The Israelis will have to decide on their own government. But the times in Gaza are set by the IDF: It's up to them and not Schumer or Biden, to decide when the military operation within the Gaza Strip ends.”
The analyst claimed that “the Democratic Party has been swallowed up by the most leftist wing for many years. Let us remember that within that faction is Bernie Sanders, who is a self-confessed antisemite who has asked to block Israel despite knowing that there are still Israeli citizens kidnapped by Hamas. He and the extreme left groups are not asking for their release.”
“On the other hand,” Mondino continued, “Joe Biden is facing an electoral process that finds him in a truly complex international context and, in the case of the United States and its role in international politics, has an important impact on domestic politics. The interests of Washington and that of Jerusalem are not as aligned as many think and I think that the area where this is clearest is in the war against Iran, which is the one that finances Hamas. Tehran is not an immediate danger to the Democratic Party, while for Israel and for many Sunni Arab states it is an existential threat.”
Mondino also spoke about how the Biden administration has acted since October 7. “Israel and the United States share strategic and security interests in the Middle East and Washington's commitment to the right to existence and defense of the only Jewish State is inalienable despite the governments that occupy the White House,” he stated. He added: “There are points where both disagree, and Antony Blinken's latest visits have reinforced these possible points of disagreement. They insist on presenting the creation of a Palestinian State to end the war in Gaza and are very cautious about supporting the entry of Israeli troops to Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Regarding the first issue, creating a Palestinian State would be rewarding the Hamas terrorists who on October 7 massacred more than 1,200 people, raped women before and after murdering them, and kidnapped more than 240 people, including baby Kfir, who was less than a year old. Regarding the entry into Rafah, the weight of the left wing of the Democratic Party tilts Biden's decision, and we can see Jerusalem's trust towards the United States and the West has been hurt."
“The Gaza war, which is an existential war for Israel, has keys that are misunderstood in Western capitals, which are strongly influenced by Arab propaganda and the presence of international organizations that have proven to be complicit in the actions of Hamas in recent years,” the analyst stressed.
Regarding the political consequences in Israel for the days after the war, Mondino claimed that “When the IDF achieves its objectives inside Gaza, there will probably be a change of course in Israel and there will be a call for elections that will emphasize that Israel is a unique democracy in a region accustomed to either totalitarians or Islamist projects.”
“Any political analysis of Israeli policy does not allow us to say that Netanyahu is the same as Hamas, the organization that perpetrated the October 7 massacre, or that he is the same as the Palestinian Authority whose leader Mahmoud Abbas is a recognized Holocaust denier. Not everything is the same. A possible bad government in democracy can be replaced while for Hamas, all that remains is absolute annihilation: military, political and also ideological,” the analyst concluded.
