Schumer Criticizes Netanyahu, Calls for New Election

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke on the Senate floor today and called for new elections in Israel, stating, “I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel.” He condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, stating Netanyahu “has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”

Schumer said Israelis have a right to choose their leader, and the United States cannot dictate the outcome of Israeli elections, stating on X, “The U.S. cannot dictate the outcome of an election. That is for the Israeli public to decide. As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders. But the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice. There needs to be a fresh debate about the future.”

Schumer is the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, and made the remarks about Netanyahu after Senate Republicans invited Netanyahu to attend a GOP retreat. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Schumer’s remarks were “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,” and said Israel’s sovereignty should be respected, continuing, “Israel is not a colony of America, whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington.”

McConnell wrote the primary obstacle to peace in the region is Hamas, stating on X, “The primary ‘obstacles to peace’ in Israel’s region are genocidal terrorists and corrupt PA leaders who repeatedly reject peace deals. Foreign observers who cannot keep this straight ought to refrain from interfering in the democracy of a sovereign ally.”