President Biden hailed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Friday for calling on Israel to have a “new election” as soon as possible, with Biden telling reporters the Brooklyn Democrat made a “good speech” — despite Jewish groups and Israeli leaders slamming Schumer’s comments.
“Senator Schumer contacted my staff, my senior staffer, that he was going to make that speech,” Biden said during an Oval Office meeting with Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
“I’m not going to elaborate on the speech,” added the president, 81. “He made a good speech, and I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.”
In his extraordinary 40-minute diatribe, Schumer, 73, argued on the Senate floor that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and so-called “radical” members of his security cabinet were an “obstacle” to peace, and called for a “new election” in the Jewish state once the war against Hamas “starts to wind down.”
“It’s become clear to me that the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7,” said Schumer, whose remarks came in response to growing backlash among Democrats to Biden’s refusal to call for a cease-fire in the five-month-old Middle East war.
That backlash was most apparent during recent Democratic primaries in the battleground states of Michigan and Minnesota, where thousands voted “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s stance.
Schumer had also argued in his speech that if Netanyahu does not step down “after the war begins to wind down and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance,” the US “will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.”
The highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America was criticized for his comments by both Republicans and Israeli officials, who accused Schumer of inappropriately trying to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Middle Eastern ally.
Opposition leader Benny Gantz called Schumer’s speech a “mistake,” posting on X: “Israel is a strong democracy, and only its citizens will determine its leadership and future. Any external intervention in the matter is incorrect and unacceptable.”
“Israel is a sovereign democracy,” echoed Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog on X. “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.”
Another Netanyahu rival, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also weighed in, writing on X: “Regardless of our political opinion, we strongly oppose external political intervention in Israel’s internal affairs. We are an independent nation, not a banana republic.
“With the threat of terrorism on its way to the West,” Bennett added, “it would be best if the international community would assist Israel in its just war, thereby also protecting their countries.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also rebuked Schumer, with McConnell calling the remarks “unprecedented” and Johnson saying Schumer was “highly inappropriate” and “just plain wrong.”