Biden praises Schumer’s ‘anti-Netanyahu’ speech calling for new elections, Israel fumes over remarks
United States President Joe Biden, on Friday (Mar 15) praised Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for new elections in Israel.
The speech has since garnered criticism from Israeli officials and the country’s media with some calling it a “watershed” moment for relations between Tel Aviv and Washington.
‘Good speech’
“He made a good speech, and I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,” said the US president during a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office, when asked about the Democratic Senator’s speech.
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The White House had been notified about the remarks Schumer would make on the Senate floor. “Senator Schumer contacted my staff, my senior staffer, that he was going to make that speech,” said the US president. However, Biden refused to elaborate further on the matter.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, called Netanyahu a “major obstacle to peace,” and said how he has lost his way by prioritising his “political survival” over the “best interests of Israel.”
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“He has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows,” said the Senate majority leader in a speech, on Thursday (Mar 14), adding that “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”
Schumer also called for a “new election once the war starts to wind down.”
He added that if Netanyahu does not step down after the war and “continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies” the US would have “no choice” but to “play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.”
The US president has supported Israel’s right to defend itself after the October 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group, Hamas in southern Israel. However, Biden, ahead of the presidential election in November is facing growing backlash from Democrats as well as many in the US calling for a ceasefire amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israeli officials fume over Schumer’s speech
Meanwhile, the Senate majority leader’s speech has sparked outrage in Israel. The country’s newspaper Haaretz described the speech as a “watershed” moment. While several Israeli officials warned the US over meddling in the country’s internal politics.
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Netanyahu’s Likud party in a statement asked Schumer not to “undermine” Israel’s elected government calling the country “an independent, proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
“Israel is a sovereign democracy,” said Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog. He added, “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.”
