Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of election interference after the Democrat called for the removal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he’s an “obstacle to peace.”
In a speech from the Senate floor Thursday, Schumer said, “The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7,” referring to Hamas’ attack on Israel last fall that left at least 1,200 dead and over 240 of its citizens taken hostage.
“The world has changed radically since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision stuck in the past,” the senator added.
Schumer called for a two-state solution to end the “cycle of violence.”
“Nobody expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the things that must be done to break the cycle of violence, to preserve Israel’s credibility on the world stage, and to work towards a two-state solution,” the New York senator said.
Trending:
Schumer identified Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, along with Netanyahu and conservative members of the Israeli government as “obstacles to peace.”
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 stuck in the past. pic.twitter.com/jvjm6o0JPA
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 14, 2024
McConnell took to the Senate floor later Thursday to respond to Schumer’s remarks.
“The Jewish state of Israel deserves an ally that acts like one,” he began. “And Israel’s unity government and security cabinet deserve the deference befitting a sovereign, democratic country.”
Reuters reported following the Oct. 7 attacks, “Israel’s parliament approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency unity government…including a number of centrist opposition lawmakers, to display its determination to fight the war with Hamas in Gaza.”
Under the agreement, former Defense Minister Benny Gantz and members of his centrist party joined Netanyahu’s coalition.
McConnell continued, “The primary ‘obstacles to peace’ in Israel’s region are genocidal terrorists like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who slaughter innocent people and corrupt leaders of the Palestinian Authority who have repeatedly, repeatedly rejected peace deals from multiple Israeli governments.”
Sen. McConnell: “It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of a democratically elected leader of Israel. This is unprecedented. We should not treat fellow democracies this way at all.” pic.twitter.com/K6xOd1a9Ey
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 14, 2024
“And foreign observers who cannot keep these clear distinctions ought to refrain from weighing in,” the Republican said.
“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,” McConnell said. “This is unprecedented. We should not treat fellow democracies this way at all.”
Prior to the 2020 general election, Schumer told CNN that he was “very worried” that foreign governments would try to interfere in the contest. “We have to make sure they don’t,” he said.
“If people think that a foreign country helped determine our election and lose faith in our democracy, that’s the beginning of the end of this grand experiment in democracy,” Schumer asserted.
In 2020, Chuck Schumer was “very worried” about foreign countries interfering in American elections, calling such interference “the beginning of the end of this grand experiment in democracy.”
Today he demanded new elections in Israel to remove Benjamin Netanyahu from office. pic.twitter.com/jDvZf1oPuH
— Dan O’Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) March 14, 2024
McConnell argued Thursday, “Things that upset left-wing activists are not a prime minister’s policies — they are Israel’s policies. Make no mistake, the Democratic Party doesn’t have an anti-Bibi problem. It has an anti-Israel problem.”
He concluded, “Israel is not a colony of America whose leaders serve at the pleasure of the party in power in Washington. Only Israel’s citizens should have a say in who runs their government. This is the very definition of democracy and sovereignty.
“Either we respect their decisions, or we disrespect their democracy.”
Both Netanyahu and most Israelis oppose a two-state solution.
A Gallup poll taken last fall showed 65 percent of Israelis oppose the move, while 25 percent support it.
In January, Politico headlined, “The two-state solution is dead,” citing polling among Israelis.
Israel had pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, allowing the Palestinian residents to govern themselves.
They elected Hamas members in 2006 to lead the government, and the terrorist group has consistently used Gaza as a base of operations against Israel.
The clear concern is that if more territory is ceded to the Palestinians, the same would be true.
Netanyahu’s Likud Party responded to Schumer’s speech with a statement saying, “Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
“Contrary to Schumer’s words, the Israeli public supports complete victory over Hamas, rejects any international attempts to dictate the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state, and opposes the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” the statement continued.
#BREAKING: Israeli PM Netanyahu Likud party in response to @SenSchumer speech: Israel is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/rWOm3a6chF
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) March 14, 2024
“A senator is expected to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, and even more so in wartime.”
On Friday, President Joe Biden said Schumer made a “good speech.”
“I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,” the president added.
Biden mentioned that Schumer had contacted the White House beforehand to let the administration know he would be speaking about Israel.
Biden praises Sen. Chuck Schumer’s anti-Netanyahu speech: “He made a good speech.”
His handlers then promptly and aggressively herd the press out of the room. pic.twitter.com/qMPzj9kVYw
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 15, 2024
Last week, pro-Palestinian protesters wanting an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked Biden’s route to the U.S. Capitol resulting in his State of the Union speech starting nearly 30 minutes late.
First, the leak of a U.S. intelligence finding that the #Netanyahu government could fall; then, coordinated messaging with @SenSchumer calling for elections. It seems clear: The Biden @WhiteHouse is pursuing regime change in Israel more vigorously than it ever did with #Hamas in… pic.twitter.com/b3RncMwr3p
— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) March 14, 2024
Journalist James Rosen suggested in a Thursday post on X that the Biden administration’s leak of an intelligence assessment earlier this week saying the Netanyahu government could fall, along with Schumer’s speech calling for it, indicate the White House is pushing hard to bring the current Israeli government down.
