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Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the Israeli government to hold a new election in a speech warning that Israel risks becoming an international “pariah” under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing cabinet.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States and a staunch ally of Israel, said he thinks Israelis understand “better than anybody that Israel cannot hope to succeed as a pariah opposed by the rest of the world” and would choose better leaders if elections were held.

“I believe that holding a new election once the war starts to wind down would give Israelis an opportunity to express their vision for the postwar future,” Schumer said Thursday in a speech on the Senate floor, in remarks that did not set an exact timeline for a new election. Schumer, who opened his speech saying he felt “immense obligation” as a Jewish American to speak, stressed that the outcome of that election would be up to the Israelis — not Americans.

The call, from one of Congress’s strongest supporters of Israel, marks the clearest signal to Israel yet that frustrations over Netanyahu’s handling of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">war in Gaza</a> are boiling and could even threaten the future of the close relationship between Israel and the United States.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a> has frequently expressed frustration with Netanyahu in recent months, but he has never publicly suggested that Israelis replace him. The prime minister is deeply unpopular at home after the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, and he has tangled with U.S. officials over his hampering of humanitarian aid into Gaza and his stated desire to conduct a ground invasion in the crowded city of Rafah, which the United States thinks would lead to an unacceptably high level of civilian casualties. He also has explicitly rejected U.S. entreaties to discuss a pathway to a two-state solution.

U.S. officials have increasingly come to believe that Netanyahu is prioritizing his own political survival above all else and that he is more focused on placating far-right members of his coalition than on what is best for Israel. Biden told MSNBC in an interview last week that Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

When asked to comment on Schumer’s speech, National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said the White House is focused on supporting Israel, getting hostages out, and ensuring more aid gets into Gaza.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted Schumer’s speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, saying Israel deserves an ally that defends the state and describing the call for a new election as “grotesque.”

“Israel’s unity government and security cabinet deserves the deference befitting a sovereign democratic country,” McConnell said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that Schumer’s call for a new election “is not only highly inappropriate, it’s just plain wrong for an American leader to play such a divisive role.”

The Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, called it “unhelpful” of Schumer to comment on elections while Israel is at war. “It is counterproductive to our common goals,” Herzog wrote in a social media post.

It is unclear how Schumer’s declaration will affect politics in Israel, where Netanyahu is very unpopular but where polls show a majority of the public also supports many of his positions that have put him at odds with Washington, such as a potential ground invasion of Rafah. Former Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz, who met with Schumer and other lawmakers on a visit to Washington this month, could succeed Netanyahu if a new election is held. Several polls since the war began <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-13/ty-article-magazine/.premium/netanyahu-didnt-tell-biden-the-whole-truth-about-israelis-and-the-gaza-war/0000018e-389b-dc74-adbe-bcbf118b0000" target=_blank>show a majority of Israelis</a> want early elections.

In the speech, Schumer expressed concerns that Netanyahu’s clear rejection of a two-state solution, in which Palestinians would have their own country, would mean a future of constant war and isolation for Israelis. He laid out what he described as four main obstacles to peace and a two-state solution — the existence of Hamas and Palestinians who support it, right-wing Israelis in government and society, and 88-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom he described as a “terrible” leader of Palestinians in the West Bank. The fourth obstacle was Netanyahu himself.

“He has put himself in coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers [Bezalel] Smotrich and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir, and as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows,” Schumer said, referencing two of Netanyahu’s radical cabinet ministers who have called for permanently pushing Palestinians out of Gaza. “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”

Schumer added that if Netanyahu’s right-wing government stayed in power, “the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.”

In November, Schumer delivered a speech on the Senate floor warning that many Jewish Americans felt “alone” following the Oct. 7 attacks, which he said had unleashed a flood of antisemitism, particularly on the left.

In 2015, Schumer was one of just four Senate Democrats to reject President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran to dismantle much of its nuclear capacity. Israel opposed the deal.

The Senate majority leader said Thursday he understands some Israelis’ fears that a Palestinian state could make Israelis more vulnerable to attack and lamented that more Palestinian leaders have not rejected Hamas. But he pushed both sides to reject what he called “from-the-river-to-the-sea thinking,” a reference to a slogan that often refers to one group controlling the entire territory occupied by both Palestinians and Israelis.

“The bitter reality is that a single state controlled by Israel, which they advocate, guarantees certain war forever, and further isolation of the Jewish community in the world to the extent that its future would be jeopardized,” he said.

Netanyahu’s opposition to a two-state solution and refusal to engage responsibly in a “day after” discussion of what Gaza will look like after the war disqualifies him from the position, Schumer suggested.

“The U.S. government should demand that Israel conduct itself with a future two-state solution in mind,” Schumer said. “We should not be forced into a position of unequivocally supporting the actions of an Israeli government that includes bigots who reject the idea of a Palestinian state.”

Schumer has defended Israel’s right to eliminate Hamas in Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that left about 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 200 taken hostage. But as the war has stretched on for months and the Palestinian civilian death toll has climbed to more than 30,000, many Democratic senators have expressed deep concerns about the legality and morality of how Israel has prosecuted the war.

Still, all but three members of the Democratic caucus voted last month to send billions in additional aid for the nation. That aid bill is held up in the House, where Republicans object to additional money in the bill going to arm Ukraine. Both Schumer and McConnell  have urged  Johnson  to allow a vote on the aid package.

Schumer’s message marks a contrast to most congressional Republicans, who have declined to criticize Netanyahu’s approach. Senate Republicans invited the prime minister to speak at their retreat via video Wednesday, though he was unable to do so.

For months, the Israeli government has resisted U.S. pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, even as the United States continues to provide military and diplomatic support for the campaign.

“We’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need,” Biden said this month. “No excuses, because the truth is, aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough.”

Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.”

Eight Democratic senators said this week that they would support ending U.S. assistance to Israel if more humanitarian aid is not allowed into Gaza. Schumer has not joined those efforts.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote in a social media post that Schumer’s speech was “gutsy” and that he did not arrive at it “casually or painlessly.”

CIA Director William J. Burns <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/11/cia-israel-gaza-ukraine-ai/" target=_blank>testified to Congress</a> on Monday that a cease-fire is desperately needed to facilitate aid. U.S. officials have called on Hamas to accept the terms of the temporary cease-fire in recent weeks.

“The reality is that there are children who are starving,” Burns said. “They’re malnourished as a result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can’t get to them. It’s very difficult to distribute humanitarian assistance effectively unless you have a cease-fire.”

Schumer has said he supports the Biden administration’s efforts to negotiate a temporary cease-fire to allow more aid into Gaza. But he said Thursday that he opposed a permanent cease-fire right now, which would “only allow Hamas to regroup and launch further attacks on Israeli civilians.”

Yasmeen Abutaleb contributed to this report.

Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, 2020

Harvard College, BA in history and literature

Liz Goodwin covers Congress for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2022, Goodwin covered national politics and served as Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. 

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