As he read his prepared remarks, Sen. Chuck Schumer’s recent diatribe against Israel made it seem as though he were competing for best supporting actor in a growing treacherous horror film within the Democratic Party as to who can be more hostile to Israel. Coming from a democratically elected leader and the highest-ranking Democratic senator, Schumer’s insistence on new elections in Israel was particularly undemocratic and glaringly inappropriate.
Calling for a two-state solution, Schumer expressed concern that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu was creating a “de facto single state,” thereby suggesting that Hamas and other Islamist terrorists legitimately have no reasonable expectation to make peace. In other words, terror against Israel is acceptable as long as Israel does what the terrorists don’t like.
Forget the embarrassing mindless repetition of U.S. administration policy, of which the mantra of a “two-state solution” is neither practical nor possible under current circumstances. The fact is that even discussing this less than six months after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel is a reward to all terrorists.
As if he were looking at himself in a mirror, parroting a policy that is dangerously stuck in the past, Schumer proclaimed, “The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7. The world has changed—radically—since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”
Schumer added that Netanyahu has “lost his way, putting himself in coalition with far-right extremists like [Finance Minister] Bezalel Smotrich and [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir.” Netanyahu, Schumer announced, “has all too frequently bowed to the demands of extremists” and has let “his political survival take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”
If Schumer’s problem with Netanyahu is the nature of his government, how strange that he decided 14 months into the current Netanyahu government, and 160 days into a war thrust on Israel by Hamas, that Israel needed new elections. And even more strange that he felt it his place to declare that.
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Doubling down on offensive, inappropriate stupidity, Schumer announced that there are four obstacles to peace. He included Netanyahu along with Hamas, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and radical right-wing Israelis. Yes, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader equated democratically elected Netanyahu with the terrorists of Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Abbas, currently in his 18th year of a four-year term.
Did Schumer not realize that in conflating Abbas with Netanyahu, and yet still parroting a two-state solution, in fact there is no legitimate Palestinian Arab leadership capable of reliably instituting a peaceful Palestinian Arab state?
Prophet Schumer announced, by keeping these players in place, “There will never be peace in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank.”
Schumer’s scripted statement comes in the wake of a series of anti-Israel statements by top Democratic leaders, including President Biden during his State of the Union remarks, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who publicly set up Schumer’s remarks by telling the world that we should not confuse the Israeli people with the Israeli government, somehow, as if one were legitimate and the other were not.
And all of this is “complemented” by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who made obscene and grossly inaccurate comments about Israel dehumanizing the Palestinian Arabs.
As much as these Democratic party leaders all seem to be reading from the same script, Schumer’s remarks were particularly treacherous. He conflated the obstacles to peace by suggesting that Netanyahu and his government were as bad as Hamas, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.
Accusatory words like these coming from a senior member of either political party in the U.S. are especially shocking when addressed to the nation’s only actual democratic ally in the Middle East. These are remarks usually saved for a dictatorship that tramples human rights like Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and others. About these there is silence, as the administration panders to its enemies while berating its allies.
Responses to Schumer were robust, coming from across the political spectrum in Israel and the U.S. Netanyahu’s Likud party pushed back, “Israel is an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a banana republic. It is expected of Senator Schumer to respect Israel’s elected government and not undermine it. This is always true, but even more so during wartime.”
War Cabinet minister and opposition leader Benny Gantz wrote “Israel is a robust democracy, and only its citizens will decide its future and leadership. Any external interference on the matter is counter-productive and unacceptable.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog criticized Schumer, saying that “Israel is a sovereign democracy. 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.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Israel deserves an ally that acts like one,” adding, “Either we respect their decisions, or we disrespect their democracy.”
Calling Schumer’s remarks “inappropriate,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “It’s just plain wrong for an American leader to play such a divisive role in Israeli politics while our closest ally in the region is in an existential battle for its very survival.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman derided Schumer’s statement, saying that is disgusting that “the Senate Majority Leader publicly pushes for regime change in the middle of a war.”
Regarding Palestinian Authority President Abbas, Schumer said that “for there to be any hope of peace in the future, Abbas must step down and be replaced by a new generation of Palestinian leaders who will work towards attaining peace with a Jewish state.” Yet of course, not even dense-minded Schumer would call for actual democratic Palestinian Authority elections, perhaps fearing that by doing so he would look foolish.
I don’t remember in my life ever hearing such a bold, anti-democratic statement coming from an elected leader of the free world against another democratic leader, much less an ally or its democratic government. Not only is it deeply wrong for an American politician, or anyone else, to stick his nose into domestic affairs of another democratic country, but it is also counterproductive.
I am not a great fan of Netanyahu, and I wish he would have stepped down years ago. Nevertheless, hearing such obscene remarks from the Senate majority leader and other administration leaders makes me double down in my support for the Israeli government at this time of war.
I know that I am not alone in hearing such remarks, being offended by them and embarrassed for the people who made them. Unfortunately, as much as Schumer wants to blame Israel’s prime minister for his own personal interests in conducting the war, what is clear is that the most important two states for the Democratic Party are not Israel and “Palestine,” but Michigan and Minnesota.
The Democratic party leaders who seem to be vying to make the most vile anti-Israel statements don’t understand that short of a full declaration of war by the United States on Israel, the Hamas wing of the Democratic Party will not support the current administration. They are not only wrong on the issues, but they are strategically wrong because, short of that, they have already lost the support of the terrorists among them.
Who has really lost its way? Israel, fighting a seemingly never-ending war against genocidal Arabs and Islamists for a century, or Schumer and his Democratic Party?
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Jonathan Feldstein was born and educated in the United States and immigrated to Israel in 2004. He is married and the father of six. Throughout his life and career, he has become a respected bridge between Jews and Christians and serves as president of the Genesis 123 Foundation. He writes regularly on major Christian websites about Israel, shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel and hosts the popular “Inspiration from Zion” podcast. On behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation, the Israel Emergency Campaign gives a vehicle for millions of Christians around the world the opportunity to do so virtually as well.
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