Schumer Says He Criticized Netanyahu to Save Israel

To save Israel, Chuck Schumer decided, he had to denounce its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The 73-year-old Senate majority leader spent two months laboring over the wording of a speech he expected would rock Washington and ricochet across America’s Jewish community. He didn’t talk to people about it, other than a small group of staff and his wife. He didn’t know if the politics would help or hurt him, he said. But he said he ultimately decided it didn’t matter.

“A lot of thought and wrestling in my head: Is this the right thing to do for Israel, and for the U.S.-Israeli relationship?” the New York Democrat said in an interview. “And the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced not only that it was the right thing to do, but I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, live with myself if I didn’t do it.” 

Schumer’s speech last Thursday, which called on the Israeli government to hold new elections once the Israel-Hamas war winds down, came at a volatile moment as the war roils the Democratic Party and divides American Jews. It was applauded by President Biden, and many senior Democrats have echoed Schumer’s call for a change of course in Israel, reflecting a shift in the party establishment’s tone as civilian casualties continue to mount and concerns grow that calls for Netanyahu’s government to show restraint aren’t being heeded.