Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Sunday after he called for new elections in Israel and labeled the prime minister and the government “obstacles to peace.”
Netanyahu appeared on “State of the Union” to discuss Schumer’s comments which were delivered March 14 during a 43-minute speech on the Senate floor. CNN host Dana Bash asked for Netanyahu’s response after showing him a clip of Schumer’s speech, noting that the senator is the “highest ranking Jewish elected official” in the U.S. (RELATED: ‘Obstacles To Peace’: Chuck Schumer Attacks Netanyahu, Calls For New Israeli Leader)
Netanyahu called out Schumer’s comments as “totally inappropriate” and stated that both Americans and Israelis support the government’s move to take down Hamas. The prime minister continued to note the policies which the Israeli people supported, emphasizing that if Schumer was against them he was against the Israeli people.
“I think what he said is totally inappropriate. It‘s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That‘s something that the Israeli public does on its own. We‘re not a banana republic. I think the only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over 1,000 Israelis, including dozens of Americans and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That‘s what we should be focused on,” Netanyahu stated.
“As far as what Senator Schumer said, the majority of Israelis support our government, 82% of Americans support Israel instead of Hamas. But the majority of Israelis support the policies that were leading — going to Rafah, destroy the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions, make sure that we don‘t put into Gaza instead of Hamas the Palestinian Authority that educates their children towards terrorism and the annihilation of Israel.”
“And also an enormous majority here, including 99 Knesset members to nine, oppose the idea of ramming down a Palestinian state down our throats. So, you know, the majority of Israelis — this is a wake up call to Senator Schumer — the majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It’s not a fringe government, it represents the policies supported by the majority of the people. If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he’s not opposing me, he’s opposing the people of Israel,” Netanyahu stated.
As some Democrats have called for a ceasefire within the Israel-Hamas war, President Joe Biden told Netanyahu in early February that Israeli’s military operations should “not proceed” within the Gaza Strip, unless they had a “credible” plan. As concerns have grown, the Biden administration set a firm deadline of March 24 for Israel to give written assurance that the U.S. government could review, assuring that the Israeli use of American weapons is in accordance with international law, according to NBC News.