Israeli PM Netanyahu will speak to Republican senators after Schumer’s comments

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak with Senate Republicans via video on Wednesday, less than a week after the chamber’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, called for elections to replace him.

A spokesperson for Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso said the senator had invited Netanyahu to address his colleagues.

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Schumer, the majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, took to the Senate floor last Thursday to deliver an extraordinary rebuke to the Israeli leader.

The death toll from Israel’s campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has incensed many Democrats with ramifications for the November elections.

Schumer, an ally of Israel in Congress for decades, had urged Netanyahu’s government to do more to avoid civilian casualties and allow aid to flow more freely to Gaza residents.

“I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel,” Schumer said. Netanyahu, he added, “has lost his way” and become beholden to right-wing extremists.

He also said that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must step down and that the Palestinian people must reject Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union.

Netanyahu had originally been scheduled to address Republican senators during a retreat last Wednesday, according to Barrasso’s spokesperson. The prime minister’s participation in the Republican luncheon was reported earlier by Punchbowl.

The Israeli leader quickly fired back.

“What he said is totally inappropriate,” Netanyahu said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s inappropriate for a — to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there.”

“We’re not a banana republic.”

Barrasso, along with many other Republicans condemned Schumer’s remarks. “Let’s be clear: Israel is a democracy. It makes its own choice about who they want to lead them. It doesn’t need to have a senator from New York’s interference,” Barrasso said shortly after Schumer’s speech.

President Joe Biden praised Schumer, saying “I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.”

Former President Donald Trump, in an interview that appeared on Monday, accused Jews who support Democrats of hating their religion and Israel, resurfacing an attack he made as president on many Jewish Americans.

Schumer later said Trump “is making highly partisan and hateful rants.”

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