Schumer calls for new election in Israel and sharply criticizes Netanyahu

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for new elections in a speech on the Senate floor on the Israel-Hamas war.

“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 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,” said Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America.

“Five months into this conflict, it is clear that Israelis need to take stock of the situation and ask: must we change course?” he continued. “At this critical juncture, I believe a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.”

Schumer noted in his speech that he is the first Jewish Senate majority leader. The New York Democrat condemned the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7 in his remarks and said he is “working in every way I can to support the Biden administration as negotiations continue to free every last one of the hostages.”

“October 7 and the shameless response to support that terrorist attack by some in America and around the globe have awakened the deepest fears of the Jewish people — that our annihilation remains a possibility,” Schumer said.

Schumer also said his “heart also breaks at the loss of so many civilian lives in Gaza.”

“I am anguished that the Israeli war campaign has killed so many innocent Palestinians,” he continued. “I know that my fellow Jewish Americans feel this same anguish when they see the images of dead and starving children and destroyed homes.”

Schumer said that he believes that “a majority of the Israeli public will recognize the need for change, and 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 post-war future.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.