Speech from Senate Majority Leader marked a ‘very significant escalation’, but some experts think it could backfire
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Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in US history and one of Washington’s most senior advocates of Israel, has declared that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace and endorsed Israel hosting new elections to oust his right-wing government.
Mr Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, gave a nearly hour-long oration on Thursday that has elicited strong reactions, with some Israel watchers saying the move could backfire.
His speech went “as far as it can go in terms of escalating statements from the United States,” said Merissa Khurma, director of the Middle East Programme at the Washington-based Wilson Centre think tank.
Mr Schumer accused Mr Netanyahu of having “lost his way” and suggested his government’s actions on Gaza have turned Israel into a “pariah opposed by the rest of the world”.
“It’s a very significant escalation,” Ms Khurma told media.
But amid a divided reception to Mr Schumer’s Senate floor speech, some have called into question whether its impact could boomerang into a boost for Mr Netanyahu’s far-right coalition as it continues to wage war in Gaza.
“Netanyahu doesn’t like this type of pressure and always pushes back,” said Ms Khurma.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Herzog, responded swiftly, arguing that the speech was “unhelpful, all the more so as Israel is at war against the genocidal terror organisation Hamas, to comment on the domestic political scene of a democratic ally”.
The address incited a spectrum of responses from Israeli officials, including from Benny Gantz, a political rival of Mr Netanyahu, who said the US senator had “erred in his remarks” and that “external intervention” was “counterproductive and unacceptable.”
Brian Katulis, senior fellow for US foreign policy and senior adviser to the President at Washington’s Middle East Institute think tank, called the speech “amateur hour”.
Mr Netanyahu “is probably at his lowest point historically ever in terms of domestic political support. This statement could contribute to his revival,” he told media.
A January poll found that only 15 per cent of Israelis want Mr Netanyahu to stay in office after the war on Hamas in Gaza ends, even though a majority said they wanted the military campaign in Gaza to continue.
“Democrats have suffered from [Donald] ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, and likewise many of them have ‘Bibi Derangement Syndrome’, in that their behaviour leads to statements and actions that end up making them stronger,” Mr Katulis added, using Mr Netanyahu’s nickname.
The speech, which occurred as ceasefire and hostage release negotiations between Israel and Hamas this week saw significant developments, was also “ill-timed,” Mr Katulis argued.
William Wechsler, senior director at the Atlantic Council think tank’s Rafik Hariri Centre and Middle East programmes, said it was “smart” for Mr Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, to have given the speech as it is one way to signal the Biden administration’s position without it coming directly from the White House.
“Through Schumer … it gives some degree of deductions and real deniability for the Biden administration, because it wasn’t an official US government position. It was a position of one senator,” Mr Wechsler told media.
He acknowledged there is fear among some of the Israeli prime minister’s opponents that “such actions might in fact have the opposite effect and reinforce [Netanyahu’s] hold on his coalition.”
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