Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s (D-NY) speech calling for new elections in Israel.
Netanyahu called Schumer’s comments “totally inappropriate” during an appearance on CNN‘s State of the Union with Dana Bash
“I think what he said is totally inappropriate,” Netanyahu said, when shown Schumer’s speech. “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.”
Making similar comments on Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday, Netanyahu said Schumer’s call for new elections was equivalent to Israelis calling for President George W. Bush to be removed after 9/11.
“Just imagine that, after 9/11 and when you were in the midst of fighting al-Qaeda, and winning, people will say, ‘Oh, well, the right thing,’ some Israelis would say, ‘the right thing to do is now to have new elections in America, or to have President Bush resign.’ It’s inappropriate, it shouldn’t have been said. It’s wrong.”
Schumer’s comments marked a watershed moment for Democrats, after months of hard-Left members calling for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu’s rebuke of Schumer’s remarks comes shortly after the Israeli prime minister accused the international community of forgetting Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack during a cabinet meeting.
“To our friends in the international community, I say: is your memory so short? So quickly you forgot about Oct. 7, the worst massacre committed against Jews since the Holocaust?” Netanyahu said.
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“So quickly you are ready to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the monsters of Hamas?” he added.
He also reiterated Israel’s intention to launch an offensive into Rafah, the small southern enclave where most of Gaza’s population has taken refuge. The Biden administration has said that an offensive into Rafah, likely to result in heavy civilian casualties, would be a red line.
