Schumer’s remarks telling, analysts say

Show growing tension between US and Israel

JERUSALEM — Senator Chuck Schumer’s harsh critique of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government revealed the widening gap between Israel and its most important ally, the United States, analysts said Friday, but was unlikely to prompt Israel’s government to chart a new course.

Schumer — who, as the majority leader, is the highestranking Jewish elected official in the United States — repeatedly slammed Netanyahu in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday as one of the main stumbling blocks to Israeli-Palestinian peace. While not explicitly calling for Netanyahu’s ouster, Schumer said Israelis must soon be allowed the opportunity to select new leadership. Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, called the speech a profound moment that reflected widespread American dissatisfaction with Israel’s direction among both its allies in Congress and in the American Jewish community.

“For a Jewish senator from New York, the majority leader, a friend of Netanyahu who’s the most centrist possible Democrat and even leans hawkish on Israel, to voice criticism like this?” said Pinkas, adding, “If you’ve lost Chuck Schumer, you’ve lost America.”

Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s opposition, was one of the few Israeli leaders to welcome Schumer’s remarks, calling his speech “proof that Netanyahu is losing Israel’s biggest supporters in the United States one by one.”

In a statement, Lapid said that “Netanyahu is causing heavy damage to the national effort to win the war and preserve Israel’s security.”

But that was a minority viewpoint. More typical was the reaction of Benny Gantz, a center-right critic of Netanyahu who joined him in an emergency wartime government. Schumer, he said on social media Thursday, had “erred in his remark.” Any “external intervention is not correct and not welcome,” he added.

Widely seen as a serious contender for prime minister in the next elections, Gantz regularly outpolls Netanyahu in opinion surveys. But “given everything going on in Gaza, even Israeli political leaders who oppose Netanyahu are reluctant to turn this into a political moment,” said Michael Koplow, an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum think tank.

Schumer’s comments Thursday — that “a new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decisionmaking 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” — are borne out by opinion polls in Israel. Roughly 71 percent of Israelis support holding early elections, either immediately or at the end of the war, according to a poll published in January by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute.

“What Schumer said, in many ways, reflects Israeli public opinion regarding Netanyahu,” said Koplow.

“He’s incredibly unpopular here, and an overwhelming majority of Israelis also want to see early elections.”

President Biden expressed support Friday for Schumer.

“He made a good speech,” Biden said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister.

“I think he expressed serious concerns shared not only by him but by many Americans.”

After his State of the Union speech earlier this month, Biden accused Netanyahu of “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” with his leadership of the war.

For now, many Israelis remain focused on the military effort to eliminate Hamas in Gaza and on securing the release of the more than 100 hostages remaining there. And in public, at least, members of Netanyahu’s government did not express concern over Schumer’s remarks.

Along the coast, a ship delivered 200 tons of humanitarian supplies, food, and water on Friday, the Israeli military said, inaugurating a sea route from Cyprus for aid to help ease the humanitarian crisis.

The ship, operated by the Spanish aid group Open Arms, left Cyprus on Tuesday towing a barge laden with food, including rice, flour, lentils, beans, tuna, and canned meat.

The food was sent by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, which operates kitchens providing free meals in Gaza.