March 22 — What U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer said in a forty-plus minute address on March 14 in the U.S. Senate sent shock waves across the world, producing an effect which continues to reverberate more than two weeks later. Schumer, the Senate Majority leader and the highest level Jewish elected official in the U.S., seemed in his statement to turn against Israel's policy in Gaza, which has been condemned by much of the world as ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people.
At first glance, his call for Israel to hold new elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu seemed to be a decisive shift, perhaps a foreboding that President Biden, who has been clashing semi-publicly with Netanyahu, might be using Schumer to prepare for a change in policy. Biden's continuing commitment to providing arms, money and political cover to Israel is increasingly unpopular, especially among key Democratic Party constituencies, including youth and Muslims, many of whom are voting "undecided" and "uncommitted" in party primaries to express their outrage at U.S. complicity in the brutal collective slaughter in Gaza.
Yet one week later, as Netanyahu insists the full-scale assault on Rafah is coming, the Biden administration has yet to call for an immediate ceasefire, or impose effective measures to alleviate the suffering inflicted by the Israeli attack. With an estimated 1.4 million crowded into the city on the border with Egypt, the majority of whom lack shelter and are facing death by starvation and disease, the assault will produce an unbelievably tragic outcome. But Netanyahu says he will not be deterred by U.S. or global condemnation, and will not stop until Hamas is destroyed. Polls taken in Israel show that, while a growing majority of citizens want him out as Prime Minister, they want him to finish off Hamas first.
In his speech, Schumer said he believes the Prime Minister "has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel…. He has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah…." To prevent its isolation, he added, "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.”
He went further, identifying cabinet members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as "extremists", while stating that he personally favors a two-state solution, which President Biden also claims to support. Netanyahu has vowed repeatedly that he will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state.
What Shumer REALLY Said
In the partisan brawl unleashed by Schumer's speech, with Republicans accusing him of meddling in Israel's sovereign affairs, and even of anti-Semitism, it seems that many have missed what he actually said. While calling for a new election to replace Netanyahu, he threw in a caveat: a new election should take place "once the war starts to wind down," meaning that though he called Bibi an "obstacle to peace," he did not advocate an immediate end to the murderous assault on innocent civilians underway. With this formulation, he was thereby endorsing Netanyahu's intent to annihilate Hamas, with the collateral effect of drastically reducing the Palestinian population -- and only then should Bibi be removed!
Netanyahu responded with macho bluster, as could be expected. He said it's "wrong to try to replace the elected leaders...of a staunch American ally...especially during a time of war,” which actually is in line with what Schumer said about waiting until the war winds down. He reiterated that opposition will not prevent him from fulfilling his mission: “No amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel. We must not give in to these pressures, and we will not give in to them.”
The pressure against Schumer escalated, when Netanyahu addressed Senate Republicans in a video call on March 20. According to reports of the meeting, Netanyahu reiterated the commitment of his unity government to wipe out Hamas. Republican Senators expressed support for him, typified by Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who told reporters, "I made it clear to him that it's not the business of the United States to be giving a democratic ally advice about when to have an election or what kind of military campaign they may be conducting." McConnell added that Schumer's statement was "an affront to the very independence of the state of Israel."
In a brief exchange with reporters after Netanyahu spoke with Republicans, when asked if he were interfering with the internal politics of an American ally, Schumer reiterated that he is saying that there should be a new election, "only after the hostilities have declined, after Hamas has been defeated." He added that he did not invite Netanyahu to address Democrats, because he did not want to make this "a partisan issue."
Trump Weighs In
Of course, in an election year, everything becomes partisan. Schumer's statement provided an opening for Donald Trump, the likely Republican opponent of Biden, to attempt to woo Jewish voters away from the Democrats. Trump had until recently said little about the Israeli assault on Gaza following Hamas' attack on October 7, other than to confirm in an interview on Fox-News, prior to Schumer's comments, that he stands with Israel, and called on Netanyahu "to finish the job."
On March 18, in an interview with his former aide Sebastian Gorka, he said, "I actually think they [Democrats] hate Israel...." He accused Schumer of raising the issue for political reasons. "They also see a lot of votes. Don't forget when you see those Palestinian marches — even I'm amazed at how many people are in those marches. And guys like Schumer see that and to him, it's votes. I think it's votes more than anything else. Because he was always pro-Israel. He's very anti-Israel now."
In a strange, Trumpian way, he then went after Jews who vote for Democrats. "Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed."
A Lost Opportunity
Lost in the partisan dust-up is the underlying reality, which is that the majority in both parties in the U.S. Congress support Israel. It may seem to be a practical political move to place the blame on Netanyahu, who does bear major responsibility for the genocide unfolding, but most of the senior figures in Israeli politics also support the ethnic cleansing underway in Gaza.
What Schumer did not do was to advocate the one effective strategy which would force Israel to end its assault on Palestinians, by calling for an immediate end to all aid to Israel -- military, financial and political -- until there was an agreement to a complete ceasefire, an end to Israeli occupation of all land internationally recognized as a Palestinian state, and propose an economic package benefiting all peoples and nations in southwest Asia, as an inducement to achieve a durable settlement.
The U.S. alone possesses the power and influence to halt the tragedy which continues to unfold. The crocodile tears shed by Biden and his salesman Blinken over the "heartbreak" they feel as the number of the deaths of Palestinians mounts are exposed as blatant hypocrisy, in the absence of strategy to end the killing. And, in spite of the media fuss unleashed by Schumer's comments, the net effect has been to provide a fig leaf to cover the Biden administration's support for deadly imperial geopolitics in Southwest Asia.
