Schumer’s criticism of Netanyahu reveals a growing divide, analysts say

Senator Chuck Schumer’s harsh criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government revealed the growing rift between Israel and its key ally the United States, analysts said Friday. But even some of Mr. Netanyahu’s rivals appeared reluctant to address the comments as the country focuses on the war in Gaza.

Mr. Schumer — Democrat of New York, the majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States — repeatedly singled out Mr. Netanyahu in a Senate speech on Thursday as one of the major stumbling blocks to Israeli-Palestinian peace. While he did not explicitly call for Netanyahu’s ouster, Mr. Schumer said Israelis should soon be given the opportunity to elect new leadership.

Alon Pinkas, a retired 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 is the most centrist Democrat and even hawkish on Israel, to make such criticism?” said Mr. Pinkas, who previously served as Israel’s consul general in New York. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

The senator’s comments reflected growing frustration among some American Jews with Israel’s far-right government, he said, adding: “If you’ve lost Chuck Schumer, you’ve lost America.”

Even before the war in Gaza, Netanyahu had divided Israelis over his attempt to put forward a controversial plan to weaken the judiciary. The devastating Hamas-led attacks on October 7, which officials say killed 1,200 people in Israel and took some 240 others as hostages to Gaza, shocked Israelis, prompting increased calls for him to resign due to the failing safety policy.

Mr Schumer’s comments on Thursday – that “new elections are the only way to enable a healthy and open decision-making process on Israel’s future, at a time when so many Israelis have lost confidence in Israel’s vision and direction lost their government” – are confirmed by opinion polls in Israel. About 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 about Netanyahu,” said Michael Koplow, an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum think tank. “He is incredibly unpopular here, and an overwhelming majority of Israelis also want early elections.”

But 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 at least members of Netanyahu’s government publicly expressed no concern about Mr. Schumer’s comments.

Netanyahu’s Likud party quickly denounced them, saying in a statement that Israel is not “a banana republic, but rather an independent democracy that is proud to have elected Prime Minister Netanyahu.” It added that most Israelis support “total victory over Hamas” while rejecting a “Palestinian terrorist state.”

Benny Gantz, a center-right critic of Netanyahu who joined him in a wartime emergency government, said Schumer had “made a mistake in his comment.” Any “external intervention is not correct and not welcome,” Mr. Gantz said on social media.

Widely seen as a serious contender for prime minister in the next election, Mr. Gantz regularly outpaces Mr. Netanyahu in opinion polls. But “given everything happening in Gaza, even Israeli political leaders who oppose Netanyahu are reluctant to turn this into a political moment,” Koplow said.

Some right-wing political commentators said mounting criticism from abroad could help Netanyahu quell domestic anger. Nadav Strauchler, a political strategist who previously advised Mr. Netanyahu, said Mr. Schumer’s criticism gave the embattled prime minister another way to present himself as someone who stands up for Israel’s security to the outside world.

“If the intention was ‘Help Netanyahu,’ then it worked very well,” Mr. Strauchler said. “If the United States wants to exert pressure, this is not the way to go about it. It creates the opposite effect.”