Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Chuck Schumer’s call for new Israel elections as ‘totally inappropriate’

Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Chuck Schumer’s call for new Israel elections, dismissing it as harmful for the war against Hamas, as the war of words between Jerusalem and Washington escalates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sharply rejected Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s call for new elections in his country, dismissing the push as “totally inappropriate” and harmful to Israel’s war against Hamas.

The comments are the freshest salvo in an escalating back-and-forth verbal exchange between senior Washington leaders and Israel’s prime minister, who has attracted growing criticism from the Biden administration and many Democratic politicians over his handling of the conflict with Hamas amid international pleas to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza.

Netanyahu repeatedly declined to commit to holding early elections during an interview with CNN. He pointed to polling that shows a majority of Israelis want early elections, but only once the war is considered over. Going to elections now, would lead to “at least six months of national paralysis, which means we would lose the war,” Netanyahu said.

The current Israeli government is less than a year old, and elections aren’t required until 2026.

“I think it’s ridiculous to talk about it,” he said, likening it to calling for new elections in the US after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something the Israeli public does on its own.” Schumer, a New York Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. government, said last week that Netanyahu “has lost his way” and called for new elections aimed at choosing a new government.

Netanyahu is “allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said, adding that Israel “cannot hope to succeed as a pariah opposed by the rest of the world.” In a new statement Sunday responding to Netanyahu’s comments, Schumer said: “It’s a good thing that a serious discussion has now begun about how to ensure Israel’s future security and prosperity once Hamas has been defeated.” Schumer’s speech came amid growing frustration in the Biden administration with Netanyahu over the civilian death toll in Gaza and his resistance to US post-war plans, including a new push for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

President Biden told reporters that Schumer had “made a good speech” and “expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.” Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), have criticised it as harmful to a close ally.

The comments come as Congress is trying to find a path forward for a $95 billion foreign-aid package that includes assistance for Ukraine and Israel.

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Sunday that Biden believed the question of if and when there should be new elections is “up to the Israeli people and the Israeli government.”

Kirby, appearing on Fox News, said that the administration continued to have concerns about some of the military operations in Gaza, including a possible invasion by Israel’s forces of the southern region of Rafah in Gaza, and that Israel needed to do more to reduce the number of civilian casualties.

“We will not support, cannot support, an operation in Rafah that does not have an executable, verifiable achievable plan to take care of the 1.5 million people that are trying to find refuge in Rafah,” Kirby said, adding that Israel’s plans to provide a civilian escape route so far haven’t been credible.

Netanyahu has vowed to push back against any pressure on Israel to ease off its goal of eradicating Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group whose attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 triggered the war.

He said Sunday that Israel was increasing the supply of food trucks allowed into Gaza but that the problem preventing aid from reaching civilians was looting of the trucks by Hamas. Kirby said Sunday that the administration “hadn’t seen evidence that Hamas has pilfered off a lot of the humanitarian assistance.” Rafah, the last significant Hamas holdout, is essential to destroying the militant group, according to Israeli officials. Hamas still has four battalions placed there. Netanyahu on Friday approved plans for an offensive after a meeting of the war cabinet, though no details have been made public.

Netanyahu has continued to show defiance in the face of rising U.S. and international criticism of his war effort. During his CNN interview, Netanyahu said that the calls for new elections were only serving to distract from resolving the conflict.

“The only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza,” he said.

Dow Jones