Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to Republican senators in an apparent criticism of President Biden, after the White House praised Democrat Chuck Schumer’s call for new Israeli leadership.
According to Punchbowl News, the Israeli prime minister, 74, will speak to Republican lawmakers via video call during the conference’s regular lunch meeting.
Netanyahu’s appearance is said to be preliminary, and comes a week after plans for him to speak to Republicans at a policy retreat a week ago after being invited by Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming fell through.
President Biden reportedly called his Israeli counterpart this week to calm tensions after praising Schumer for delivering a “good speech” in which the Jewish senator from New York branded Netanyahu an “obstacle to peace.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to Senate Republicans this week, amid fallout in Washington over the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
President Biden reportedly called on Netanyahu last week to calm tensions after praising Chuck Schumer for delivering a “good speech” calling for the Israeli prime minister’s ouster.
Biden has faced increasing domestic pressure, especially from Democrats, to halt Netanyahu’s actions in the conflict and broker a ceasefire.
The ongoing conflict has been cited as a factor in his recent poor polling, while in the Democratic primaries some have voted “uncommitted” rather than the president sending a message.
While the White House has called for a temporary ceasefire, Netanyahu has vowed to continue the attack until Hamas is destroyed — prompting Schumer to make his scathing comments.
“He (Netanyahu) has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” he said.
“As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits Israel’s needs after October 7.
“The world has changed – radically – since then, and the Israeli people are currently being suffocated by a government vision stuck in the past.”
Schumer said the only solution is “a demilitarized Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in equal measure of peace, security, prosperity and dignity.”
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (C) leaves the Senate chamber on Thursday after his comments on Netanyahu’s term in office
An Israeli demonstrator seen Friday during a protest in Tel Aviv against the government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
After Schumer’s speech in the Senate last week, Netanyahu said it was “totally inappropriate” to call for his ouster.
“It is inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,” he told CNN’s Meet the Press.
‘That is something that Israel, the Israeli public, does itself, and we are not a banana republic.
“I think the only government we have to work against now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the tyranny of Hamas that has murdered more than a thousand Israelis, including several dozen Americans, and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That’s what we need to focus on.’
Netanyahu was referring to the October 7 terrorist attacks in which Hamas killed more than 1,100 people. In response, Netanyahu laid siege to Palestine, killing more than 31,000 people, mostly civilians.
Netanyahu launched a brutal siege of Gaza (pictured in October 2023) in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks
Women walk past a destroyed building in the southern Gaza city of Rafah after Israeli airstrikes
Republicans responded with outrage to Schumer’s speech, with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, calling it “grotesque.”
“It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who are hyperventilating about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of Israel’s democratically elected leader,” McConnell said. ‘This is unprecedented.’
Former President Trump also joined the debate when he declared that every Jewish people who vote for Democrats “hates their religion and hates Israel.”
a Pew Research Center A 2021 survey found that seven in 10 Jewish voters are Democrats.
Trump said in a radio interview with former White House aide Sebastian Gorka that he “actually thinks they (Biden and Schumer) hate Israel.”
The presumptive Republican nominee – whose daughter Ivanka is Jewish – then continued his line of attack towards the Jewish Democrats.
“Every Jewish person who votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he said. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed, because Israel will be destroyed.”
Former President Donald Trump accused Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats of hating Israel and “their religion.”
Following the comments, the White House released a statement condemning Donald Trump’s “despicable and unhinged anti-Semitic rhetoric.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Mediaite: “President Biden has put his foot down when it comes to vile and unhinged anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“As anti-Semitic crimes and acts of hatred have increased around the world — including the deadliest attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and unite Americans against it.
“There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. No. As President Biden said, he was moved to run for president when he saw neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard in Germany in the 1930s.”