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16-03-2024
WASHINGTON/ JERUSALEM: US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has called for new elections in Israel, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing his “political survival” above the country.
Schumer, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, said Netanyahu had “lost his way”.
He warned that huge civilian casualties in Gaza risked alienating allies and turning Israel into a global “pariah”.
It is a sharp escalation in US criticism of Netanyahu’s government.
Officials in Washington, including President Joe Biden, have broadly avoided directly criticizing Netanyahu’s approach to the conflict, which began when Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage.
However, cracks have begun to emerge in the coalition in recent weeks, with the president warning Israel against expanding its invasion into the city of Rafah, which he called a “red line”.
Nonetheless, the White House was quick to distance itself from Schumer’s comments. Spokesperson John Kirby said that while the Senate leader had a right to his opinion, administration officials were focused on working with Israel on its defence.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Schumer, a long-time supporter of Israel, harshly criticized the Israeli leader, who he said had come to allow “his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel”.
Israel, Schumer said, must make “course corrections” and take steps to better protect civilians in Gaza.
More than 30,000 Palestinians, the majority of them children and women have now been killed in Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry said last month.
The actual number of dead is likely to be far higher as the count does not include those who have not reached hospitals, among them thousands of people still lost under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli air strikes.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that he could not accept the figure of 30,000. He said Israel’s military had killed 13,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza and that it estimated the ratio of civilian deaths to combatant deaths was 1 to 1.5.
“As a democracy, Israel has the right to choose its own leaders, and we should let the chips fall where they may,” Schumer said, “but the important thing is that Israelis are given a choice. There needs to be a fresh debate about the future of Israel.”
For peace talks to advance, Schumer said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank, must also step down. The Palestinian leader, who is 88, has been little seen throughout the conflict and his government has not held elections since 2006. (Int’l News Desk)
