Chuck Schumer has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of aligning himself with extremists and being 'too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza'.
The leader of the US Senate has called for Israel to hold new elections in the most strident criticism yet by a senior American official of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza. The rebuke from Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish-American, came amid increased pressure from President Joe Biden over the mounting death toll in the conflict, sparked by the 7 October attacks by Hamas militants.
Schumer's remarks were welcomed by liberal lobby group J Street as a "historic shift" for pro-Israel Democrats that reflected the views of the "overwhelming majority" of American Jews. But they sparked an angry pushback from Netanyahu's Likud party, which retorted that Israel "is not a banana republic but an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu".