Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully pushed back against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Senate-floor condemnation of his government, saying the U.S. shouldn‘t try to dictate how or when another government conducts its elections.
“I think what he said is totally inappropriate,” Netanyahu said on Sunday’s State of the Union. “It's inappropriate for him to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That's something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, but we're not a banana republic.”
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official, excoriated Netanyahu’s government for the high civilian death toll in Gaza and demanded Israel hold new elections to deal with the country’s response to Hamas and the Oct. 7 attack. "Nobody expects Prime Minister Netanyahu to do the things that must be done to break the cycle of violence, preserve Israel's credibility on the world stage, and work toward a two-state solution," Schumer said.
