Schumer 's Attack on an Ally at War

What is a colony? The dictionary definition is "an area over which a foreign nation or state extends or maintains control.”

Today Sen. Chuck Schumer tried to turn the State of Israel into one—an American colony. 

In a Senate speech he demanded new elections in Israel and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an "obstacle to peace." Schumer also decided that "The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7." Schumer concluded that "The world has changed - radically - since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

Israeli voters, then, do not have the right to decide when to have elections and whom to choose as prime minister. That is the right, apparently, of politicians in Washington. Vice President Harris said recently that “It’s important for us to distinguish or at least not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people.”  Schumer’s rant is more of the same: an attack on a democratically elected government, unprecedented and indefensible especially in the middle of a war.

Schumer seems deeply confused about what Israelis want. Prime Minister Netanyahu is very unpopular and may well lose the next election—or be tossed out sooner if he loses his majority in the Knesset. But his unpopularity is tied to accusations of corruption and last year’s judicial reform battle, not to “peace.” In fact the Israeli populace supports the actions of the current war cabinet. As the Israeli journalist Amit Segal write in the Wall Street Journal on March 13,

Yes, there is a significant disparity between Israel’s leadership and its citizens—but it’s the opposite of what people in Washington assume. The Israeli public is far more “right-wing” than the policies of its government. While Mr. Netanyahu has previously voiced support for a Palestinian state, a February survey conducted by Midgam for Channel 12 News found that 63% of the Israeli public strongly opposes such a state under any circumstances. While the cabinet implicitly agreed that a renewed Palestinian Authority would control Gaza, 73% of those who expressed an opinion in the survey opposed it.

Israelis are notoriously outspoken and have a vibrant democracy. In the middle of a war the very last thing they need is for a Democratic Party politician to elevate his own party’s electoral needs over Israeli national security and over Israeli democracy. This speech, coming after the Vice President’s, appears to signal a continuing campaign against Netanyahu. It’s a shameful and unprecedented way to treat an ally, and an unconscionable interference in the internal politics of another democracy.