SAUNDERS: Biden’s ‘Come to Jesus’ phone call with Netanyahu
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer showed America the perfect pot-calling-kettle-black moment last week when he delivered a 40-minute speech on the Senate floor on Israel.
The first Jewish Senate leader in history and highest elected Jewish official, Schumer called for new elections as soon as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends. As Schumer sees it, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”
“He just said essentially that Bibi Netanyahu should take a walk,” former President Donald Trump told “Fox News Sunday,” using the Israeli leader’s nickname.
Netanyahu took umbrage at Schumer’s suggestion that he un-elect himself. “It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,” Netanyahu responded on CNN Sunday. “That’s something the Israel, the Israeli public does on its own. We’re not a banana republic.”
Asked about Schumer’s remarks Friday in the Oval Office, Biden said it was a “good speech” that reflected a “serious concern” shared among voters.
Methinks Schumer has lost his way. Throughout his career, Schumer has been a stalwart of the Jewish State.
Until this election season, mainstream Democrats’ support for Israel was a given. But the war in Gaza has created a rift on the left.
Just under one in five who voted in Minnesota’s March 5 Democratic primary chose “uncommitted.” If a chunk of pro-Palestinian voters stays home in November, that could present a big problem for Biden, as this is an issue that threatens to split the left, and not the right.
Biden’s position comes as no surprise. After his March 7 State of the Union address, Biden chatted with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who pressed POTUS to keep pushing for humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Biden told Bennet, “I told him, Bibi, and don’t repeat this, but you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.”
“I’m on a hot mic here,” the president added. “Good. That’s good.”
After a month when the two leaders did not speak to each other, Biden and Bibi talked by phone Monday about aid for Gaza and an IDF operation planned for Rafah. Further talks will follow. According to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the idea is to present “an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu told Fox News that Americans would be appalled if an Israeli politician called for a new U.S. election after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
I’m on board. Hamas deliberately slaughtered 1,200 men, women and children on Oct. 7. The worst offenders should pay the highest penalty.
As Schumer noted in remarks that laid out the situation as he sees it: “Hamas has knowingly invited an immense civilian toll during this war. Their goal on October 7 was to provoke a tough response from Israel by killing as many Jews as possible in the most vicious manner possible — by raping women, executing babies, desecrating bodies, brutalizing whole communities.”
That’s why it is so very disappointing that D.C. Democrats are so squishy. They know better. They know Israel has every right to fight back. It’s a matter of survival.
Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.