The US State Department distanced itself from the statements of the Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, on Thursday, in which he called for new elections in Israel.
Schumer called on Israel to hold new elections, saying that he believed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “lost his way” in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip and in the ongoing humanitarian crisis there, according to CBS News.
On Thursday, the US State Department said that Schumer’s statements calling for elections in Israel did not express the opinion of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, harshly criticized Netanyahu in a lengthy tirade Thursday morning on the Senate floor.
Schumer said that the Israeli prime minister placed himself in a far-right coalition and “as a result, was completely willing to tolerate the civilian death toll in Gaza, which pushed global support for Israel to its lowest levels.”
After Schumer’s statements, Israel’s ambassador to the United States said that “it is not useful to comment on the domestic political scene of an allied democratic country.”
For its part, the Likud Party said that Israel is not a “banana republic” in response to Schumer’s comments about the necessity of holding new elections in the Hebrew state, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party confirmed that it is leading a policy that enjoys “large public support,” according to what Reuters reported.
The United States is the main supporter of Israel, but the Biden administration recently directed the sharpest criticism of Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, and included calling on the Netanyahu government to take steps to increase aid to the Gaza Strip, which the United Nations says is at risk of famine.
