Schumer calls for new election in Israel and sharply criticizes Netanyahu

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, calling for new elections in a speech on the Senate floor on the Israel-Hamas war.

“I also believe a majority of the Israeli public will recognize the need for change, and I believe that holding a new election once the war starts to wind down would give Israelis an opportunity to express their vision for the post-war future,” said Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish congressional leader in American history.

Schumer said he is “working in every way I can to support the Biden administration as negotiations continue to free every last one of the hostages.”

Schumer also said his “heart also breaks at the loss of so many civilian lives in Gaza.”

“I am anguished that the Israeli war campaign has killed so many innocent Palestinians,” he continued. “I know that my fellow Jewish Americans feel this same anguish when they see the images of dead and starving children and destroyed homes.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.