Why Schumer Spoke Out Towards Netanyahu as Israel Wages Conflict

Within the library of James Madison Excessive College in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon, Senator Chuck Schumer took inventory of the splash he made a couple of days earlier than. In a speech on the Senate ground, he had branded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel a significant obstacle to peace within the Center East and referred to as for elections to exchange him when the warfare winds down.

It was right here, he recalled, inside this hulking pink brick college deep in south Brooklyn, the place at 16 he was glued to his transistor radio to listen to breaking information of the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1967. It was the place he idolized Sandy Koufax, the Jewish pitcher for the Dodgers who refused to play on Yom Kippur, and realized it was cool to be happy with his heritage.

And on Sunday, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat, majority chief and highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, returned to clarify how his upbringing in Jewish Brooklyn within the shadow of the Holocaust prompted him to ship a politically dangerous speech that caused a watershed second within the politics of U.S.-Israeli relations.

“That is so a part of my core, my soul, my neshama,” Mr. Schumer mentioned in an interview, utilizing the Hebrew phrase for soul. “I mentioned to myself, ‘This will likely damage me politically; this will assist me politically.’ I couldn’t look myself within the mirror if I didn’t do it.”

His fundamental objective, he mentioned, “was to say you’ll be able to nonetheless love Israel and really feel strongly about Israel and completely disagree with Bibi Netanyahu and the insurance policies of Israel.”

The blowback from Republicans has been swift and cruel. Mr. Schumer’s speech was nonetheless reverberating Monday night time, when former President Donald J. Trump cited it in an interview, saying that “any Jewish person who votes for Democrats hates their faith. They hate every part about Israel, and they need to be ashamed of themselves, as a result of Israel might be destroyed.”

Mr. Schumer has not been utterly shocked by the response. “I knew I’d be within the maelstrom,” he mentioned on Sunday, earlier than Mr. Trump’s remarks. However the response was greater than what he had anticipated.

Republicans and even some Democrats accused him of inappropriately interfering out of the country’s elections. The Republican Jewish Coalition mentioned that “probably the most highly effective Democrat in Congress knifed the Jewish state within the again.” And a few on the left mentioned he had not gone far sufficient in condemning Israel’s conduct within the warfare in opposition to Hamas in Gaza.

It’s laborious to consider Mr. Schumer, the relentless get together operator all the time working his flip cellphone and one way or the other by no means out of juice, as somebody who ever places politics apart. There’s something nearly comical concerning the childlike delight he takes in how far he has risen via dogged work, from these humble streets of Midwood to the top of American politics.

However he insists it was his deep Jewish religion — and the ethical crucial he feels to face up for Jews and for Israel — that led him to talk out in opposition to Mr. Netanyahu.

“It got here from right here,” he mentioned, pointing at his intestine.

Nonetheless, his speech got here at a second of deep political divide inside his get together over the warfare in Gaza, which has created vulnerabilities for President Biden and Democrats which are not possible to disregard.

Democratic leaders have been below excessive stress from progressives over Israel’s offensive in opposition to Hamas, which has resulted in tens of hundreds of civilian deaths in Gaza, the place the inhabitants may quickly be going through famine. Within the Michigan Democratic main, greater than 100,000 voters selected “uncommitted” to precise their dissatisfaction with Mr. Biden’s help for Israel and prod him to name for an unconditional cease-fire.

Mr. Schumer mentioned he spent hours after his speech speaking with conservative Jewish constituencies whose members have been enraged. On Tuesday, he addressed a broad spectrum of Jewish American leaders, facilitated by the Convention of Presidents of Main American Jewish Organizations, by Zoom. In an announcement after the assembly, the group mentioned “our membership proceed to have deep reservations about Senator Schumer’s speech.”

Within the interview, Mr. Schumer was characteristically extra desirous to recount the kudos he obtained. “Did you see Nancy at present?” he mentioned of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, who in a CNN look on Sunday referred to as his speech an “act of braveness.” He directed an aide to share a letter he obtained from Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister, that referred to as him “sincere and able to step ahead and say what must be mentioned.”

It was a very long time coming. Mr. Schumer mentioned he spent about two months and 10 drafts making an attempt to good a 44-minute tackle he knew must toe a fragile line. He didn’t merely wish to push for coverage adjustments in Israel’s offensive in Gaza with out calling out Mr. Netanyahu, whom he referred to as “the fount of the issues.”

“To only go for coverage adjustments — I believed it wouldn’t pierce, it wouldn’t do something,” he mentioned.

Nervous that Mr. Netanyahu’s management was risking Israel’s world fame and its backing from the US, Mr. Schumer contemplated how far he may go.

“I wrestled with myself — possibly I ought to say Bibi ought to step down,” Mr. Schumer mentioned. However he rapidly concluded that might cross a line. “That’s telling Israel what to do, and it’s in the midst of a warfare.” He later added that when the concept of calling for a resignation got here up, “I all the time mentioned no.”

As an alternative, Mr. Schumer referred to as for brand spanking new elections, and, as he put it in his speech, letting “the chips fall the place they could.”

“Bibi may stop any election till 2026,” he mentioned. “I fear below his management, Israel would turn out to be such a pariah on the earth and even in the US, as a result of I take a look at the numbers they usually’re quickly reducing. I needed to converse out earlier than it erodes.”

With out American help, he added, Israel’s “future may nicely be over.”

He says his phrases have already had their supposed impact, citing an look Mr. Netanyahu made on CNN on Sunday during which he was requested whether or not he would decide to calling for brand spanking new elections after the warfare. (The prime minister sidestepped the query.)

Mr. Schumer saved his personal counsel whereas making ready the speech, alerting the White Home of his plans to ship it solely a day earlier than — the one suggestions he needed was to examine whether or not it will intrude with negotiations to free hostages held in Gaza. He was instructed it will not.

The senator didn’t share the content material of his remarks with anybody exterior a small circle of workers members, and his spouse, Iris Weinshall.

“When it’s Jewish, he does it himself,” Stu Loeser, a former aide, mentioned of Mr. Schumer. “On these items, he’s his personal finest adviser. He’s in some ways postwar American Jewry incarnate.”

However Mr. Schumer credited a dialog with Rabbi Rachel Timoner, who leads Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope the place he attends synagogue and has officiated lots of his household’s milestones, with influencing his pondering.

“We share the assumption that Israel has a proper to defend itself in opposition to Hamas however talked concerning the determined have to deliver the hostages residence and finish the humanitarian disaster in Gaza via an settlement,” she mentioned. “I mentioned that even when we might solely care about Israel’s security and safety, this warfare was truly harming Israel on the world stage and its relationship with the US.”

The rabbi mentioned she instructed Mr. Schumer that the right-wing extremists in Mr. Netanyahu’s authorities have been “endangering all of us, as a result of their agenda is about dehumanizing Palestinians and it’s undermining Israel’s democracy and dearest values.”

Of Mr. Schumer’s speech, she mentioned: “This was him making an attempt to discern the ethical path and making an attempt to step up in a approach he knew was dangerous for him, to do one thing that he felt deeply was proper.”

Critics instructed him he was fallacious.

Nathan Diament, the chief director of public coverage for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America who has lengthy had a superb relationship with Mr. Schumer, mentioned he was shocked by the remarks.

“The speech was startling, exactly due to his place and his report as a decades-long main supporter of Israel in a really high-ranking place,” Mr. Diament mentioned. He mentioned he discovered it inappropriate that Mr. Schumer had not solely referred to as for brand spanking new elections however named Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas on the identical record of what he referred to as the 4 largest impediments to peace.

Requested how the speech would have an effect on his relationship with Mr. Schumer going ahead, Mr. Diament mentioned: “I don’t suppose I do know the reply to that but.”

Driving round his previous neighborhood, Mr. Schumer consistently interrupted himself to level out native landmarks of his childhood. Right here was the home the place Dr. Isabel Berkelheimer, his childhood dentist, used to reside. Down that road was the place Gil Hodges, a former first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, handed out sweet on Halloween.

He recalled his amazement at visiting Israel for the primary time when he was 20, for his brother’s bar mitzvah. “I keep in mind saying, ‘There are Jewish garbagemen; we don’t have Jewish garbagemen in America!’” he mentioned. “Now we have schoolteachers, we’ve clerks, however you may be something in Israel.”

On Oct. 7, Mr. Schumer was main a bipartisan Senate delegation to China and Korea when he acquired phrase of the Hamas assault in opposition to military bases and defenseless Israeli civilians. He minimize brief his journey and commenced exploring how rapidly he may get to Israel.

“He mentioned to me, ‘I’ve to go — I really feel it, I’ve to be there,’” his spouse, Ms. Weinshall, who was touring with him on the time, recalled. “What he noticed was simply devastating for him.”

Mr. Schumer grew emotional as he recalled assembly with households of hostages, together with Ruby Chen, the Brooklyn-born father of Itay Chen, 19. Israeli authorities not too long ago introduced that Mr. Chen was killed in the course of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault and that his physique was being held in Gaza.

“Now they’re asking me, ‘Do me one favor: Get his physique again so we will have a shiva,’” he mentioned, referring to the Jewish mourning ritual. “So we’re engaged on that.”

Mr. Schumer blames Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump for the erosion of bipartisan help for Israel in America, which he fears may threaten Israel’s future.

“To make Israel a partisan difficulty solely hurts Israel and the U.S.-Israeli relationship,” he wrote on social media on Monday, calling Mr. Trump’s response to his speech “hateful.”

Mr. Schumer mentioned he nonetheless believes his Republican colleagues love Israel, “however a few of them love beating up on the Democrats extra.” For instance, he cited the choice by Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, final fall to tie assist to Israel to reducing funding for the Inner Income Service, a poison tablet for Democrats. The invoice handed the Home largely alongside get together traces however has gone nowhere within the Senate.

As he drove via Brooklyn to his daughter’s home for his or her weekly Sunday household dinner, Mr. Schumer mentioned he would have extra to say on the topic. He delivered a significant speech on antisemitism from the Senate ground final fall — he’s now contemplating a guide on the topic — and has been searching for a chance to do the identical in Europe.

“I care about Jews,” he mentioned. “It’s not the one factor I care about. I care about America, I care about New York, I care about my household, however I care about Jews.”