During his address to the Senate Republican policy lunch Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sharply critical of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s comments calling for elections to form a new government in Israel.
“Clearly, the prime minister was not happy with Sen. Schumer’s speech. Nor was he happy with President (Joe) Biden’s praise of Sen. Schumer’s speech. But I think the prime minster understands the politics of all of it,” Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy said afterward.
“We made it clear to the prime minister that in our judgment, the American people overwhelmingly support Israel’s war,” Kennedy said. “And he made clear he intends to prosecute the war against Hamas to the full extent of his power”
Kennedy said Netanyahu spoke for about 15 minutes via video link to the GOP meeting in the Capitol, and then took about 45 minutes of questions.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said Netanyahu was not critical of Biden.
“He said he was grateful of the support he’s gotten from President Biden and he hopes that support continues,” Cruz said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said Netanyahu was “candid” and “thorough” and said the Israeli leader gave a “pretty detailed update” of the war, answering questions about the prosecution of the war and explaining what Israel’s needs are from the US.
Hawley said Netanyahu was “very mindful” of concerns over civilian deaths and “talked about it at some length” and was “alert to the sensitives” over that issue, even talking about the estimated death toll of Palestinians.
“He wanted to project that the end is in sight,” Hawley said. “By far the greatest portion of this war is over.”
Netanyahu told the senators he does not envision US troops getting directly involved in combat.
More on Schumer’s speech: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pushed back on Republican criticism of his Israel speech, in which he called for the US ally to hold new elections.
“I gave this speech, out of a real love for Israel. And if you read the speech, we called only for there to be an election after the hostilities, declined after Hamas was defeated,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju, when asked about GOP critics saying that his remarks amounted to foreign election interference, and that there shouldn’t be any daylight between the US and an ally when they are at war.
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