Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's call for new elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "disgusting" and a blatant appeal to "Democratic woke base" voters, David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel under former President Donald Trump, told Newsmax.
"I don't have any words for it," Friedman told Thursday's "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "I've never seen anything like it. I don't think in 75 years an American politician has ever called for the resignation of an Israeli prime minister."
Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S. government, said in a speech on the Senate floor Thursday that the Israeli prime minister is "too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza" and "no longer fits the needs" of Israel following the Hamas attack Oct. 7.
"It's coming at a time when Israel's at war, and Netanyahu is prosecuting that war with the support of most of the country," Friedman said. "You know he's fighting for Israel's existence."
And Schumer, as a Jew, is "doing nothing but hurting the Jewish people in the state of Israel," Friedman added.
"It's so transparent what he's doing," he added. "He's trying to hang on to that Democratic woke base that Joe Biden needs to get elected right now. He doesn't want to take on Israel writ large. So he just picks on Netanyahu thinking that it's going to get this base."
But instead, Schumer is "going to lose everybody," Friedman continued. "He's offending everybody. He's offending the Democrats who like Israel. He's defending the Democrats that hate Israel."
Friedman said there are challenges to Netanyahu, who could even lose the next election or not run in it, but "no one's focusing on that."
"They're focusing on winning the war, and they're all rallying behind their leader, as you would expect in a wartime," he added. "The Israeli army is performing magnificently right now, in terms of fighting against Hamas, which has, frankly, the greatest home court advantage anywhere in the world."
Meanwhile, 80% of Palestinians not only support Hamas, but they celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Friedman warned.
"To reward the terrorists by giving them a platform to complete their efforts to destroy Israel is insane," he said. "We want to all be concerned about this because the world is watching.
"The terrorists are watching, and if Hamas is able to succeed here, the template of taking hostages, committing brutalities, and then negotiating for victory is a template that will be seen all over the world, including in America."
Friedman also said he feels the Israeli support for President Joe Biden is shifting.
"Israelis now overwhelmingly support Trump," he said. "When Biden first came to Israel the first couple of days after the war started, he was very popular here. That all changed.
"I think that Jewish people in America are moving in that direction as well with all the antisemitism and the failure of the Biden administration to combat antisemitism. Jewish people are feeling that and they're they're moving toward Trump."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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