With Schumer’s Israel Remarks, The American Gloves Are Off

The Biden administration and its allies used to reserve their criticisms of Israel for private conversations. No longer.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s floor speech Thursday, criticizing Israel for failing to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and calling for a new election there, served as the capstone to a monthslong U.S. pressure campaign that has moved from the shadows into the public sphere. For Schumer, a typically pro-Israel voice and the highest-ranking Jewish official in American history, to make such comments is a green light for any Israel critic to say their piece.

Schumer’s remarks, which he shared beforehand with the White House, come as the Biden administration has intensified its public criticism of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas. Initial full-throated defenses have given way to calls for a six-week cease-fire, the prompt release of hostages held by militants and a greater emphasis on civilian protection.

Together, it’s a signal that sympathetic figures like President Joe Biden and Schumer have lost patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war he has led in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The change in tone is intentional, a senior administration official said.

“Our rhetoric around humanitarian aid has gotten sharper as the humanitarian situation in Gaza has gotten worse,” said the official, granted anonymity to explain the messaging shift. The official added that the administration’s general principles have remained the same, namely seeking a return of hostages, the defeat of Hamas, the protection of civilians and the eventual pursuit of a two-state solution.

Schumer’s remarks were his own, but they still signal that as far as criticizing Israel, the gloves are officially off.

Schumer, who has defied the Democratic Party’s pro-Palestinian tilt in recent years, sounded closer to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has long railed against Netanyahu’s leadership, than his own usual rhetoric on Thursday.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7," he said in the floor remarks. "The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

Should Israel refuse to change course, namely to safeguard Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and seek a two-state solution, then the U.S. should play "a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course," he said.

That hasn’t pleased other lawmakers, especially Republicans like Speaker Mike Johnson, who called Schumer’s address “highly inappropriate.”

“Schumer’s speech today marks a historic moment in U.S.-Israel relations. He is not only telling Israelis that the time has come to replace their leader, but he is opening the door to the possibility that the U.S. may condition future aid to Israel,” said Guy Ziv, a professor of Israeli politics at American University in Washington and former Schumer intern.

Schumer’s address wouldn’t have been possible without the Biden administration’s own shifts in recent weeks, prompted by mounting political pressure from Democrats and pro-Palestinian voices in and outside of Washington.

After the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack, Biden used public remarks to offer unequivocal support for Israel's right to self defense. He traveled to Israel during the war to hug Netanyahu and throw his weight behind a plan to militarily defeat Hamas in Gaza.

“Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. And I promise you: We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it will be,” Biden said in Tel Aviv. “We are going to make sure you have what you need to protect your people, to defend your nation.”

The U.S. continued to back Israel by providing it with weapons, vetoing condemnations of its military campaign at the United Nations and batting away questions about a climbing humanitarian toll. Privately, administration officials urged their Israeli counterparts to protect civilians even as they chased Hamas in Gaza cities and tunnels.

But that closed-door advice moved out into the open after progressives in Congress toyed in late 2023 with conditioning military aid to Israel and imposing consequences on the ally. White House officials saw that they were out of step with important segments of their party, administration aides whispered privately, leading to more remarks about Israel needing to fight Hamas in a way that still protected innocent men, women and children.

It was progressive activists in Michigan organizing against Biden ahead of the state’s Democratic presidential primary that got the White House and Biden’s campaign to further emphasize the humanitarian aspect of the war.

In February, Biden told reporters that Israel’s response in Gaza was “over the top.” The administration also sent senior officials to Michigan, including deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, to address the activists’ concerns.

In leaked remarks, Finer conceded that “we have missteps in the course of responding to this crisis since Oct. 7.”

Finer’s outreach did little to quell the growing anger, which manifested itself in more than 100,000 “uncommitted” votes — about 13 percent of the total — during the March vote, many cast from Michigan’s large Arab American and Muslim American population.

After that, the administration’s rhetoric turned sharply. Vice President Kamala Harris used a March 3 speech in Alabama to call — forcefully — for a six-week cease-fire that would see prisoners and hostages released, using a word activists pushed the White House to use in search of a pause in fighting. Biden then used a State of the Union address to center the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in the Israel portion of his address.

“This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined,” he said, citing a casualty figure reported by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the enclave. “It’s heartbreaking.”

He then announced a U.S. military operation to build a makeshift port for Gaza, putting U.S. troops in danger to increase the amount of aid that could enter the enclave. Afterward, a hot mic caught Biden saying he told Netanyahu they would have a “come to Jesus” moment over the conflict.

And over the weekend, Biden told MSNBC that an Israeli invasion of Rafah — the temporary home for 1.3 million Palestinians, most of whom fled fighting in other parts of Gaza — would cross a “red line,” with top aides later clarifying his demand is that no military operation move forward without civilian protections. U.S. officials have told their Israeli counterparts they could support a more precise assault to strike high-value targets.

It all amounts to a remarkable change in how the administration seeks to influence Israel. In 2021, Biden used a support-in-public, push-in-private approach to end a much smaller war between Israel and Hamas in just 11 days.

But the context for the current fight is much different. Netanyahu leads a far-right government that cares less about the Palestinian plight. And Hamas’ attack galvanized the Israeli public around the defeat of Hamas — even though Netanyahu remains unpopular.

Schumer’s remarks make clear that even the most pro-Israel voices in America — from the White House to the Senate — seek immediate and drastic change.

“It reflects a serious downturn for Israel's standing in the U.S. when prominent members of the Democratic Party's proverbial Old Guard feel comfortable to lash out publicly at the elected government in Jerusalem,” said Shalom Lipner, who has served in the office of numerous Israeli prime ministers.

Eugene Daniels contributed to this report.