Schumer is right: Netanyahu, Hamas and Abbas must go

In a controversial speech delivered on March 14, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) identified the obstacles to peace in Israel and Gaza, foremost among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. 

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7,” Schumer declared. “A new election is the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel, at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.” 

According to a Jan. 2 poll, only 15 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu to be prime minister. 

He steadfastly opposes a two-state solution and has directed the brutal military campaign that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, left Gaza in ruins and lost Israel the moral high ground it held on Oct. 7. 

Those who condemn Schumer’s statement as interference in the affairs of an allied state should consider how often Israeli governments in general and Netanyahu in particular have tried to influence American politics. 

In 2012, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs accused Netanyahu of “a conscious effort to influence the U.S. elections by accusing the Obama administration of failing to counter Iran’s supposed nuclear threat.” 

Jewish-American journalist and staunch supporter of Israel Thomas Friedman declared that the standing ovation Netanyahu got following his 2011 address to Congress was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” 

Last March, Friedman described the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Political Action Committee as “Bibi’s [Netanyahu’s] sock puppet.” 

Like it or not, U.S. and Israeli politics are tightly entwined, so expect people in both countries to make comments about the other’s elections. 

Schumer rightly identified Israel’s hard-right government as an obstacle to peace. Like Viktor Orban in Hungary and Donald Trump in the U.S., Netanyahu considers himself essential to the survival and well-being of his country and will seemingly do anything to stay in power. 

Like Trump, he is under indictment and may see staying in office as a way to stay out of jail. However, as Schumer noted, the Israeli prime minister is not the only obstacle to peace. 

Hamas also needs to go.  

Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”) was founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian-based group that also spawned al Qaeda.  

The Hamas charter calls on Muslims to “obliterate” Israel and replace it with a Muslim state governed by strict Sharia law. 

Hamas has governed Gaza since 2007. In 2017, it published a new charter, declaring that “there shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity,” instead of calling for the destruction of Israel. 

Any illusion that the group had moderated its goals evaporated on Oct. 7. The systematic slaughter of 1,200 Israelis regardless of age, gender or noncombatant status as well as the calculated use of rape and mutilation were not a legitimate form of resistance, as some have claimed, but unadulterated acts of terrorism. 

Schumer also called out the “radical right-wing Israelis in government and society.” Among that segment of the electorate, the West Bank settler community poses the greatest obstacle to peace. 

As of Dec. 31, West Bank settlers numbered 517,000 (according to Israeli sources), a 3 percent increase over the previous year and an increase of more than 15 percent from five years ago. 

The territory, which Israel captured during the Six-Day War in 1967, is also home to more than 3 million Palestinians.  

The United Nations and the international community consider the West Bank and Gaza occupied territory that must be returned to the Palestinians. The 1993 Oslo Accords outlined a process for turning them into a Palestinian state. 

In the ensuing years, however, negotiations stalled, and Netanyahu, who has been prime minister for 16 of the past 27 years, has steadfastly opposed the two-state solution. 

According to the U.N. Human Rights office, the size of Israeli settlements has “expanded markedly,” from Nov. 1 2022 to Oct. 31. 

Despite having a population more than five times greater than that of the settler community, Palestinians have civil and security control over 18 percent of the West Bank, and civil control over another 22 percent.   

The militant nature of many settlements has exacerbated tensions, especially since Oct. 7. 

Approximately one-third of the Jewish settlers in the West Bank are religious Zionists, who seek to appropriate the entire territory for Israel. 

Even before the Hamas attack, these settlers attacked and intimidated Palestinians, burning their cars and homes, assaulting and even killing them.  

From Oct. 7-Dec. 17, 288 Palestinians were killed and 3,430 injured, many by the Israel Defense Forces but others by settler vigilantes. 

The settlers have a powerful advocate in Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power Party, whom Netanyahu appointed as minister of national security.  

Removing the settlers will be a daunting task, but it is preferable to the perpetual state of war Israel faces if it continues to reject the two-state solution. There is simply nowhere else for Palestinians to go. 

Schumer also called for the removal of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The 88-year-old is very unpopular among his people and seen as out of touch.  

Fed up with the corruption in Abbas’s government and its failure to advance the peace process, most Palestinians would be happy to see him gone. 

Finally, Schumer offered what may be the most compelling argument for a change of course in Israeli politics.  

“Torah teaches us, every human life is precious, and every single innocent life lost, whether Israeli or Palestinian, is a tragedy that as Scripture says, destroys an entire world,” he observed. 

“What horrifies so many Jews especially is our sense that Israel is falling short of upholding these distinctly Jewish values that we hold so dear. We must be better than our enemies, lest we become them.” 

Tom Mockaitis is a professor of history at DePaul University and author of “Conventional and Unconventional War: A History of Conflict in the Modern World.