Schumer triggers backlash in Israel for suggesting Netanyahu needs to go: 'Landed badly'

Dan Senor, a former Bush administration foreign policy adviser and author, explained how "badly" Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Israel. He told the "Brian Kilmeade Show" Thursday that despite Netanyahu's low approval ratings in the democratic country, Israeli citizens do not want politicians from other nations deciding their leadership. 

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DAN SENOR: I can't overstate how badly it landed in Israel and how badly it landed among the Jewish community in the United States and among the broader, sort of pro-Israel, pro-strong US-Israel relationship advocacy community in the United States. Israel is a thriving democracy. It is not a perfect country. The United States is not a perfect country. The United States, though, is like Israel, a thriving democracy. Israelis choose their leaders. U.S. senators from the well of the Senate do not choose Israel's leaders. It is not a secret that Prime Minister Netanyahu right now is. His polling has gone way down. 2023 was not a good year for him politically. Obviously, a combination of the fight over judicial reforms and then October 7th. So he's unpopular. But when you ask Israelis, should politicians from other countries be deciding who runs Israel? The reaction is 'hell no.' In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu is now polling better since Schumer's speech, because people just take offense to this idea that the United States would treat Israel, or a U.S. senator would treat Israel like a banana republic.

In fact, even some of Netanyahu's fiercest political opponents, like Benny Gantz, who's serving in this emergency wartime cabinet with him but will compete against him, no doubt for the next prime minister as they've competed against each other in the past. They're pretty bitter political rivals. Again, they served together in this emergency war cabinet, but there's no love lost between them personally. Benny Gantz is one of the first people to come out with a statement saying we're a democracy. We choose who our leaders are, back off. ... I just can't emphasize enough, what the [Biden] administration and I guess Schumer, too, is trying to do to some extent is they're so frustrated with the reality that Israel intends to finish this war. A genocidal attack is waged on Israel on October 7th and the idea that Israel isn't going to do everything it can to wipe out that threat, and it's getting pretty close, by the way, it's almost done. 

And so the idea that at the 11th hour, when they're heading into the final phase of this war, the U.S. is starting to have reservations and pull back. And Israel isn't folding to those requests that Israel pull back. And so their response is, well, look, we can't do anything about Israeli policy, so we're just going to demonize the elected leader of Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and hope that that scores us some points internationally and domestically with their progressive base. That's what their calculation is, demonize Netanyahu, make this about Netanyahu, not about Israeli policy, because the reality is there's not much they can do about Israeli policy. So that's a bet they're making and I think it is backfiring. 

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Schumer, D-N.Y., faced backlash last week after he said Israel should change its leadership amid the country's war with Hamas.

In what was billed as a major speech on a two-state solution, Schumer said on the Senate floor that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was one of four obstacles to this solution. 

The Senate Majority Leader said he believed that "Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take the precedence over the best interests of Israel."

Along with Netanyahu, Schumer listed: "Hamas and the Palestinians who support and tolerate their evil ways; the radical right-wing Israelis in government and society; [and] Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas" as the other obstacles.

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According to Schumer, who is Jewish, new Israeli elections are "the only way to allow for a healthy and open decision-making process about the future of Israel." He added that he believes a majority of Israelis also recognize a need for change in their government.

Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.