US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a speech on "a pathway to peace and achieving a two-state solution" today (Thursday).

In his remarks, Schumer called for the holding of new elections in Israel, saying that "Netanyahu has lost his way." He further called the Israeli Prime Minister an "obstacle to peace."

According to Schumer, Netanyahu is one of four obstacles to peace, the others being Hamas, "radical Israelis," and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Schumer's criticism of Netanyahu centered on the prime minister's "outright" rejection of the idea of the creation of a Palestinian state in the aftermath of October 7. All Israeli polls show that a clear majority of Israelis are also against the idea of a Palestinian state.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel," he said. "The Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”

"This is a grave mistake for Israel, for Palestinians, for the region, and for the world," he claimed. "The only real and sustainable solution to this decades-old conflict is a negotiated two-state solution."

According to Schumer, Netanyahu has "dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing U.S. standards for assistance.”

“If Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down, and continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing US standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course," he said.

Schumer did criticize Hamas for deliberately causing much of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Israel is by no means the only one responsible for the immense civilian toll. To blame only Israel for the deaths of Palestinians is unfair, one-sided, and often deliberately manipulative. And it ignores Hamas' role in this conflict."

He further criticized the media and the anti-Israel protestors for not acknowledging that Hamas' strategy of using human shields contributes to the death toll in Gaza.

He noted that, "Contrary to the unfounded, absurd, and offensive claims by some that the Jewish people are colonizers in their ancestral homeland, Jewish people have lived in the homeland continuously for more than 3,000 years."