Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (Rep.) responded to Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer' speech calling for new elections in Israel, saying: "It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about interference in our own democracy” to call for the Israeli leader's removal. The primary “obstacles to peace” in Israel’s region are genocidal terrorists and corrupt PA leaders who repeatedly reject peace deals. Foreign observers who cannot keep this straight ought to refrain from interfering in the democracy of a sovereign ally.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also responded to Schumer’s speech: “Regardless of our political positions, we strongly oppose external political interference in Israel's internal affairs. We are an independent nation, not a banana republic. The danger of terrorism is on the way to the West and it would be good if they would help Israel in its justified war. In the long run, they are defending themselves as well," Bennett said.
Opposition head, Yair Lapid, says that “Senator Schumer’s speech is proof that Netanyahu is losing our best supporters in the US. Even worse is that he is doing it on purpose. Netanyahu is causing serious damage to the national effort to win the war and preserving Israel's security.”
Israel's ambassador to the US, Mike Herzog, replied to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and also condemned him saying: "Israel is a sovereign democracy. It is counterproductive, even more so in a situation where Israel is at war with Hamas, a terrorist organization, to address the internal politics of a democracy. This goes against our common goals," Herzog said.
In his speech, Schumer called Netanyahu one of the "four obstacles" to peace in the Middle East and claimed that "the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel."
His criticism centered on Netanyahu's rejection of the immediate creation of a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the presence of far-right politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the coalition. All polls show that a clear majority of Israelis are against a Palestinian state.