In an interview with Fox & Friends, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to American pressure on his government and Senator Schumer's recent remarks demanding that he leave office.
Last Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made a lengthy speech in which he repeated his life-long support for the Jewish State, but also defended the Palestinians' quest for statehood, while claiming that Netanyahu has "outlived his tenure" and isn't the right for the office.
Biden, while pointing out that he had not asked Schumer to make the statements, appeared to defend the speech, saying that, "He made a good speech, and I think he expressed a serious concern, shared not only by him but by many Americans."
"I don't know why Sen. Schumer made those statements," retorted Netanyahu in his interview with Fox. "I think the only thing that we should be focused on is changing the regime in Gaza, bringing down the terrorist regime of Hamas, and not the duly elected government of Israel. That's the right policy."
The Israeli side has been pushing for its military operation in Gaza to extend to the southern city of Rafah, where senior Hamas leaders are said to be pent up in anticipation of the IDF's next steps. On Saturday evening, it was reported that Israel is considering a push into Rafah even before the Muslim month of Ramadan since there had been no progress in hostage negotiations with Hamas.
In his interview, Netanyahu repeated the calls for Rafah to be taken. "We need total victory over Hamas. We're within reach," he pointed out. "We're going to do it while we enable the civilian population in Rafah to leave, as we've done up to now. But we have to finish the job. We need total victory. There's no substitute for total victory."
Responding to Schumer's claims that he had allowed personal interests to trump those of his country, Netanyahu questioned the Democrat Senator's sudden change of direction. "It's wrong to try to replace the elected leaders of a sister democracy and a staunch American ally at any time, but especially during the time of war," he countered.
"Just imagine that, after 9/11, and when you're in the midst of fighting Al Qaeda, and winning... some Israeli would say, ‘oh, the right thing to do is not to have new elections in America or have President Bush resign.’ It's inappropriate. Shouldn't have been said. It's wrong."