by David Swindle in the Jewish News Syndicate
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) drew widespread criticism in Washington and in Israel for saying on the Senate floor on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an “obstacle” to peace and that Israel should hold unscheduled elections.
The New York Democrat, who often notes that he is the most powerful elected Jewish politician in U.S. history and that, true to his name, he is a “shomer,” or guardian, of the Jewish people, has also drawn critical responses from Jewish nonprofits, even centrist ones that have reputations of being reserved about politics.
Enjoy what you're reading? Subscribe for more!
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, stated that Schumer, rather than Netanyahu, has “lost his way” and the senator “is using Netanyahu as a bogeyman for hatred directed against Jews for having the temerity to defend Jewish lives.”
“Every Israeli, and every committed Jew, recognizes the malignant hatred of those calling Israel ‘genocidal’ as it eliminates a genocidal terror organization, or calling for a ‘ceasefire’ to permit the terrorists to regroup, rearm and again murder the innocent,” Schonfeld added. “He should apologize for his counterproductive interference in Israel’s democratic governance and self-defense.”
See the full article in the Jewish News Syndicate
Photo Credit: Navajo Nation Washington Office on Flickr