Netanyahu is obstacle to peace says top Democrat Chuck Schumer as he calls for new Israeli elections

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believed the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “lost his way” in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and a growing humanitarian crisis there.

Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, strongly criticized Netanyahu in a lengthy speech on Thursday morning on the Senate floor.

In prepared remarks obtained by the Associated Press, Schumer said the prime minister had put himself in a coalition of far-right extremists and “as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows”.

“Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Schumer said.

The speech came as an increasing number of Democrats have pushed back against Israel and as President Joe Biden has stepped up public pressure on Netanyahu’s government, warning that he needs to pay more attention to the civilian death toll in Gaza.

The US this month began airdrops of badly needed humanitarian aid and announced it will establish a temporary pier to get more assistance into Gaza via the sea.

Schumer has so far positioned himself as a strong ally of the Israeli government, visiting the country just days after the brutal 7 October attack by Hamas and giving a lengthy speech on the Senate floor in December decrying “brazen and widespread antisemitism the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations in this country, if ever”.

But he said on the Senate floor on Thursday that the “Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past”.

Schumer said Netanyahu, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood,