Benjamin Netanyahu to speak with US Senate in snub to Biden after President praised Chuck Schumer's calls for Israeli Prime Minister to be 'ousted'

Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak with Republican Senators in an apparent snub to President Biden after the White House praised Democrat Chuck Schumer's call for new Israeli leadership. 

The Israeli Prime Minister, 74, will speak with GOP lawmakers via video call at the conference's regular lunch meeting on Wednesday, according to Punchbowl News. 

Netanyahu's appearance is said to be tentative, and comes a week after plans fell through for him to speak with Republicans a week ago at a policy retreat after he was invited by Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. 

President Biden reportedly called his Israeli counterpart this week to calm tensions, after he praised Schumer for making a 'good speech' where the Jewish New York Senator slammed Netanyahu as an 'obstacle to peace.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak to Senate Republicans this week, amid fallout in Washington over the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict 

President Biden was said to have called Netanyahu to calm tensions last week, after he praised Chuck Schumer for making a 'good speech' that called for the Israeli PM to be removed 

Biden has faced mounting domestic pressure, particularly from Democrats, to halt Netanyahu's actions in the conflict and to bring about a ceasefire. 

The ongoing conflict has been cited as a factor in his recent poor poll numbers, while Democratic primaries have seen some vote 'uncommitted' rather than for the president to send a message. 

While the White House has called for a temporary ceasefire, Netanyahu has vowed to continue the onslaught until Hamas has been destroyed - leading Schumer to deliver his scathing remarks.  

'He (Netanyahu) has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,' he said. 

'As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7.

'The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.'

Schumer said the only solution is 'a demilitarized Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in equal measures of peace, security, prosperity and dignity.' 

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (C) leaves the Senate chamber on Thursday following his remarks on Netanyahu's tenure 

An Israeli demonstrator seen during a protest in Tel Aviv on Friday, against the government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Following Schumer's headline-making speech in the Senate last week, Netanyahu fired back that it was 'totally inappropriate' to call for him to be ousted.

'It's inappropriate for a – to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there,' he told CNN's Meet the Press. 

'That's something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we're not a banana republic.

'I think the only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over 1,000 Israelis, including some dozens of Americans, and is holding Americans and Israelis hostage. That's what we should be focused on.'

Netanyahu was referencing the October 7 terrorist attacks where Hamas killed upwards of 1,100 people. In response, Netanyahu has carried out a siege on Palestine that has killed over 31,000 people, mostly civilians. 

Netanyahu launched a brutal siege on Gaza (pictured in October 2023) in response to the October 7 terrorist attacks 

Women walk past a destroyed building in the southern Gazan city of Rafah following Israeli airstrikes 

Republicans reacted with outrage at Schumer's speech, with top Senate Republican, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, branding it 'grotesque.'

'It is grotesque and hypocritical for Americans who hyperventilate about foreign interference in our own democracy to call for the removal of the democratically elected leader of Israel,' McConnell said. 'This is unprecedented.' 

Former President Trump also waded into the debate, as he declared that any Jewish people who vote for Democrats 'hate their religion and hate Israel.' 

A Pew Research Center study in 2021 found that seven in ten Jewish voters are Democrats. 

Trump said in a radio interview with former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka that he 'actually thinks they (Biden and Schumer) hate Israel.'

The presumptive Republican nominee - whose daughter Ivanka is Jewish - then went further in his line of attack toward Jewish Democrats.

'Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,' he said. 'They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.'

Former President Donald Trump accused Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats of hating Israel and 'their religion' 

Following the remarks, the White House issued a statement condemning Donald Trump's 'vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric.'

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Mediaite: 'President Biden has put his foot down when it comes to vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric.

'As Antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world – among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust – leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it.

'There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. None. Like President Biden said, he was moved to run for President when he saw Neo Nazis chanting ‘the same Antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s’ in Charlottesville.'