Comments by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., last week that equated Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas as roadblocks to peace were inexcusable, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem told Newsmax on Tuesday.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish government official in the U.S., said on the Senate floor on Thursday that Israel should hold new elections, and labeled Netanyahu, Abbas, “radical right-wing Israelis,” and Iranian-backed Hamas as the four major obstacles to peace in the region.

“Everybody was shocked with Sen. Schumer’s remarks,” Fleur Hassan-Nahoum told “American Agenda.” “They were completely out of place. As politicians in Israel, we try very, very hard not to get involved in any country’s internal politics.

“To basically make equivalent the democratically elected prime minister of Israel with a corrupt dictator in the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in power for 19 years with no elections, and say that those two men equally are blocking any chance of a two-state solution was honestly beyond the pale.”

President Joe Biden has also been pressuring Israel to ease up in its war effort in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’ terrorist attack Oct. 7. Biden has been receiving heat this presidential primary season from his far-left wing base that believes he is not doing enough to broker a full cease-fire. Schumer’s criticisms might also be playing to that base.

“They have a problem with their base,” Hassan-Nahoum said. “They have a problem because perhaps they haven’t explained to their base what’s actually going on here, which is not just the local Hamas-Israel war. It’s essentially Iran against the free world. Israel is simply the first line of defense.”

Hassan-Nahoum said Israel is fighting terrorists who have the same ideology as those who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. Plus, Iran is responsible for many human rights abuses, especially against women who don’t comply with laws mandating the wearing of hijabs.

“If the American people actually understood, or at least the Democratic base understood, that that’s what’s going on, perhaps they wouldn’t need to be reprimanding the government of Israel so publicly in order to gain favor with the base,” she said. “But I do know that they have a political problem, but ultimately Israel is a sovereign government.

“We are great allies of the United States, and the United States are our best allies. The United States government showed up for us after Oct. 7. We have to be very grateful but ultimately this government has to make its own decisions according to what is good for the people of Israel, and what’s good for us is the dismantlement of a genocidal regime that has publicly declared over and over again that they want to destroy the whole of Israel.”

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