Those dismissing US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s visit here on Sunday as the head of a bipartisan Senate delegation as a nice gesture empty of any real significance are mistaken.
In addition to Schumer, the delegation included Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah. Among those with whom the delegation met Sunday were President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
US President Joe Biden has unequivocally articulated the rock-solid support of the administration for Israel at this time; support echoed strongly by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on trips here in recent days.
Those visits were demonstrations of the administration’s unstinting support for Israel. Schumer’s delegation’s visit is a demonstration of support from US lawmakers. He said, that upon returning to Washington, he will propose a resolution – which he hopes will be adopted by unanimous consent – condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s actions in response. The visit allows the lawmakers to hear directly from the Israeli leaders what exactly Israel needs in terms of assistance, so the lawmakers can begin moving legislation forward inside Congress.
A significant visit on several different levels
The visit is significant on several different levels. First, because of the message it sends to the Israeli people.
As the war enters its second week, as Israel prepares for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, as the IAF bombing runs continue to pound Gaza, as the casualties mount there, more and more voices are being raised inside the US calling for Israeli “restraint and proportionality.”
These voices are being aired in the media and given voice in letters, such as one sent by 55 progressive congressmen to Blinken on Friday.
The Schumer delegation, and its bipartisan nature, tells the Israeli people that those voices are still the minority, and that support for Israel in the Senate and Congress remains strong.
The delegation is also important because of the message it sends to the American people, who are increasingly being exposed to arguments that, as vile as Hamas’s atrocities were, Israel is unjustly punishing innocent civilians in Gaza.
There is a concern that, as the war drags on, the victims will be presented as the perpetrators for taking action to destroy the organization that carried out the massive October 7 pogrom.
Visit sends a message to Israel critics in the US
While in Israel, the senators are being exposed to videos of the atrocities to ensure that they don’t lose the thread and that their constituents understand that Israel is battling unadulterated evil.
Further, the delegation sends a message to radical leftists and progressives in the US – including those in Congress – that they will not be silent or silenced. On the eve of his visit, pro-Hamas protesters demonstrated in front of Schumer’s apartment in Manhattan as he was having a Shabbat meal with his family. Similar pro-Hamas protests will certainly repeat themselves at events held by visibly pro-Israel US lawmakers in the coming days and weeks. The Schumer delegation trip sends them the message that they will not be intimidated.
And finally, the visit – like other visits here over the last couple of days, not only by Blinken and Austin but also by the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, and Canada – sends a message that the country is not standing alone and that the West is not indifferent.
Former president George W. Bush, at a private event in Santa Barbara, California, last week, predicted, however, how world attitudes toward Israel would inevitably shift. In a video obtained by the political website Axios, he said, “It’s going to be chaotic... There is going to be a weariness. You watch, the world’s going to be: ‘OK, let’s negotiate.’ You know, ‘Israel’s got to negotiate.’ They’re not going to negotiate. These people [Hamas] have played their cards.
“They want to kill as many Israelis as they can,” he continued. “And negotiating with killers is not an option for the elected government of Israel. And so, we’re just going to have to remain steadfast. But it’s not going to take long for people to say, ‘Surely there is a way to settle this through negotiations. Both sides are guilty.’ My view is one side is guilty, and it’s not Israel.”
That is also the message brought by the Schumer delegation. And it’s an important message for many different audiences to hear from a bipartisan Senate delegation.