(TheHill).Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) Thursday took some shots at the Obama administration's handling of Israel, calling it "terrible" and "counterproductive."
Schumer, the vice chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is one of the highest-ranking members of the party to sharply criticize Obama administration efforts to take on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I told the president, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counterproductive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk," Schumer said on the Nachum Segal radio show.
The senator, who is a strong ally of Israel, expressed disappointment with the administration's decision to demand that Israel halt all settlement construction as a precondition to full peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
"We are saying that this has to stop," he said. "You have to have, in terms of the negotiations, you have to show Israel that it's not going to be forced to do things it doesn't want to do and can't do... And right now there is a battle going on inside the administration, one side agrees with us, one side doesn't. And we're pushing hard to make sure the right side wins, and if not, we'll have to take it to the next step."
"That is terrible," Schumer said. "That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans — Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew, would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, 'If you don’t retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this.'"
"The only way the Palestinians will sit down and talk is if they know Israel and the United States are as close as could be. And each administration learns it... We are at a crucial moment here, and I am hopeful that administration will see the right way to go. I am working on it."
Schumer, the vice chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is one of the highest-ranking members of the party to sharply criticize Obama administration efforts to take on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I told the president, I told Rahm Emanuel and others in the administration that I thought the policy they took to try to bring about negotiations is counterproductive, because when you give the Palestinians hope that the United States will do its negotiating for them, they are not going to sit down and talk," Schumer said on the Nachum Segal radio show.
The senator, who is a strong ally of Israel, expressed disappointment with the administration's decision to demand that Israel halt all settlement construction as a precondition to full peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
"We are saying that this has to stop," he said. "You have to have, in terms of the negotiations, you have to show Israel that it's not going to be forced to do things it doesn't want to do and can't do... And right now there is a battle going on inside the administration, one side agrees with us, one side doesn't. And we're pushing hard to make sure the right side wins, and if not, we'll have to take it to the next step."
"That is terrible," Schumer said. "That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans — Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew, would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, 'If you don’t retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this.'"
"The only way the Palestinians will sit down and talk is if they know Israel and the United States are as close as could be. And each administration learns it... We are at a crucial moment here, and I am hopeful that administration will see the right way to go. I am working on it."
