Senator Schumer: You are no guardian of Israel - opinion

During the 1988 US vice-presidential debate, pitting Democratic nominee Senator Lloyd Bentsen against Dan Quayle, Republican senator and later vice-president, Quayle attempted to paint himself in the image of former senator and then-US president John Kennedy. At one point, Bentsen, who knew Kennedy well from the time they were both members of the 80th-82nd Congresses, looked Quayle in the eye and uttered the famous words, ”Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” This, in order to deflate Quayle’s thinking too highly of himself.

Hearing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brag about the fact that his name, Schumer, comes from the Hebrew “shomer” or guardian and that as such, he has always seen himself as a “shomer Yisrael” or “guardian of Israel” brought Bentsen’s statement to mind. Based on the speech Schumer delivered last Thursday, I would say to him, “Senator, you’re no shomer Israel.” 

Truth be told, the surname Schumer does not come from Shomer but was actually an occupational name for a cobbler. The name is derived from the Old German word for shoe, “schuoch,” and the suffix “mann.”  In the Jewish communities of Europe, it was the custom to give people surnames that represented their vocation. Given Schumer’s remarks last week, perhaps he should consider returning to the cobbler’s bench of his ancestors.

But it was not, of course, just that. The Senate of the United States is not the Senate of Rome. In Rome, the senate was, indeed, a place of debate about the times and their challenges rather than a legislative body per se. In the case of the US Senate, that body operates by rules where the debate revolves around legislation and whether it should be passed or not.

Last week there was no legislation on the Senate floor that demanded the majority leader opine as he did on what and who were the obstacles to peace in the Middle East. 

Schumer's remarks on Israel sparked controversy 

Senator Schumer simply took the privilege of rank, as it were, and for 48 minutes excoriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of the four major obstacles to peace, and then urged all of us living here to take down our duly elected government. From a parliamentary perspective, he should have been ruled out of order by the Senate president as soon as he began his rant, as there was no motion of substance on the floor at the time.

While there are plenty of arguments in favor of a new government in Israel, it is both audacious and insulting for the majority leader of the US Senate to say what he did about the democratically elected government of an ally of the United States.  It is never proper to attempt to interfere with the internal governance of an ally. He was later called on that point by senators from both sides of the aisle.

Schumer also chose to mention that because he is the highest Jewish elected official in the history of the US this, somehow or other, gives him agency to make the kinds of remarks he did last week. The plain fact is that, au contraire, reality is just the opposite. Given his position, of which we had all been most proud, his obligation is actually not to play on his faith so as not to be seen as acting as a Jew rather than as an American.

We, the members of the worldwide Jewish community, do not need self-appointed guardians of Israel to arrogate unto themselves the right to dictate what kind of a government we should have, how we should conduct our response to the massacre of October 7, or when we should have elections. 

Do Schumer's remarks represent Biden?

Everyone also wondered whether Schumer was speaking in the name of President Joe Biden. After all, people in public office know that they give up their right to private opinions as anything they say or do will be assumed to reflect the policy of the organization or government they represent. Initially, the White House said they were aware that Schumer was going to do this but were not involved in the preparation of the speech itself. It would have been nice to be able to believe that.

Therefore, it was, of course, further disappointing to hear President Biden, without whose commitment and largesse we would have had to stop our military activity against Hamas months ago, remark that he thought Schumer’s speech was a good one, thereby giving it his imprimatur as well. It's not exactly in line with his bona fides of being a Christian Zionist.

To be sure, everyone believes that elected officials of any country have to make decisions that they believe are in the best interests of their government. In the case of the US-Israel relationship, not everything that is good for the US will necessarily be good for Israel as well, and we accept that. 

We also do not expect elected officials in the US who are Jewish to always agree with what we are doing here. However, the Jewish community has no need for someone to rise to such a lofty position and then use that position to dictate what we should be doing here.  For that, the senator should be ashamed. 

Come Yom Kippur, if he wants to know whom he should contact to ask forgiveness before the holiday begins, he can start with the 7.2 million of us here who are the real guardians of Israel. We will be waiting for his call.

The writer is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based international business development consultancy, past national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) former chair of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce.