US Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer is set to arrive in Israel next week for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials, according to Axios.
The New York Democrat will be accompanied by a delegation of his fellow Senate Democrats; they are expected to be in Israel February 23-25.
They will also meet with President Isaac Herzog, opposition leader Yair Lapid –one of the ringleaders behind the ongoing weekly protests against the government’s plan to reform the judiciary – and US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.
The delegation will likely raise the issue of the planned judicial reforms that have so upset Israel’s leftists – and more than a few outside the country as well – and may also discuss the situation with the Palestinian Authority.
Following Israel’s national elections last November, Schumer said during a legislative breakfast hosted by the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition that as the leader of the Democratic Party, he has “a special obligation to keep the Democratic Party pro-Israel, and I don’t care who’s the head of the Israeli government.”
The senator added that he has “known Bibi Netanyahu forever … I know Bibi very well, and so we work together.”
