Schumer Urges Israel to De-escalate Amid Tragedy

(DailyVantage.com) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Israel to “de-escalate” after a Hezbollah rocket attack killed a dozen Druze children on a soccer field in the Golan Heights last weekend.

While appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, the majority leader described Iran and its proxies as “evil” and conceded that Israel had the right to defend itself against Hezbollah as it did Hamas. However, he said Israel should take steps to “de-escalate” the situation rather than launch an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on the same program that the US should respond to the Hezbollah attacks by targeting oil refineries in Iran. He explained that the US must put Iran “on notice” that it would hold Tehran accountable for attacks by its proxies.

In a targeted strike on Beirut Tuesday, Israel took out Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a July 30 statement that Israeli fighter jets launched a targeted strike that killed Hezbollah’s “most senior military commander.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a post on X that Fuad Shukr had “the blood of many Israelis on his hands.” He said Israel showed in Tuesday’s strike that Israeli blood comes with a “price.”

Fuad Shakr, who was also behind the killing of 241 US Marines in Lebanon in 1983, has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Northern Israel since the October 7 Hamas attacks and was responsible for last Saturday’s rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights, according to the IDF.

Since last Saturday’s rocket attack, officials with the Biden administration have sought to prevent an escalation in hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz criticized the Biden administration, accusing it of trying to hamper Israel’s response to the attack. He accused administration officials of “appeasement” and said they were “already making excuses for Hezbollah and Iran.”

Cruz said the administration’s appeasement of Iran and its proxies in the region was endangering the security of Israel and “the safety and prosperity of Americans.”