Leading figures in the Israeli opposition bloc faced pushback from friends and foes on Thursday after presenting themselves as being able to salvage the U.S.-Israel relationship by removing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office, in statements following the U.S. midterm elections this week.

Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid wrote a lengthy post on X calling for “a work plan instead of panic” in response to the midterm results, where Democrats swept across the country. He noted that moderate pro-Israel Democrats still hold leadership positions in the party, such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). 

“There is no doubt that the anti-Israel core in the House grew … but even after the election, they are about 25 Members of Congress out of 435 … The hardcore extreme against us is less than 10% of the senators,” he wrote.

Most Democrats “are not against Israel. They are against extremist [Israeli Cabinet] ministers who say crazy things. They are against settler violence; they are against a government they don’t understand; they are mostly against Netanyahu. Anything connected to him is poisonous to them,” Lapid argued.

What Israel must do now is pursue bipartisan relations with the U.S., he said: “Israel does not take a side in America. We work with everyone.” 

Jeffries told Jewish Insider earlier this year that Democratic lawmakers plan to take steps to “push back aggressively against the out of control settler violence in the West Bank,” something that the opposition parties have also said they plan to address.

However, there is increased support generally among House Democrats for a legislative agenda that is tougher on Israel, including bills the Block the Bombs Act that would block sales of bombs, bomb-guidance kits and tank and artillery ammunition to Israel without congressional approval for each individual sale. With the gridlock in Congress, it could take months to approve any arms sales.

The Ceasefire Compliance Act, also gaining traction among the Democratic Party’s left flank, would cut off arms sales to Israel unless it agrees not to use them in Gaza or the West Bank.

Rep.-elect Brad Lander (D-NY), part of the Democratic Party’s small but growing bloc of harsh Israel critics in Congress, quickly dismissed Lapid’s appeal to Democrats.

“You’re not listening to what American voters – Jewish and non-Jewish – are saying,” Lander wrote. “We aren’t starving for a barnstorming tour. We’re hungry to see respect for international law and human rights.” 

“Call Me Back” host Dan Senor called the exchange “cringey,” noting that Lapid is saying what “he and other Israeli leaders think American progressives want to hear. … And of course – on cue – Lander shuts him down.” 

Senor said that Lapid and other Israeli leaders have “blind spots” about what American progressives want from Israel.

Senor also shared a post by writer Alex Zeldin who said that “Lapid wants to take Israel in a different direction than Netanyahu. Lander antagonizes him to set the ground for more extreme anti-Israel policy, since there’s nothing the opposition to Netanyahu in Israel can do to satisfy anti-Israel critics and their useful idiots.”

Lapid responded to Senor that “there will be those who want to genuinely engage to rebuild and repair the relationship between our two countries, and there will be those who relentlessly push an anti-Israel agenda no matter what. … I’m interested in those who are willing to listen and engage.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro also expressed hope that a change in Israeli government would be enough to pacify the American left, writing that “[Netanyahu] is poison, not just to Democrats but to many Republicans. Much actual policy will need to change to achieve a reset, but the first, important step is a new face of Israel.”

Other opposition party leaders shared Lapid’s optimism that they would be able to salvage relations with the U.S.

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is likely to be tasked with forming the next Israeli government in the coming days, wrote a post meant to reassure “all [of Israel’s] friends in the United States and around the world.”

”The Israeli people have voted for change and to replace the current government. Our democracy remains strong and vibrant,” he stated.

The Yashar leader wrote that the U.S.-Israel alliance is “sustained by democratic values” and vowed a government under his leadership would be “committed to liberal values [and] equality for all.”

He also promised to advance “opportunity and cooperation” in the Middle East. 

Democrats leader Yair Golan called the midterm result an indication of “how poisonous Netanyahu is among Democrats and Republicans.” 

He warned that if Netanyahu continues as prime minister, it will lead Israel to international sanctions and isolation, including from the U.S. 

Golan later shared a photo of himself as IDF deputy chief of staff with American generals and called for a return to a bipartisan approach “based on shared values, not only cold interests,” and said that in order to do so, Israel must “return to its status as a positive and stabilizing force in the Middle East, a stable democratic state whose character and leaders speak to Americans in their own language: freedom, equality, power while aiming for stability and peace.” 

“Netanyahu,” he argued, “created a destructive Israeli story of forever wars and an authoritarian regime.” 

Several Netanyahu bloc lawmakers with experience in foreign relations declined to comment, with their public remarks focused mostly on warning against Eisenkot bringing Arab parties into the government.