Does Schumer worry that his party is tilting in an anti-Israel direction — one that will, at its edges, also tilt into antisemitism? “My caucus is overwhelmingly pro-Israel,” he insisted to me, noting that when the Senate last year voted for “the largest package of aid to Israel ever, I only lost three Democrats,” including Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

But he also warned that “the greatest danger to Israel, long-term, is if you lose half of America” — the liberal half. On one of Netanyahu’s previous visits to the United States, Schumer told me he urged the prime minister to “go on Rachel Maddow and not just Sean Hannity.” Netanyahu ignored the advice, and Schumer, in a Senate speech, later called for new elections to replace him, for which he remains “fiercely proud.” It showed Democrats, he said, that it’s possible to oppose Netanyahu while championing the Jewish state.

“My job,” he told me, “is to keep the left pro-Israel.”