Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set for a fifth term in office after the country’s elections on Tuesday, potentially cementing his right-wing nationalist leadership for years to come. Netanyahu’s apparent win is also set to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign, as he is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and fond of getting involved in American partisan politics. Whoever wins the next U.S. election will have to forge a relationship with the Israeli prime minister. There is also increasing willingness from some Democrats to criticize Netanyahu’s government, with top candidates openly denouncing the Israeli prime minister’s deals with the far-right, his alleged corruption and his anti-Palestinian policies. Here is a look at what the top 2020 Democratic candidates have recently said about Netanyahu. Elizabeth Warren After Netanyahu’s victory looked assured, Warren told a HuffPost reporter that “it looks like he’s going to be able to form a government with right-wing extremists. It’s very troubling.” She stopped short of calling Netanyahu a racist, but said he “embraced racist language.”

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“He’s embraced right wing extremist groups in Israel and embraced racist language. Judge him by what he does,” Warren says — Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) April 10, 2019

Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, earlier in the year weighed in after Israel’s attorney general announced he would indict Netanyahu on criminal charges earlier this year. The senator heavily criticized the Israeli prime minister both for striking a deal with racist, far-right parties in exchange for their support and his alleged corruption. “First embracing right-wing extremism. Now manipulating a free press, accepting bribes, and trading government favors,” Warren said in a tweet. “The allegations against Prime Minister Netanyahu are serious and cut to the heart of a functioning democracy.”

Corruption—in Israel, in the US, or anywhere else—is a cancer that threatens democracy. We need to fight back. And we can start by having the courage to call it out wherever it occurs. Even among our allies. Especially here at home. https://t.co/Q8kdaj3fiH — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 28, 2019

Beto O’ Rourke O’Rourke gave a lengthy denunciation of Netanyahu at a campaign event in Iowa on Sunday, calling the Israeli prime minister a “racist” after he vowed to annex parts of the West Bank, a drastic move that would break with longstanding peace agreements with Palestinians and is fundamentally at odds with the idea of a two-state solution. “This is somebody who, in a previous election, warned Arabs were coming to the polls. It’s racism,” said O’Rourke, a Texan who formerly served as a Democratic member of the House. “The U.S.-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist,” he added. Bernie Sanders The Vermont independent senator criticized Netanyahu’s vow to annex parts of the West Bank, telling NBC News on Monday that whenever election time comes around, Netanyahu “always tries going even further to the right by appealing to racism within Israel.” “I’m not a great fan of his, and, frankly, I hope he loses his election,” Sanders added. Sanders has a long track record of condemning Netanyahu’s right-wing policies while emphasizingthat his criticism is not levied at Israel as a whole. During the 2016 campaign, Sanders broke with much of the Democratic party consensus in offering strong criticism of Netanyahu’s 2014 military offensive in Gaza and adding that “we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time.” Sanders also defended Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from allegations of anti-Semitism after she made comments criticizing groups lobbying for Israel in the U.S., saying “we must not … equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel.” Pete Buttigieg Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, condemned Netanyahu’s vow to annex parts of the West Bank as well, tweeting “Supporting Israel does not have to mean agreeing with Netanyahu‘s politics. I don’t.”

This provocation is harmful to Israeli, Palestinian, and American interests. Supporting Israel does not have to mean agreeing with Netanyahu‘s politics. I don’t. This calls for a president willing to counsel our ally against abandoning a two-state solution. https://t.co/4ycYNowjzn — Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) April 6, 2019

Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar condemned Netanyahu’s divisive pact with racist, far-right parties that he made in February of this year as a means of consolidating support ahead of the election. “This is wrong and has been rightly condemned,” the Minnesota Democratic senator said, before citing the American Jewish Committee’s statement on the agreement.

This is wrong and has been rightly condemned. To quote the American Jewish Committee, "[The views of Otzma Yehudit] do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel."https://t.co/r0VMI3FicH — Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) February 26, 2019