Emanuel tells Israel US ties are at a crossroads

Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Democratic defender of Israel and potential 2028 presidential candidate, used a speech in Tel Aviv to warn that Israel can no longer count on unconditional U.S. support and must make “significant changes” to preserve its relationship with Washington.

Speaking Wednesday at Tel Aviv University, the former Chicago mayor and Obama White House chief of staff sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said the U.S.-Israeli alliance needs “a new and different approach.”

“For too long, American policy toward Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington could do for Jerusalem was to blindly and silently stand behind your government, without conditions, without demands, and without consequences when we disagreed,” Emanuel said. “That has been our mistake.”

He added: “Unconditional support has produced a prime minister who has presumed that his strategic interest would incur no political costs if he ignored America’s concerns about settlements and sparked a regional war.”

Emanuel’s remarks mark a notable shift for a figure rooted in the Democratic Party’s establishment. He worked on Israel-Palestinian peace efforts during the Clinton administration, served as Barack Obama’s chief of staff and helped oversee early funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. His father was born in Jerusalem, and Emanuel has long identified as a strong supporter of Israel.

But in an interview with The Associated Press before the speech, Emanuel said Israel’s continued military response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack had been “reckless and careless in the treatment of Palestinian life — not only the military campaign but using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”

Hamas-led militants killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack, the AP reported. Al Jazeera reported that Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 73,000 Palestinians since 2023.

Asked by the AP whether Israel had committed genocide, an accusation made by some human rights organizations and rejected by the Israeli and U.S. governments, Emanuel said the question should not be considered apart from conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan. “I’m ready to have that discussion,” he said, “but I don’t think it should be politicized, and then dilute the power of what genocide means.”

Emanuel called for sanctions on Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, as well as on officials, construction companies and banks that support or finance settlements considered illegal by most of the international community. He also said the United States should end subsidies to Israel’s defense budget, arguing Israel should buy American weapons under the same financial terms and restrictions as other trusted allies that follow U.S. law.

“Here I want to be very clear: The United States cannot continue to finance and support that cynicism in silence,” he said, according to Al Jazeera. “You cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing you have the right to fight.”

Emanuel said support for Israel is falling internationally. “You’ve lost Europe,” he said in prepared remarks obtained by the AP. “Your scientists face exclusion from international research networks. Your artists and academics are shut out of exhibits and conferences.”

He also argued that the traditional two-state framework is “discredited” and proposed what he called a “23-state solution” involving Israel, the Palestinians and the 21 other Arab League members. “The 21 Arab nations that have exploited Palestinian rights as a slogan for decades now need to roll up their sleeves and stand up a governing authority capable of accepting the historic Jewish connection to this land,” he said.

The speech comes as Democratic voters grow more critical of Israel. An AP-NORC poll found 58% of Democrats say the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israel, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats in the survey said they believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war with Hamas.

Criticism has also surfaced among Republicans. Vice President JD Vance recently said Netanyahu had “gotten some things wrong” and described President Donald Trump as “the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment.” Trump, once a close Netanyahu ally, recently expressed anger over an Israeli strike against Iran-backed militants in Beirut, telling Axios, “Why did Bibi have to do a f*g attack?”

Emanuel arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday and avoided meetings with Israeli elected officials, the AP reported, citing his desire not to interfere in Israel’s upcoming elections. His agenda included visiting a hospital serving Israelis and Palestinians and meeting the family of an Oct. 7 hostage.