Rahm Emanuel'den 2028 Hazırlığında İsrail'e 'Sert Sevgi' Mesajı

Eying 2028, Rahm Emanuel test drives tough love message in Israel

Former Mayor of Chicago and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech Wednesday at Tel Aviv University that was called a “thunderclap” and a “demonstration of how far the party has shifted” on the question of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “For too long, American policy towards Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington can do for Jerusalem is to blindly, to silently stand behind your government without conditions, without demands, without consequences, even when we disagree,” Emanuel said. “That has been our mistake, and it's been not a favor to you.” After relaying his version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for which he almost exclusively blamed Palestinians for the failure to find a peaceful compromise, Emanuel reserved much of his scorn for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, which he declared had led Israel “into a dead end.” He blamed the current government for helping the Palestinian group Hamas accomplish what he said was its goal of killing the two-state solution “not by being too soft, but by being so reckless and unwilling to plan for a day after in Gaza, which would have created and offered an alternative beyond occupation and isolation” Emanuel, whose father was a member of a Zionist paramilitary group, has long been seen as a strong supporter of Israel within the Democratic party. His evolving position is unquestionably a reaction to increasing anti-Israel public sentiment, particularly on the American left. An Associated Press-NORC poll from Tuesday, for example, showed that roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, at that almost 60% believe the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Jewish state. But Democrats are responding to that shift in different ways. Some want a break with Israel. Emanuel, critics say, is a case study in another line of response — using tough rhetoric not to exit the relationship but to save it. As Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy, told RS editor-in-chief Kelley Vlahos on Tuesday, many supporters of Israel realize that the country cannot maintain support from the U.S. on its current path. As a result, these supporters will try to “use aggressive criticism and restrictions to guide [Israel],” in an effort to keep some pro-Israel voters and donors from leaving the Democratic Party. Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center, saw Emanuel’s speech as part of that effort. Responding to a post by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praising Emanuel’s remarks, Munayyer wrote on X that the speech was intended for “pro-Israel donors clintonworld hopes to convince to stay in the Democratic fold by providing a sophisticated management strategy for this crisis period in US-Israel relations.” Emanuel made a similar point himself, saying his goal was "to maintain the strength" of the relationship — a framing underscored by his choice to deliver the speech in Israel rather than at home. “It is still an overwhelmingly Israel-centric message,” Khaled Elgindy, senior research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, told RS. The emphasis was on Israel to stop committing atrocities for its own sake, according to Elgindy. “And that, to me, is indicative of the total denial that is so prevalent in the Democratic Party establishment,” he added. The reaction of most people who saw the war livestreamed for the last 33 months is not “bending over backwards to view the people who committed these atrocities in the best possible light.” On substance, many of the proposals put forward by the former Chicago mayor place him squarely within the liberal mainstream. Similar ideas — notably phasing out taxpayer-funded U.S. military aid — are part of the platform at J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace lobby group. The group approvingly shared Emanuel’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in advance of the speech and later claimed that the speech reflected “many of the principles J Street has been advancing for years.” But the idea of moving on from American assistance to Israel has also been pushed by Israeli Netanyahu himself, as well as Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the most pro-Israel Senators in the U.S. Senate. To be sure, the fact that an establishment Democrat like Emanuel, who also served as White House Chief of Staff under President Barack Obama, is willing to criticize the Israeli government in fairly harsh terms is notable, as were some of his policy prescriptions. “Aid conditionality and sanctions four or five years ago was only in the margins of the Democratic Party, and now it is clearly the mainstream,” Elgindy said. “Not because they’ve had an epiphany, but because Rahm Emanuel, like others, has correctly read the room. The base has shifted so dramatically that it would be absurd to maintain the line that heard so much from Biden,” about an”unbreakable” commitment to Israel.