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Amid many Americans’ plummeting support for Israel, potential Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday took aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Emanuel, who is Jewish and a longtime defender of Israel, appears to have changed his tune and is now cautioning that the alliance between the U.S. and Israel “cannot stand or survive as it’s been.”
The former White House Chief of Staff to then-President Barack Obama and one-time Chicago mayor who later served as U.S. ambassador to Japan in the Biden administration, issued the tough-love message for America’s increasingly isolated ally amid its ongoing military operations in Gaza against Hamas.
His message was blunt: unconditional U.S. support for Israel needs to end and Israel needs to make major changes if it wants to keep America as its top ally.
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“The hard truth is that America’s silence for years has engendered the worst of your domestic politics. We’ve done you no favors by averting our eyes,” Emanuel argued during his more than 30-minute address at the University of Tel Aviv, the centerpiece of his trip to Israel this week.
And pointing to Netanyahu, Emanuel argued that America’s “unconditional support has produced a prime minister who has presumed that his strategic interests would incur no cost if he ignored America’s concerns.”
“I came here from Chicago to tell you directly where things need to head if we are to maintain the historic alliance between two democracies. Without question the alliance is at a crossroads,” he said.
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A horrific Hamas sneak attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel. The continued Israeli response over the past two and a half years has resulted in more than 73,000 people being killed, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s response has led to condemnation of the country from across the globe, including from longtime advocates for the Jewish state.
“Support for Israel is plummeting around the world. You’ve lost Europe, your biggest economic partner,” Emanuel emphasized.
He admitted: “Israel has never been more strategically isolated.”
Democrats have become increasingly divided over the war in Gaza, with a growing number of politicians on the left charging that Israel’s actions against the Palestinians are “genocide” and calling for a halt to longstanding U.S. military aid to the Middle East nation.
Roughly half of Democrats questioned in a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll said Israeli had committed genocide in its war with Hamas. Meanwhile, 58% said the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israel, which is up 13 points since January.
Most Republicans remain strong supporters of Israel, although there’s increasing unease among some in MAGA/America First camp.
The poll indicated a slight deterioration in support for Israel among those in the GOP, but overall only a sliver of Republicans questioned felt that Israel had committed genocide.
Emanuel called for a “new and fundamentally new approach to this alliance…To maintain the strength of our ties, we need significant changes and a new direction.”
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And he sketched out early ideas for a new peace process.
“The now-discredited path to a ‘two-state solution’ should be replaced by a 23-state solution: 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,” Emanuel proposed.
And Emanuel emphasized, “If Israel made peace with 21…Arab nations, that would be your greatest day and Iran’s worst nightmare.”
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Emanuel’s proposals include sanctioning Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, along with companies and banks that support Israeli settlements in the West Bank that most of the international community consider illegal
He also called for ending U.S. subsidies to Israel’s defense budget, arguing the country “should be able to buy American arms under the same financial terms, the same restrictions, and the same requirements as every other trusted ally that abides by our laws.”
For Emanuel, long known as a moderate who has clashed with the the left wing faction of his party, the speech appeared to be an attempt to find what he’s described as a realistic middle ground.
His message: “Those chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ need to hear this: you will never have your way.”
But he added, “Those calling for a greater Israel, you need to hear this: you will never have your way, either. Both of them are fantasies chanted by fanatics that lead to perpetual endless conflict.”
Netanyahu, who years ago famously slammed Emanuel as a “self-hating Jew,” had yet to respond to the speech at the time this report posted.
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Emanuel, who has been crisscrossing the country this year as he considers a presidential bid, has made two stops in New Hampshire, which has traditionally held the first primary in the White House race.
He has also made trips to two other crucial early primary election states — Nevada and South Carolina.