Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, is expected to deliver a sharp rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week, warning that Israel’s relationship with the United States is “at a crossroads.”
“It cannot stand or survive as it has been,” Emanuel is expected to say Wednesday at Tel Aviv University, according to remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “To maintain the strength of our ties, we need significant changes and a new direction.”
In an interview ahead of the speech, Emanuel accused Israel of a “reckless and careless” approach to Palestinian civilians during its military response to Hamas’ October 7 attack, including, he said, “using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”
Asked whether Israel had committed genocide, an allegation made by some human rights organizations and rejected by both the Israeli and U.S. governments, Emanuel said the issue should not be examined in isolation 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.”
Taken together, the interview and the planned speech by one of the Democratic Party’s best-known centrist figures reflect how far parts of the party have moved from their historic support for Israel nearly three years after the war in Gaza began.
About 58% of Democrats say the United States is “too supportive” of Israel, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war with Hamas.
Emanuel’s proposals include sanctions on Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, as well as on companies and banks that support settlements considered illegal by most of the international community. He also wants to end U.S. subsidies to Israel’s defense budget, arguing that Israel “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.”
Emanuel is also expected to blame Netanyahu for driving Israel to a “dead end,” saying the prime minister was enabled by poor decisions from American leaders.
(Photo: Sebastian Scheiner, AP)
“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,” he will say. “That has been our mistake. Unconditional support has produced a prime minister who has presumed that his strategic interests would incur no cost if he ignored America’s concerns.”
There is little precedent for a U.S. politician with presidential ambitions to travel to another country, especially one as politically sensitive as Israel, to deliver such a direct attack on its leadership. Centrist Democrats like Emanuel have generally been more reluctant than the party’s progressive wing to question long-standing U.S. support for Israel.
The remarks could trigger an equally sharp response from Netanyahu, who famously once called Emanuel, who had ambitions of becoming the first Jewish speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a “self-hating Jew.” Netanyahu is facing his own reelection battle in October and could seek to turn a confrontation with Emanuel into a political asset by presenting himself as standing firm against international criticism.
Emanuel arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday ahead of the speech. He told AP that he is intentionally avoiding meetings with Israeli elected officials during the visit so as not to interfere in Israel’s upcoming election. His schedule includes visiting a hospital that treats both Israelis and Palestinians and meeting with the family of a hostage taken on October 7.
For potential Democratic presidential contenders weighing how to address the fallout from the Gaza war and Netanyahu’s perceived alignment with President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, Emanuel’s speech represents an unusually direct approach. The war has disrupted political coalitions in both major U.S. parties, with younger voters recoiling from Israel’s conduct in Gaza and pressing American leaders to take a tougher line. The issue has already roiled some Democratic congressional primaries this year and could become a dividing line in the party’s 2028 presidential race.
Emanuel is expected to accuse Netanyahu of doing little to advance diplomatic efforts to end the war and to warn that “support for Israel is plummeting around the world.”
“You’ve lost Europe,” he will say. “Your scientists face exclusion from international research networks. Your artists and academics are shut out of exhibits and conferences.”
Although Netanyahu has built generally strong ties with Trump and the Republican Party, support for Israel among Democrats has eroded in recent years. Emanuel’s warning that Israel is increasingly isolated echoes recent comments by Vice President JD Vance, a sign that criticism of Israel is gaining ground in both parties. Speaking recently at the White House as the United States worked to close a deal to end the war with Iran, Vance said Trump was “the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”
US Vice President JD Vance
(Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado)
Despite his criticism, Emanuel, who is Jewish and whose father was born in Jerusalem, is expected to express sympathy for Israel and acknowledge the trauma of the October 7 attack, in which Hamas-led terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. He is also expected to note past disappointments from peace talks with Palestinian leaders.
“But even while acknowledging that history, the path forward cannot be held hostage to a past defined exclusively by recriminations,” he will say.
Emanuel will call the two-state solution “discredited” and instead promote what he describes as a “23-state solution,” involving Israel, the Palestinians and the 21 other members of the Arab League in a broader peace arrangement.
“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 will say.
No prominent Democrat has formally entered the 2028 presidential contest, but that could change after the November midterm elections, with a field that could eventually grow large. Few possible contenders have been as open about their ambitions as Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff, congressman, Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan.
Now out of public office, Emanuel has sought to maintain attention by releasing policy proposals, biking through the early-voting state of New Hampshire, appearing on podcasts and increasing his social media presence.