By S. N. M. Abdi
Rahm Emanuel, a likely Democratic candidate for the 2028 Presidency, has just taken off Israel’s pants and publicly caned the Zionist state making headlines in the United States, Israel and the Western world. But the Indian media seems to have deliberately blacked out Emanuel’s blistering, unprecedented criticism of Tel Aviv and Benjamin Netanyahu, which is echoing across the globe, in order to remain in the good books of the Bharatiya Janata Party Government and the Israeli Embassy in Delhi.
Frankly, I couldn’t believe my own ears when I heard Emanuel tell a packed hall in Tel Aviv University that Netanyahu is today running a “pariah” state. Moreover, he demanded US sanctions against Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and their homes, schools, mosques and hospitals, including officials who give the go-ahead to the violence and “every construction company or bank” engaged in building in Israeli settlements in occupied areas of the West Bank. No American leader has ever gone as far as that, making the denunciation unprecedented, unparalleled and worthy of a standing ovation in every democracy where human rights and ordinary lives matter.
The no-holds-barred criticism is groundbreaking because Emanuel is no firebrand Zohran Mamdani or an Omar Ilhan. He is a proven establishment centrist and a Democratic Party elder who was President Barrack Obama’s Chief of Staff, President Bill Clinton’s Advisor, Chicago Mayor for two terms and Ambassador to Japan. Even more importantly, the man who was in the room when important decisions were taken, delivered the stinging speech in the heart of the Zionist state clearly with a 2028 Presidential run in mind. He apparently got his speech vetted by Obama and the Clintons who openly endorsed it after it was delivered.
His agenda is no longer a secret: he wants to overhaul the narrative about US-Israel relations – which were once considered sacrosanct — in the run-up to the coming elections. He wants a reset in the US policy of unconditional and unwavering support for Israel.
Voicing an openly leftward shift, Emanuel announced from a podium in Tel Aviv itself that the US fundamentally needs a new and different approach to the alliance with Israel. In his words, “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. For too long, American policy towards Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington could do for Jerusalem was to blindly and silently stand behind Israel, without conditions, without demands, and without consequences when we disagreed. And that has been our mistake. It cannot stand or survive as it has been. We need significant changes and a new direction.”
He virtually told Netanyahu in his den that “your actions have turned Israel into a pariah on the world stage. The United States cannot continue to finance and support you in silence. You cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing that you have the right to fight. You must instead find a new sustainable path to peace, security and prosperity. America stands ready.”
One can’t agree more with Emanuel’s remarks that the world has stopped believing that Israel has the right to fight — thanks to its genocide in Gaza and war crimes! A recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research revealed that 58 percent of Democrats felt that the US is “too supportive” of Israelis – up from 45 percent in January 2024. Today half of Americans believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. This is the basis for Emanuel’s assertion that the whole world thinks that Israel has forfeited the right the fight any more because its fight has become blatantly and unquestionably genocidal.
In Tel Aviv he also demanded an end to US subsidies to Israel’s defence budget, arguing that the country should foot the bill for armaments like any other ally instead of getting them free. According to him, “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.” If this is strictly and genuinely enforced, Israel will not be eligible to buy US arms even against payments as it clearly does not abide by US laws which prohibit supplying arms to militaries blocking humanitarian aid and committing war crimes.
Only the future will tell how Emanuel will cope with the wrath of America’s extremely rich and retributive pro-Israel lobby when his Presidential bid gathers momentum within the Democratic Party. He has openly declared that he is eyeing the Presidency and there is no reason to doubt his intentions. He is only 66 years old and blessed with good health. He should be given full credit for suddenly triggering a reappraisal of Washington-Tel Aviv ties which are, in reality, an albatross around America’s neck. Voters’ preferences on the Israel-Palestine question matter a lot today as US Democrats and Republicans debate the issue both publicly and behind closed doors. It’s a pity that there is no such rethinking in the United Kingdom where even the Labour Party has no qualms about blindly backing Israel and betraying Palestine. Let’s see if any British politician takes a leaf out of Emanuel’s book and musters the courage to rap Israel on the knuckles.(END)
(S. N. M. Abdi is a distinguished journalist who writes on domestic politics and foreign policy.)
