TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) 鈥� , a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, warned Wednesday that the country has become increasingly isolated as its leadership has turned it into a 鈥渢erritorial pariah,鈥� in a speech at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday.
Emanuel鈥檚 condemnation of Israel鈥檚 leadership shows how far centrist Democrats away from historic support of Israel, three years after the war in Gaza began. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has curried favor with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, Israel鈥檚 standing with the Democrats has plummeted.
About 58% of Democrats say the U.S. is 鈥渢oo supportive鈥� of the Israelis, according to by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza, a charge Israel vehemently denies.
Jewish adults, who overwhelmingly skew Democratic, have a slightly more favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, than of Netanyahu, the poll found.
鈥淵ou cannot fight indefinitely against a world that has stopped believing you have the right to fight,鈥� Emanuel told a packed auditorium of students and supporters in a speech hosted by the university’s Center for the Study of the United States. 鈥淵ou must instead find a new sustainable path to peace, security, and economic prosperity.鈥�
A plan to end the pariah status
Emanuel offered a slate of tough love for Israel to 鈥渂ust it out of its strategic pariah status,鈥� focused on strengthening Israel鈥檚 diplomatic ties with Arab states and economic ties with the , to provide an economic alternative to China鈥檚 sprawling multinational infrastructure program.
Specifically, he wants to end U.S. subsidies to Israel鈥檚 defense budget, arguing the country should pay for American defense like any other ally. He also wants to sanction Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, along with politicians who offer their support for that violence. He added that America turning a blind eye toward Israeli injustices had 鈥渆ngendered the worst of your domestic politics.鈥�
The speech was well-received by the liberal Tel Aviv University crowd, who applauded even when Emanuel condemned Israel’s policies, such as Netanyahu’s role in not preparing for the day after in Gaza. He said 鈥渢rue friends tell each other the truth.鈥�
Israeli media, however, preoccupied with the NATO conference in Turkey and a possible flare-up of conflict with Iran, barely registered Emanuel鈥檚 visit.
Rather than a two-state solution, Emanuel wants to push a 23-state solution, involving 21 Arab states, that would hold the Palestinians accountable for progressing toward a sovereign nation while accepting the historic Jewish connection to the land. The new, three-pronged U.S. policy would leverage the Arab world鈥檚 desire for stability, Israel鈥檚 need for security, and Palestinian demands for sovereignty, he said.
Emanuel arrived in Israel on Sunday, and visited several projects prior to his speech. One was a partnership between hospitals in Tel Aviv and Nablus where Israeli and Palestinian doctors train together. He also met researchers who recently published a report finding that against Israelis in the Hamas-led and .
Emanuel also visited Yad Vashem, Israel鈥檚 Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, and met with President Isaac Herzog.
He told The Associated Press earlier in the week he is avoiding meeting with political leaders before the country鈥檚 elections in the fall. Israel鈥檚 presidency is a largely ceremonial position that is meant to unify the country and be above party politics. The country’s president is elected by the 120-member Knesset for a single 7-year term.
A country abandoned by its government
Netanyahu鈥檚 office declined to comment on the speech. Netanyahu famously called Emanuel a 鈥渟elf-hating Jew鈥� over Emanuel’s condemnation of Israel鈥檚 expansion of settlements in 2009, when he served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff. His denunciation so incensed far-right Israelis that a number of activists were detained while protesting his son’s bar mitzvah in Jerusalem the next year, Emanuel recalled.
One of the activists police detained was Itamar Ben-Gvir, who today serves as Israel鈥檚 public security minister and oversees the police, which Emanuel dryly noted was representative of Israel’s overall political direction in the past 15 years.
Emanuel, whose father was born in Jerusalem and fought in the 1948 war that led to the founding of Israel, also took time in his speech to acknowledge the toll of in which Hamas-led militants launched air and ground strikes on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza鈥檚 Health Ministry said. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records that are generally considered reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.
In his conversations with Israelis over the past several days, the intensity of feeling that the country had been abandoned by its government surprised him, Emanuel said before his speech. 鈥淭his sense of post-Oct. 7 vulnerability, I had read about it, but you don鈥檛 feel the visceralness of this and the rawness of this until you sit across the table from people,鈥� he said.
While no prominent Democrat has formally entered the 2028 presidential contest, that is likely to change soon after the November midterms. Emanuel, who also served as a congressman, Chicago mayor, and U.S. ambassador to Japan, has been one of the most direct about his intentions as a possible candidate. For example, he’s done of early voting states like New Hampshire.
Emanuel, who said he still hadn鈥檛 officially decided to run, was emphatic Wednesday that the Democrats do not need to give up on Israel in order to win the White House in 2028. But Americans need to take a new direction when it comes to Israel, he said.
鈥淭he status quo is unacceptable, where you can鈥檛 say anything negative, which is an implicit endorsement,鈥� he said. ___
This story has been corrected to reflect that Israel’s president is an elected by the 120-member Knesset.
___ Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed from Washington and Steve Peoples contributed from New York.
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