Rahm Emanuel goes to Israel, now a ‘pariah,’ to say that the era of unconditional U.S. support is over
Rahm Emanuel is in Israel this week to deliver a speech designed to be a thunderclap. The combination of message and messenger should produce a loud echo.
The message is that the war in Gaza and shifts in American and world opinion have converged with seismic consequences. Decades in which U.S. policymakers would often fret about Israeli choices and behavior but regard support for its government as absolute and unshakable are at an end.
Going forward, Emanuel plans to say, Israelis should regard U.S. support as expressly contingent: On reviving a serious commitment to Palestinian sovereignty; On rejecting dreams of asserting dominion beyond official borders in pursuit of “Greater Israel”; On abandoning a security strategy that emphasizes brutally effective military force with scant attention to diplomacy or credible what-next plans in Gaza and Iran. U.S. administrations of both parties have spent too long “averting our eyes” from Israeli misjudgments and strategic misadventures, Emanuel’s speech reads. The country, once lauded as being a prosperous, high-tech democracy, is now more commonly viewed as a “pariah.” [Continue reading…]