A longtime supporter of everything Israel, the likely presidential wannabe Rahm Emanuel yesterday staked out a new position for Democratic hopefuls. Speaking at an event hosted by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of the United States, he said that the United States’ unconditional support for Israel “has produced a prime minister who has presumed that his strategic interests would incur no cost if he ignored America’s concerns about the settlements and sparked a regional war.”
He told the friendly audience that it allowed Israel “to deny food and medical relief to innocent Palestinians suffering in Gaza, leaving the world to conclude that Israelis not only want to kill the Palestinians but that they are completely indifferent to their death, destruction, and suffering.” He acknowledged that it contributed to “a political coalition in the Knesset that learned it can burn Palestinian farmland in the West Bank and terrorize Palestinian families without consequence.”
Hence, the U.S. needs to stop supplying military aid on a favored basis. Of note, he said out loud the part about the growth of Palestinian radicalism being part of the longtime “Eretz Yisrael” game plan, headed by Netanyahu. He said that Israel needs to “cease and desist from its cynical game of nurturing destructive organizations like Hamas rather than real partners in pursuit of peace.” And he warned against the Israeli attempt to annex the West Bank and “pursue the fantasy of a greater Israel.”
