Rahm Emanuel: ‘Israel will become a prisoner of its own tools’

International Rahm Emanuel: ‘Israel will become a prisoner of its own tools’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/08/26 11:37 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/08/26 11:37 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday tore into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a speech at Tel Aviv University that the prime minister has put Israel on the path of becoming “a prisoner of its own tools.”

Emanuel praised Israel’s achievements since it was established in 1948. He said the county he “grew up believing in was about making the impossible real. Having built the imagination and the tenacity to make the desert bloom.”

But he issued a warning about its current trajectory.

“In the United States, we have a saying: ‘If all you have is a hammer, everything you look at is a nail,'” he continued. “Israel will become a prisoner of its own tools. Your military is a hammer, such that, to the prime minister, Netanyahu, every security challenge is a nail.”

Directing his attention to Netanyahu, Emanuel said the prime minister and his government “have led Israel to a dead end … without conditions, without demands, without consequences” from Washington, a reaction he said was a “mistake.”

“Unconditional support has allowed you to deny food and medical relief to innocent Palestinians in Gaza, leaving the world to conclude that Israelis not only want to kill Palestinians, but they are completely indifferent to their death, to their destruction and completely indifferent to their suffering,” Emanuel said.

He also reflected on his visits to Israel while working for former President Clinton and as former President Obama’s chief of staff, when he challenged Netanyahu on building Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This later “spurred him to publicly label me a self-loathing Jew.”

“He believes that being Sparta is worthwhile,” Emanuel added, saying it was by choice that Israel was “more diplomatically and politically isolated than ever before.”

The potential 2028 presidential candidate called on Israelis to support working with Arab countries as partners and back Palestinian self-determination, and he warned that if he has anything to say about it, there will be sanctions against new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, settlers committing violence toward Palestinians and Israeli officials supporting new settlements.

“Those chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ need to hear this,” he said. “You will never have your way. But those calling for a ‘Greater Israel,’ you need to hear this. You will never have your way, either.”

Emanuel’s speech comes as Democrats largely view the U.S. as supporting Israel too much, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Tuesday. Fifty-eight percent of Democrats said they agreed with this notion, while another 20 percent said the U.S.’s level of support is just right.

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