A new speech shows how Israel lost the Democratic party

Summary

Rahm Emanuel and the death of the pro-Israel Democrat. This week, Rahm Emanuel — a chief of staff in the Obama White House and widely rumored 2028 candidate — went to Tel Aviv to deliver a stern message to the Israeli public: If Israel wants to keep America as an ally, it needs to change. “Without question, the alliance is at a crossroads. No one thinks this speech will change American policy. What’s coming in 2028 and beyond is going to be very different — and much tougher for Israel — than what came before it. “I think [Rahm’s position] becomes the baseline of Democratic primary candidates,” Ilan Goldenberg, the chief policy officer at the liberal J Street lobby, said. “You can’t go to the right of this.” For pretty much all of 2026, Rahm Emanuel has been positioning himself to capture the centrist lane in the Democratic primary. In interview after interview, he has argued that the party has become unduly influenced by left-wing activists who are obsessed with unpopular trans issues, defunding the police, and abolishing capitalism. Instead, he argues, the party should refocus on “middle class values” and “pocketbook issues” — meaning deprioritization of social issues, stronger border enforcement, and welfare state expansion. Democratic presidents, House speakers, and Senate majority leaders used to be regular attendees at AIPAC’s annual conference — signalling their alignment with the pro-Israel lobby’s stance. The basic centrist impulse — that politics should be about winning the median voter — militated in Israel’s favor, leading both Obama and Biden to keep their frustrations with Netanyahu and clashes with him over policy as private as possible while in office. His critiques were less with its policy vision and more with some specifics: Emanuel offered a view of the peace negotiations of the 90s and 2000s that put nearly all the blame for their failure on the Palestinian side, which Goldberg thought was unfairly one-sided. Matt Duss is perhaps the leading left-wing policy wonk on Israel-Palestine, having advised both Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the topic.