From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Rahm Emanuel in Tel Aviv: Netanyahu is driving Israel toward ‘a dead end’
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A leading Democrat is visiting Tel Aviv this week, where he is expected to directly accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of driving Israel into a “dead end.”
Potential presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel plans to denounce Netanyahu and call for an end to US subsidies of Israel’s defense budget in a speech tomorrow at Tel Aviv University.
“You’ve lost Europe,” Emanuel will say, according to remarks obtained by The Associated Press. Castigating Netanyahu for doing little to end the Iran war, he’ll note that “support for Israel is plummeting around the world.”
Emanuel tells The Associated Press in an interview from Tel Aviv ahead of his speech that he’s avoiding interactions with elected officials in Israel so as not to interfere with upcoming elections. Instead, he’s visiting a hospital serving Israelis and Palestinians and meeting with the family of a freed hostage.
Emanuel says Israel’s continued military response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, has been “reckless and careless in the treatment of Palestinian life — not only the military campaign but using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”
Asked whether Israel had committed genocide, the stalwart of Democratic centrists says the question should not be considered in isolation without also examining conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan.
“I’m ready to have that discussion,” he says, “but I don’t think it should be politicized, and then dilute the power of what genocide means.”
The Times of Israel Community.