On July 8, Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech at Tel Aviv University, and since then most of the published commentary on the event has reflected the predictable reactions of those weighing in. Journalists, pundits, and analysts who have been deeply critical of the current Israeli government (both in and out of Israel) were more welcoming of Emanuel’s message, interpreting it as an important, well-meaning, and friendly warning to a country which needed to hear it. We’ll call this first group the “Blame Bibi” camp. By contrast, for those who have found much of the criticism of Israeli policy these last three years to be misguided, obnoxious, or at times bordering on antisemitism, Emanuel’s speech came across as yet another arrogant American’s attempt to lecture (or worse, to blame) Israelis for their current predicament. We’ll refer to this second group as the “Beyond the pale” camp.

Where people stood in relation to these two camps also turned out to be a decent predictor of how they interpreted the intended audience for Emanuel’s speech. From the standpoint of the Blame-Bibi crowd, Emanuel was chiefly aiming to persuade Israeli voters, especially those in the center and center-right, that the recent decline in American public support for Israel is significant but can still be halted and possibly even reversed under a new Israeli government. For the Beyond-the-pale crowd, the intended audience was not even in Israel – it was the Democratic primary voters back in America Emanuel will presumably need to convince if he is to secure a nomination for the Presidency in 2028.

Thus, as with most developments in the world these days, public reactions to the speech mostly fell along the partisan lines to which we have become accustomed. There were few attempts at an open-minded, honest evaluation of the speech in its entirety; instead, the tried-and-true tendency to cherry-pick enabled both camps to walk away satisfied by their respective judgments.

Indeed, the Bibi blamers could find much to feel good about in Emanuel’s speech. His references to a lack of strategy in Israel’s war against Hamas and its other regional adversaries (that ever elusive “day after” plan…), Israel’s increasing diplomatic isolation over the last three years, the stoppage of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and complicity for Jewish extremist violence in the West Bank, all echoed criticisms expressed by opponents of the current government within Israel over the last three years.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)