What If Rahm Emanuel, Not Donald Trump, Were Meeting Bibi Netanyahu Tomorrow?

It’s time for a different presidential approach to this Israeli Prime Minister. Blunt words, a willingness to use leverage and some backbone would be a good place to start.

Tomorrow, President Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago. Ilan Goldenberg provided a thoughtful preview of what to expect earlier this week that I urge you to read.

With Ilan focused on policy and strategy, I’ve been thinking about posture and power. My take is maybe a bit more blunt than his – as regular Word on the Street readers and listeners may expect.

As I think about yet another presidential meeting with the long-serving Israeli Prime Minister, I keep hoping we’ve reached the point where a president will put their foot down and use the leverage we have to force a change of course.

So, as I listened to Rahm Emanuel’s recent appearance on Pod Save America where he shared his thoughts about Netanyahu, in his trademark blunt language, I started to wonder what it would look like for a President to channel their ‘inner Rahm’ – not to adopt all his views, but to bring his bluntness and willingness to use leverage – in a meeting with Bibi.

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To be clear, what follows is an imagined script for a conversation with Netanyahu, based on arguments Rahm made in the Pod Save interview. I’ve taken liberties to edit his words for length and clarity, but nearly every word is Rahm’s.

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Bibi, Israel has never been more strategically secure since Ben-Gurion was dancing the hora in 1948 in Tel Aviv – or more politically vulnerable.

You’ve got the best strategic terrain Israel has had since its founding.

You have peace with Jordan and Egypt.

Syria and Lebanon – call it non-belligerence.

Iran is on their back foot.

You don’t have in the immediate neighborhood a strategic threat.

When you and I were starting out, the Gulf was all about just oil. Today, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, want to use their petrodollars to be part of the global economy.

That is an invitation for Israel.

And you’re pissing it away, Mr. Prime Minister.

You have the Gulf countries ready to accept Israel as part of the region – which has been the dream – to be a nation among the nations – since its founding.

And you’re doing nothing to take advantage of this moment.

Instead, you’ve crossed the line on the settlements. Unacceptable.

From here on in, any settler who’s involved in any violence on the West Bank is on a no-fly list.

Our military aid? I’m willing to continue that, but there are going to be restraints and boundaries.

And you’re not going to hold America’s foreign policy or our strategic interests hostage any more. The United States is going to be working with all your neighbors to build a new Middle East, and you can either be a part of it or you can be on your own.

Now, I’m not giving Palestinians a pass. They’ve missed opportunities from Camp David with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat to what Olmert offered years later. But there’s still no choice. Both of you have to give up your extremist positions and learn how to live together.

It’s legitimate for Israel to ask whether the Palestinian Authority can be counted on as a partner – which is precisely why America’s role is to create space for a prime minister to take risky political steps.

Coddling you, coddling a prime minister - saying yes to all your actions - is not in Israel’s self-interest. It has not worked.

You’re making the decision to continually repress Palestinian aspirations for a state, and we’re paying for it, America’s paying for it.

And, Mr. Prime Minister, Israel’s paying for it through your isolation.

I never in my life thought that a prime minister of the state of Israel would lead Jews back into the ghetto. But that’s what’s happening around the world.

You’ve isolated Jews and Israel.

The Israeli Symphony and other musicians can’t perform in some parts of Europe. People, academics, can’t participate in conferences on biomedicine.

And - I’d like to remind you, Mr. Prime Minister, Israel’s now facing for the first time net emigration. Your best young minds in the fields of science and technology are leaving and they’re going to Berlin, which has its own twist of irony.

You want to keep doing this, go ahead. But we’re not going to bankroll it.

I’ve said this to you since 2009 – when a lot of other people were lip-syncing the talking points out of AIPAC – it doesn’t help Israel to say yes to you automatically.

There’s a cost to this, and we can’t keep covering that up. You’re making a choice, which you think is no choice – but it comes with huge consequences, and I’m not covering the bill for you anymore.

If you want to isolate Israel and if you, Mr. Prime Minister, want to give this stupid speech about becoming a super-Sparta, that’s on you. But we’re not going to isolate ourselves. And we’re not going to get isolated with you. That’s not how we’re doing this score.

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Rahm, of course, didn’t lay out a full strategic approach to Israel-Palestine in the interview – and there are significant areas where I disagree with him (for starters, I strongly supported the JCPOA and opposed the military strike on Iran last summer).

But there’s a lot to learn from in Rahm’s approach. Speak with confidence and moral clarity. Lay out the facts – make clear what’s right and wrong - what’s best for the United States and Israel.

Ilan and I have been talking with a range of experts in recent weeks about the future of the US-Israel relationship. Ben Rhodes wants to cut off all aid to this government. Dan Shapiro holds to a more traditional approach.

What I look to Rahm for isn’t a full doctrine or a complete peace plan. It’s the tone – the posture for dealing with Bibi. A reminder that American leadership doesn’t have to be timid.

After all, as he reminds us President Clinton once said, “Who is the f’ing superpower here?”

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