Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, speaking in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, criticized the “moral bankruptcy” of “those that paraded, celebrated and cheered” in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff from 2009 to 2010 in the Obama administration, made the comments as part of a broader address on his vision for the future of U.S.-Israel relations as he mulls a potential presidential bid.

Speaking to Jewish Insider prior to his speech at Tel Aviv University, Emanuel responded to a question about Democrats, including Darializa Avila Chevalier, the presumptive winner in New York’s 13th Congressional District, who attended a Times Square rally the day after Hamas launched its attacks on southern Israel. “I have no place for the moral bankruptcy of those that found Oct. 8 as the day to cheer 1,200 people not only killed but sexually abused, and for taking hostage 250 people. They’re morally bankrupt.” 

Emanuel further criticized some of the banner stances of the far left, calling open-border policies and efforts to defund the police “wrong on every level.”

“I believe in capitalism, a better capitalism than we have today,” Emanuel said. “I don’t believe in the socialism that you advocate.”

“I have spent my life,” he added, “whether it was helping Nancy Pelosi become speaker by winning the House or helping President [Barack] Obama and President [Bill] Clinton not only get elected but reelected, and the policies they put in place. My whole life is geared toward politically moving red to blue, not blue to midnight blue. I’m not impressed, and for the record, the colors of the DSA are red. I’m into blue: red, white and blue.”

Speaking later Wednesday to a standing-room-only audience at ANU Museum of the Jewish People on Tel Aviv University’s campus, Emanuel laid out what he saw as the generational challenges facing the State of Israel and potential avenues to address them. 

In the speech, Emanuel reiterated his concerns about potential Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank and settler violence. He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — with whom he has long clashed, including on issues related to the West Bank — and the Israeli government of having “led Israel into a dead end for too long.”

Emanuel called for a reassessment of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. “American policy towards Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington could do for Jerusalem is to blindly, to silently stand behind your government without conditions, without demands, without consequences, even when we disagree,” Emanuel said. “That has been our mistake, and it’s been not a favor to you.

Former U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel called for a reassessment of the U.S.-Israel relationship at Tel Aviv University.

The American government's support for Israel's decisions "even when we disagree … has been our mistake," Emanuel said, "and it's been not a favor to you."… pic.twitter.com/vjpNUumRx2

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 8, 2026

Israel, he said, had “turned from being known for your technological prowess to being considered primarily a territorial pariah.”

Emanuel expanded on his “23-state solution” proposal, under which Israel would normalize relations across the Middle East, including with a newly formed Palestinian state. Emanuel had previewed the proposal in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published earlier this week.

Under such a plan, he said, “The Arab League would establish full diplomatic recognition of Israel, and Israel with all 21 members of the Arab League, just as they had once proposed. The political benefits from all parties would be far greater than a two-state solution could ever offer the two parties.” The implementation of his plan, Emanuel told the audience, “would be your greatest day, and Iran’s worst nightmare.”

Emanuel has in recent months become more vocal on foreign policy issues as he mulls a 2028 presidential bid. Appearing on “Real Time with Bill Maher” in April, Emanuel called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Under such a scenario, Emanuel told JI in May, “Israel will be like every other ally. They can buy what they want, and they have to live within the restrictions.”

A new study from the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute of National Security Studies warns that American Jews’ ties with Israel have weakened in recent years, and Israeli leaders do not seem to care enough about how these shifting attitudes might affect Israel’s national security. 

If Israel ignores the growing distance with the American Jewish community, the country could face long-term consequences, authors Ted Sasson and Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis argue. 

“An American Jewish community that is less supportive of Israel would leave Israel more isolated globally, less capable of extending soft power, and less confident in its role as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Sasson, a Middlebury College professor and INSS scholar, and Ben Sasson-Gordis, director of the Israel-United States Research Field at INSS, write. 

The report is one of countless documents and op-eds published by Jewish communal leaders and Israeli officials after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that call on Israel’s leaders to improve the country’s public diplomacy efforts. 

Yet while many reports authored by pro-Israel analysts argue that Israel merely needs to change its messaging, the authors of the INSS report insist that Israeli leaders need to act differently, too, in order to reckon with the ways that Israel’s actions in Gaza have alienated even some American Jewish allies. 

“Israel must undertake a comprehensive effort to rehabilitate its reputation in the United States,” the report states. “This effort should begin by reconsidering some of the more radical policies of the current government that have alienated many U.S. voters and American Jews.” 

What the report offers is not a hasbara, or messaging, strategy. The document’s authors assert that it is a “national security strategy,” and that Israel’s leaders ignore their challenges with the American Jewish community at their own peril. 

“Israel’s alliance with the American Jewish community is a national security asset and is core to its purpose as a democratic nation-state of the Jewish people,” the report states. 

Among the policies Israel should reconsider, according to Sasson and Ben Sasson-Gordis: prioritizing efforts to “expand the Abraham Accords and open a renewed dialogue with the Palestinians,” and avoiding actions “that seriously harm [Israel’s] democratic character.” Both of those goals are tall orders for a government that has pursued controversial judicial reform efforts in the past and insisted a two-state solution with the Palestinians is not feasible. The country should try to “avoid causing unnecessary harm,” the authors add. 

The report points out that even many highly engaged American Jews grew frustrated with Israel’s handling of the war. 

“Israel’s policies during the October 7 war — as well as how Israel communicated about those policies — alienated large segments of the American public and raised deep concerns among many American Jews,” the report notes. “Israel’s decisions on how to proceed with the war and how to communicate about it were viewed by many of the Jewish leaders with whom we spoke as a driver of mounting anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism in the United States.” 

The report’s authors call on the Israeli government to draft an antisemitism national strategy, which “should focus mostly outward, on ways of holding other nations and non-governmental organizations accountable for combating antisemitism,” but that should also look inward, and “assess the ways Israel’s policies may have contributed to the capacity of antisemitic actors on both the right and the left to win new audiences and expand their influence.” 

The report refers to the rise of an anti-Zionist segment of the American Jewish community, though it does not suggest that Israeli leaders should engage with them. Instead, it argues that Israel’s leaders should engage with the full spectrum of Israel advocacy organizations from J Street on the left to the Zionist Organization of America on the right, citing the fact that larger, centrist groups like AIPAC “are losing influence in the corridors of power” in the U.S. (Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter on Monday called J Street a “cancer within the Jewish community” at a conference in Washington.) 

Israel’s missteps in dealing with the American Jewish community come at a moment when the standing of the U.S. Jewish community has “diminished,” the report argues. Rising antisemitism and a rapidly growing anti-Israel political constituency should also concern Israeli leaders, the INSS authors state. American Jews should be a bulwark, but instead, their own ties with Israel are fraying, particularly on the left. 

“The American Jewish community is deeply challenged not only by its own institutional weakening and division but also by an external environment that has grown exceedingly hostile,” the report states. “Further erosion of U.S. Jewish support for Israel could help pave the way for the Democratic Party to turn fully against the alliance.” 

Policy proposals for remedying this growing rift include reinvesting in American travel programs to Israel that have been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war; making Israel a center of higher education that is more appealing to American Jews; better educating Israeli Jews about the diaspora; seeking the input of American Jews within the Israeli government; and devoting more funding to addressing the problem. 

“Israel relies on a strong and flourishing American Jewish community, one that continues to support Israel’s core national interests,” write Sasson and Ben Sasson-Gordis. “It is in Israel’s best interest to take the actions that are within its power to reverse these damaging trends.”

The perennial complaint from supporters of Israel that the Jewish state has “bad PR” has sparked dozens of organizations and books over the decades and prompted the Israeli government to invest hundreds of millions in public diplomacy, including a $730 million allocation in its 2026 budget.

Yet the problem has only worsened after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, during the subsequent Gaza war and through the war with Iran this year. A new paper from the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University seeks to analyze the challenges and find solutions for Israel’s government to better handle them.

In an interview with Jewish Insider, the paper’s authors — Akiva Tor, a former Israeli ambassador to South Korea and head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s department for world Jewry and world religions, and Ofir Dayan, author of Intifada Globalized, about young Westerners’ turn away from Israel — characterized Israel’s image problem as a danger to its security.

“Everyone knows that there is a huge hasbara problem for Israel,” Tor said, using a Hebrew word that translates to “explaining” and is used to describe Israel’s efforts to portray the country in a positive light. “We tried to see what was unique in this moment … through a politically neutral perspective.”

Dayan noted that “it’s become a real issue of national security when Israel faces sanctions and countries are not willing to sell weapons. It affects Israel’s ability to execute plans and achieve its goals, and has a direct influence on Israel’s capability to fight.”

She added, “Since Oct. 7, we see a shift happening not only among youth and young adults, but it’s reaching positions of power, like [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and elsewhere.”

Dayan said that there is nothing new about the rhetoric or harassment of Israeli and pro-Israel students abroad — she encountered it personally as an undergraduate and graduate student at Columbia University in 2017-2022 — but “what is unique about this moment is that people who supported terrorist organizations and the destruction of the State of Israel, sanctions and boycotts are no longer hiding behind the facade of human rights. Individuals, organizations and countries are taking steps they have not taken before to significantly harm Israel’s national security.”

One example she gave was European Union member states taking steps toward canceling the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which would downgrade relations between Israel and its largest trading partner. In addition, she said academic boycotts of Israel, both overt and covert, are much broader than in the past.

Israel is also in the unprecedented situation in which its prime minister is under criminal indictment at the Hague and faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.

“I was consul-general in San Francisco during Operation Cast Lead [in 2008-2009],” Tor said, “and people talked about genocide when 3,000 [Palestinians] were killed … but now it’s at the ICJ and [former Deputy Secretary of State] Wendy Sherman is using the term. Things that existed in the past have now reached a level we haven’t seen before.” 

The intended audience for Dayan and Tor’s 40-page paper, currently available only in Hebrew, is the Israeli government.

“We’ve seen clumsiness by Israel in the past, but I don’t think we’ve seen this level of dysfunction,” Tor said. “The clearest expression of this is … probably that at Israel’s worst moment of crisis, the job [of head of national public diplomacy directorate] was not filled for 2.5 years.”

At the outset of the Gaza war, Moshik Aviv held the position, but resigned in early 2024. This week, Israel’s Cabinet authorized the appointment of former Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely to fill the role.

“The system is not being run,” Tor said. “We spoke to journalists and newspaper editors about the way the media was simply not handled for the most part. The greatest example is Charlie Kirk’s letter to Netanyahu in May last year, where he said the only people defending Israel on [American] TV are you and me. Where are the Israeli spokespeople?”

Tor said that “internal political constraints” are behind much of the dysfunction, which has led to “self-censorship.”

For example, Israel allowed hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza each day for most of the war, but had Cabinet ministers and other political figures claim Israel was not in order to appeal to their far-right political bases.

“That’s a very dangerous situation for Israel. It’s very difficult to address Israel’s image problems seriously if the government is not interested in doing so,” Tor said. “I’m not aware of a situation [in the past] in which Israel’s government did not want to explain itself.”

Tor lamented that “Israel is judged by the statements of its most extreme ministers or members of Knesset who spoke. That is part of the politicization; the government is mute about its intentions, probably because of internal tensions within the government, and then the most extreme say we will destroy Gaza — it caused and is continuing to cause tremendous damage to Israel.”

Even if the government had done a better job, the fact that the war in Gaza lasted for two years posed immense challenges.

“Israel cannot fight for more than two years with the kinds of images it creates and avoid deep international isolation,” Tor posited. 

The second half of Tor and Dayan’s paper provides suggestions for improvement.

One is to empower one governmental body to be in charge of public diplomacy across the entire government, including drafting messages, recruiting figures to spread those messages and measuring impact.

“We are realistic,” Dayan said. “No one is going to close government offices that are doing the exact same work, but we need one body that will say ‘this is the message Israel is trying to convey’ and make sure all of the relevant ministries are in line with it.”

Dayan served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit during her mandatory military service and again as a reservist in recent years, and said that “the IDF has no one telling them what to say. That is not the right process. [The government needs to] dictate one message so that all agencies and ministries will speak in one voice.”

There are four different government offices speaking for Israel on social media, and they do not work together, both Tor and Dayan pointed out.

“They’re all producing content that is very unlikely to become viral or speak to anyone under age 40,” Dayan said.

Tor said that, for Hotovely to be effective in her new role, she will have to have a voice at the Cabinet table. 

“If there is going to be a plan to flatten Bint Jbeil [in Lebanon], she will have to say what that means for Israel’s image,” he said.

One step they suggested that Israel take immediately is a public diplomacy campaign to defend Israel against charges of genocide, ahead of the decision from the ICJ. 

“Israel’s defense effort must include a strong public relations campaign using all available resources to prove Israel’s innocence before the ICJ and the court of world opinion,” they wrote. “The genocide charge is weak and specious, but Israel may lose its case if the hostile political agenda attempting to influence the court is not adequately countered.”

The report also suggests that Israel facilitate cooperation between Diaspora Jewry and Christian Zionists, something that Tor said was always a challenge when he led the Israeli Foreign Ministry department for world Jewry and world religions.

“Evangelicals are Israel’s friends, and liberal Jews are Israel’s friends, but they are very polarized from each other in American politics,” he pointed out. “This crisis moment may enable an opportunity for a new kind of cooperation, because both Jewish communities who love Israel and the pro-Israel Christians are under attack from the left and right.”

“We should come together to think about how to defend the basic legitimacy of Zionism,” he added.

Among their suggestions for those populations are to ensure 70,000 young Jews visit Israel on Birthright programs annually, and 100,000 young Christians do the same on a similar program each year. In addition, they call to encourage liberal rabbinical students and heads of liberal North American Jewish congregations to conduct study visits to Israel.

The INSS researchers also say that higher education is one of the most important spheres in which Israel can operate.

“Many Western university presidents would like to come back and work with Israeli institutions,” Dayan said. “They understand the academic excellence Israeli universities bring with them. But as of now, there is no concrete plan to rebuild those relations.” 

The Association of University Heads – Israel wrote a plan that it submitted to the government, which has not adopted it, she noted.

The paper suggested the government start a $100 million fund to “jump-start Israeli research.” The report also suggests flying presidents of 100 top-rated universities and academic institutions with many Jewish students to Israel over the next 18 months, so they can return and tell their boards why they should work with Israel.

Another element of their plan is a reimagining of Israeli outreach in Arabic and Persian.

Asked if they would suggest that laws be passed requiring the government to not leave positions empty in this field, or to allocate a certain amount of funds, Dayan said that “Israeli governments find creative ways to bypass laws when they need it. We need more public awareness and for the Israeli public to demand these roles be filled and that this issue of national security be addressed.”

“We don’t vote according to who promises to better Israel’s international standing, so I think decision-makers get this cue that we don’t care,” Dayan added. “But post-Oct. 7, [Israelis] care more and more. When Israeli discharged soldiers can’t travel the world because they risk getting arrested, this is an issue more and more people in Israel are going to care about. … We need to force politicians to address it as well.”

Ahead of testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday by Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway, hundreds of Jewish Rutgers students, faculty, administrators and staff signed onto a pair of letters condemning the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus.

Rutgers’ administration agreed to many of the demands put forward by anti-Israel protesters on campus, but refused to divest from companies linked to Israel or cut ties with Tel Aviv University. Lawmakers, including Gov. Phil Murphy, have condemned the university’s handling of the situation.

The more than 150 students who signed the student-led letter wrote that they “would like to share our experiences of the past academic year in the hope of conveying the hurt, pain, and isolation that many of us have suffered and suggesting ways that the entire university community might do better in the future, not just to support its Jewish students, but to create a more tolerant climate for all its members.”

The students said that anti-Israel demonstrators had “in short… taken over our university,” including by forcing the delay of final exams, taking over building and blocking events.

They said they felt “abandoned” by people they considered friends in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, some of whom defended the Hamas massacre and “quickly mobilized in support of terror, conveying to us that we would not be safe and welcome at the university many of us called home.”

The students further accused “many faculty and staff” of having “guided [protesters] in tactics of intimidation and menacing protest,” helped the students negotiate with administrators and in some cases “allowed for and perpetuated antisemitic behavior in their own classrooms.”

They said that they have “no objection” to pro-Palestinian protests, but said that student groups that have actively violated others’ rights to free expression have faced no punishment, and that the university has failed to enforce its own rules.

“​​Our desire is nothing more than for our university to once again become a place where all peoples are welcome and treated equally, in a tolerant environment where we can all pursue knowledge in a spirit of peace and empathy for others,” the letter continued.

The second letter, signed by more than 200 faculty, staff and administrators, highlights more than a dozen incidents, including celebration of the Oct. 7 attack and the use of university resources to promote anti-Israel propaganda, some of which have gone unpunished.

“The administration’s decision to accede to the demands of the encampment protesters undermines the principles of shared governance, and it elevates the voices of a radical few above those of the more reasonable whole,” they wrote. “It does a disservice not just to Jewish students, faculty, and staff, but to the entire university community.”

They said Rutgers had failed to act proactively to respond to and make clear its rules and policies with regard to demonstrations and, “As a result, the entire university community has suffered through the disruption of normal university operations and an often chaotic and intimidating environment on our campuses.”