Rahm Emanuel pushes 23-state solution to end Israel’s isolation

Rahm Emanuel is pushing a sweeping rewrite of the Israel debate: replace the old two-state formula with a “23-state solution” that would require the 21 Arab League states to give Israel full diplomatic recognition while a new Palestinian entity is created. The proposal, floated after his July 8 speech at Tel Aviv University, lands as the Gaza war, settlement expansion and a widening Democratic split have made Israel’s standing in Washington more fragile.

On Face the Nation, the former White House chief of staff said the U.S.-Israel alliance is “at a crossroads” and needs “significant changes and a new direction.” He called the two-state solution “discredited” and said Israel has become a “territorial pariah.” Emanuel also argued that Israel should rely less on military force and more on peace, economic integration, diplomacy and cultural ties.

He went further by calling for an end to U.S. defense subsidies to Israel, saying Israel should buy American weapons under standard allied terms. U.S. military aid to Israel amounts to $3.8 billion a year, making Emanuel’s proposal especially charged in Washington even as it would strip away a long-standing pillar of the relationship. He tied the shift in opinion to settlement expansion, settler violence in the occupied West Bank and restrictions on aid to Gaza after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

The political headwinds are already visible. Reuters/Ipsos polling put Israel’s favorability among Democrats at 22% in May 2026, down from 59% in 2018, underscoring how support for Israel has become one of the party’s most divisive questions. Any path to Emanuel’s plan would require Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Arab capitals and Washington to accept a framework that asks Arab states to normalize ties while a Palestinian sovereignty deal is negotiated.

Emanuel, a possible 2028 presidential contender whose father was born in Jerusalem, has long been seen as a defender of Israel. His new argument shows how far the center of Democratic foreign-policy debate has moved after the war that began on October 7, 2023, and how urgently some party figures are searching for a language that is neither unconditional backing nor a full break with Israel.